Politicsweb's evolution to the right and denialism

Part 2 of Politicsweb's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Part 1 is here. In this post I give perspectives on its evolution to the far-right media space.

Around the world the right has denied and downplayed the coronavirus pandemic. For two months reports circulated Donald Trump was warned in January but dismissed it. Newly released memos confirm former economic adviser Peter Navarro warned the “coronavirus had the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and derail the US economy unless tough action were taken immediately”. Now Trump's looking for a scapegoat as US deaths grow, blaming WHO. (See here and here.)

But as the catastrophe is evident with rising infections and deaths daily, the right propagate misinformation (it's a Chinese virus), conspiracies (a Chinese plan for world domination) and tout unproven remedies like hydroxychloroquine as a cure. 

In South Africa the right and far-right are a marginal but noisy group almost entirely comprised of whites – 10% of the white or less than 5% of the national population. Politicsweb is perhaps the only established media that caters to this group although the IRR's Daily Friend, which posts only articles by its staff about its advocacy issues, is more a propaganda and lobbying site than proper media (the IRR calls itself a “think-tank”but doesn't meet the strict requirements for one).

One of Politicsweb's few civil and rational commentators recently wrote about its position in the media space which accords with mine:

“On PW’s ‘evolution’, this is not dissimilar to what happened to the right in general in the US, etc. There has long been the argument that conservatives/classical liberals should fight back. Unlike the left, they had very little to show institutionally from a new pop-culture perspective. The argument is they must fight back on all fronts and create a counter-hegemonic [mainstream media] bloc. They grabbed what were available – social media platforms (free for all) and older libertarian networks ...

“So on PW you find anarcho-capitalists, libertarians, classical liberals, conservatives, Afrikaner nationalists (republican) and some [most] views that [are] racist and reactionary simply because they have no other home or [are] expressing more base political impulses. The platforms and political space make this possible. There is also no barrier to admittance and anyone can be the loudest voice and no social cost and currency ...”

When I started reading PW in 2016 I didn’t believe it was “right-wing” like the left did. They were slightly, but not so right to be unpalatable. Most of its commentators were always, though, which I noted in a phone conversation with Myburgh (he didn't disagree). But this changed in 2018 around the time PW launched a new subscriber model and mission, which purportedly is “fair and fearless” (the former hardly).

Since then its editor and publisher James Myburgh and PW’s writers forcefully promote the right's free-for-all exclusionary economic agenda and the unfounded belief whites are under attack and under threat of genocide by ANC government and black majority. Its sympathy and promotion of (right) white/Afrikaner victimhood and self-pity is irritating, dishonest and provocative because whites are not victims but today still beneficiaries of inherited privilege.

For them nothing has changed and they have nothing to complain about. But they constantly do on PW and, if given the chance, elsewhere about the ANC government and blacks. (They're excluded and banned from most other media, but must I add, so are those who don't abide by the PC left narrative, including me.)

While PW is one of the only one or two online publications that allow almost free comments (curiously, it censors words that may have a sexual connotation even when they’re used correctly and innocently), it permits racist and offensive comments and hate speech despite is comments policy. I believe this not to offend its its subscriber/reader demographic.

More by default than design then, it's the last redoubt of and release valve for the far-right it encourages.

Last year I got tired of Myburgh et al questioning farm murder numbers – it was reductio ad absurdum. The exasperation overflowed in April when PW fixated on one farm murder – six articles in two or three days. But like all media (and DA Western Cape government) ignored the significance of high murder rates of women and children, almost 1 000 in the previous year and almost all black or brown (it ran one article lifted from News24). I stopped reading it. After seven months I gradually returned, mostly because in their way local media is equally dire and I was without local material (commenting is fun too especially bursting the far-right and racist bubbles).

This is an extraordinary time. A The Guardian columnist recently wrote the pandemic has swept away notions about left and right. We’re in this together. The right-wing's, or “classically liberal” as they sometimes call themselves, position is irrelevant. By necessity governments have abandoned conservative economic dogma of the small state and minimal intervention and are giving unprecedented aid to citizens and companies (in the past it was to companies including for self-made disasters while they cut back social spending).

But the right/alt-right around the world, don’t see it, or to them measures to fight the pandemic are a personal affront.

PW is like a friend, acquaintance or employee whose conduct is always problematic. One hopes they will improve in time but never do. Its Covid-19 denialism, conspiracy, and with IRR, attitude of the “economy before lives” is too much. I wonder if Helen Zille, who last year said Myburgh is one of the two worthwhile analysts, still feels the same way about it.

PW is quaint, risible, irritating and kooky but the time has come (again) to take a break from it. Now is not the time for dangerous and irresponsible alt-facts, fake news, denialism and conspiracies. The break may be temporary until the immediate crisis has passed or longer. I don’t know.

I don’t understand their blind observance to the far-right faith when the evidence of its lies is there to see if they’d but open their eyes. They’re not blind, but choose to live in darkness.

Minor updates 13/04/2020.