Pandora's gift is still with us

Always kind of useful to check the bubble. Based on articles I see in Washington Post, New York Times, National Review, RealClear Politics, etc., I had the impression that there was a clear break a couple of months ago from talk about Mueller and Russian Collusion and now when the mainstream media is clearly talking about and trying to push the idea of America as inherently racist (see the NYT's 1619 Project and their explicit internal discussion to use racism as a political cudgel), the threat of rising white supremacists, and the prospect of an eminent recession.

That is clearly what is happening in the mainstream headlines and articles. They lost their Mueller/Russian Collusion weapon and are now trying to find anything else which might work.

But are the racism, white supremacist threat, and eminent recession narratives working? Sure, the papers are pushing them, but are they being received by the public?

Acknowledging the manifest limits of Google Trends as a perfect proxy, it still is a real-time large data set. What are people searching on? Are they getting concerned about racism, white supremacy and recession based on the mainstream media narratives? Were they concerned about Russian Collusion?

Broadly, no.

Taking the five year view, and comparing Mueller, Racism, Collusion, Recession, and White Supremacy search terms, the public are not responding to much other than Mueller and very recently, recession. Racism, white supremacy, and Russian Collusion are minuscule searches and have not changed much between the last two and half years of the Obama administration and the Trump administration. They are a latent but negligible concern for those outside the mainstream media, no matter ho many barrels of ink are spilled.



White Supremacy had its fifteen minutes in the second week of August 2018 during the Charlottesville rally but then settled back into the swamp of popular dismissal. Concern about racism is no greater, based on searches, under Trump as it was under Obama. Apparently no one other than the mainstream media has ever been concerned abut Trump-Russia Collusion. At least, not concerned enough to search about it.

Mueller rises from popular obscurity during his Special Prosecutor period, especially when he releases his report and when he gives testimony, but then plunges back into popular irrelevance once there was no discovery of wrong-doing.

No concerns about racism or white supremacy or Russia-Trump collusion. Interest in Mueller only when he was doing his search. Not much there, there.

And interestingly, it parallels the long run results from Gallup. Concern about racism bubbles to the surface every few years over the past three or four or five decades but it usually languishes down there among the 1% concerns.

Similarly, aspects of the economy are reasonably heavy and consistent staples over time on the Gallup results. Usually, among the top three concerns. Concern about a potential recession has been hot on the airwaves this last week. Presumably because they are noticing that racism and white supremacy just aren't the goads to the public that the mainstream media thought.

Perhaps concern about recession has traction because of the sudden blanket push on recession narrative. Perhaps it has traction because there are legitimate concerns that are too easily ignored because they are so chronic. The European economy is weak and with the Brexit crisis as well as a debt mountain, might tip over into recession at any moment. China is on a high wire crisis with Hong Kong, debt overhang, trade wars, loss of political legitimacy, etc. As the largest economy, any check there has a tsunami effect on smaller economies.

Ignoring the international side of things, we also have to confront that this is one of the longest expansions since a recession on record. The prospect of a recession is real even if it is being oversold.

Because it is not a certainty. America is reinvesting, reinventing, renegotiating trade, reforming tax policy and dramatically cutting regulations. Pretty dramatic actions that have not occurred in a long time and which might prolong the expansion even further.

Point is, though, recession is the only messaging to which the public seems to respond despite all the other narratives the mainstream media pushes (collusion, racism, white supremacy). Comparing public interests and concerns (based on searches) and the sustained messaging from the media reveals a huge disconnect. The MSM are in a different bubble from everyone else it would appear.

As reflected in this comparison. All the search terms remain the same except the replacement of recession with that saving grace of Pandora - Hope.



Hope swamps all the negative concerns and narratives of the mainstream media.