Markowitz said the US media is another reason why many just sit on the couch to see what happens, rather than take to the streets. Markowitz stated:
Americans are the most media saturated society on Earth. They are bombarded with counterfeit opinions that come from the mass media to them. And they are encouraged to believe that these are their opinions, their ideas.
They have become consumers, against actors and producers of political culture.
He said the ideas reflected in the media belong to the right, far right, and center of politics that “would be considered conservative in the European context.” The left does not exist in the media and “labor leaders are almost never taken seriously in media – unless they go on strike.”
Today the labor movement in the US is roughly one third of what it was at the end of World War II. It does exist, but “its history has been deformed by Cold War anti-communism and by some of the worst labor laws in the developed world,” explained the historian.
Rightardia agrees. After World War 2 one in three workers was in a union. Today is is around 8 per cent of the labor force.
“The labor movement has aligned itself with the Democratic Party since the 1930s,” said Markowitz.
Despite the trade union national leadership being much better in terms of its commitment to workers’ rights, at the same time “the relationship with the Democratic – it’s been called by some a ‘bad marriage’, they know it is bad – but they are afraid to get out.”
