Flooding the zone – what is it?
Flooding the zone is when politicians, organisations, the media and others pump out information, often news stories, to overwhelm people.
Steve Bannon, talking to Michael Lewis (Bloomberg opinion February 9, 2018), “The Democrats don’t matter,” he had said to me over our lunch. “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”
Flooding the zone – an example
“And then they have cans of soup. Soup. And they throw the cans of soup. That’s better than a brick because you can’t throw a brick; it’s too heavy. But a can of soup, you can really put some power into that, right?
[…]
And then, when they get caught, they say, “No, this is soup for my family.” They’re so innocent. “This is soup for my family.” It’s incredible. And you have people coming over with bags of soup — big bags of soup. And they lay it on the ground, and the anarchists take it and they start throwing it at our cops, at our police. And if it hits you, that’s worse than a brick because that’s got force. It’s the perfect size. It’s, like, made perfect.”
said Donald Trump, 31 July 2020.
Why is flooding the zone used?
When people are overwhelmed by nonsense and conflicting opinions, democracy cannot function properly which can be useful for some politicians, and rival countries.
Video: Experts discuss flooding the zone
Jay Rosen talks to Andrew Revkin about flooding the zone. (34 mins in).
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