The Unexpected Win: Shift In Traditional Political Power 

Welcome to the age of ‘cloudalist’, where TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms know you better than your friends. It’s not just about sharing memes but constructing your worldview and voting choices. For instance, despite predictions by mainstream media and political experts about the 2024 US election,  Donald Trump won with a majority of votes in the electoral college, sweeping all battleground states. This raised an important question: how, even when the American establishment, often referred to as a deep state,   was apparently against Donald Trump,  did he manage to secure a decisive win? Traditionally,  this has not been the case in the US and around the world; for example, Pakistan is a clear case in point where the digital state is challenging the deep state. The establishment is considered to hold both economic and political power within a country’s political system. President  Trump’s victory insinuates a fundamental shift in how political power operates in the modern era.

Means Of Mental Production And Ideological State Apparatuses

The answer lies in what Adorno and Horkheimer in Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) called   ‘Means of mental production’.  They contended that   Mass media and culture are not just entertainment but serve as tools for ideological domination. They are essential for constructing beliefs and values that........

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