A well known form of insanity involves attempting to correct basic factual errors on the internet.

I generally don’t, but sometimes it’s hard to resist the temptation.

That was the case last week when a meme circulated suggesting, as one tweet put it, that because Elizabeth Warren “clearly thinks about the issues beyond pandering & has actual policy plans and ideas . .  . she would be the front runner and would be receiving most of the press.”

At least  that would be so-and here we are to imagine a muted low brass chord as the narrator ominously intones . . .  “if she were a man.”

This was Pavlovian red meat dangled in front of identity politics addled liberals sure to induce a wave of frenzied clicks.

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That it succeeded was apparent in the many thousands of likes these postings received.

But once the spasms of activity abated, it became obvious that what was triggering them was pure nonsense.

As we all know, it was the candidate who was not only incapable of “thinking about the issues” but incapable of thought of any kind who received by far the most press coverage in 2016.

As for those who offered “actual policy plans and ideas,” it is now clear that Bernie Sanders was the one candidate doing so in 2016, the key elements of his platform having been adopted by Democrats hoping to remain viable.

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Back then, these were almost entirely ignored, as was Sanders himself until he forced his way into contention. At that point, the press went into overdrive to smear, marginalize and discredit him.

Their preferred candidate, as usual, offered up bland platitudes and centrist pablum. “Actual policies“ were seen by the press as a kiss of death for candidates.

None of this should be news to anyone. The corporate media has that label for a reason. By denying coverage to Elizabeth Warren, a candidate who is hated and feared by corporations and the rich, they are doing the job which corporations are employing them to do.

it is the same job they were doing when they were lavishing favorable press attention on a corporate friendly African American in 2008 and a woman in 2016.

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Claiming that Elizabeth Warren is a victim of the patriarchal establishment might induce a rush of self-righteous adrenaline.

But it has nothing to do with the truth which is that she is being ignored for the same reason candidates who speak up for the 99% victimized by corporate greed and elite plunder always are.

Warren’s gender, Buttigieg’s sexual preference or Obama’s race also have nothing to do with it, distractions from what has always needed to be done: to build a movement which unifies the 99% around the common goal of removing the 1% from power.

The corporate right has understood that its victories requires a divided opposition.

We need to stop doing their job for them by creating divisions among ourselves where they don’t exist.

A good place to start would be to resist the urge to circulate memes which would have us finding our enemy where it doesn’t exist-within the chromosomes of half of the population-while not seeing it for what it obviously is, the plutocratic class with its boot on our necks.

How about now?

(Slightly corrected and edited for clarity, 11/30/19 9:54 PM)