Nariman El-Mofty/AP/Press Association. All rights reserved.Like any fascist regime, Sisi’s military junta has been predominantly dependent on myths of national pride. Its inauguration was made possible in 2013 by propagating an ultra-exaggerated, unrealistic count of anti-Muslim Brotherhood protestors (33 million). This was followed by media assertions that the Egyptian military had arrested the commander of the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet and invented a medical device that cures AIDS and Hepatitis C.
The momentum of ‘Egyptian miracles’ propaganda lasted a couple of years, creating an atmosphere in which anything was permissible as long as it postulated the superiority of Egyptians and their militarised institutions. Any contestation or attempt at rational thinking that interrupted this celebratory momentum was systematically excluded and vilified as an envious plot against the rising nation.
Today, ‘triumphs’ that had been undebatable and institutions that had been incontestable are now widely and openly criticised; the AIDS cure is now a running joke. Media anchors are condemning brutal judicial decisions regarding children and journalists. These are the same media anchors whose previous guiding ethic was “jurisdictions cannot be commented on”.
