all over the world, people have taken to the streets protesting the bio-tyranny and vaccine apartheid of lockdowns and jab mandates.
and just as before you’d be hard pressed to find even a peep about it in any of the major western press who seem too busy spreading fake stories about democrat activists pretending to be neo-nazis supporting a pro-freedom candidate for governor of virginia in a (now badly boomeranging) attempt to smear him.
major outlets were breathlessly aiding and abetting this narrative. but twitter sleuths were having none of it.
the internet was ALL over this and pulled it apart in minutes.
and found the culprits.
reuters, of course, is still blaming this on “republicans”.
people love to criticize social media and heap opprobrium on it for being toxic. this seems particularly manifest among the “old media” types.
“the atlantic” just penned a paean to the “good old days when people listened to reporters and not to each other.”
it’s the squalid swansong of an entire edifice sliding into irrelevance and pining for past prominence as “reporter” increasingly becomes a backwater of bootlickers sliding into ignominy and penury.
who would trust such people and the dying dinosaurs of their mastheads?
you can feel him working up to saying “damnable deplorables and their confounded ideas! they need limiting! the bully pulpit is for ME not for THEE!”
got that? what you need is someone to shut you up!
and indeed, this is how it once was. a privileged few bought ink by the barrel and broadcast THEIR memes widely.
the rest of us spoke in small groups with small reach. but no more. today a cat can reach as many as a NYT reporter.
ideas compete for attention based on content, not the affiliation of the author. sure, lot of it is incendiary fear and anxiety bait, but it’s also the golden age of fact checking.
even 10 years ago, the cosplay nazi gambit probably would have worked. instead it went down in flames.
10 years ago, you would not have heard a peep about freedom protests.
heck, you might not even know that “let’s go brandon” is now popular in germany! (there’s a “brandon-burg gate” pun in here somewhere…)
(and possibly sweden, though this is unconfirmed)
if you want a thought to keep you up nights, ponder this:
how many times DID they get away with this 10 and 20 years ago?
how much was selectively edited out of the common consciousness by the simple expedient of not reporting it?
how many fake and slanted stories passed muster because the data to check it was not available to the public and neither was the distribution to share such discoveries?
modern media means that it’s never been easier to tell big lies to the credulous, but it also means that it’s never been harder to fool those determined to get the facts.
the media matrix has never been more blatantly obvious. but you have to choose to see it for yourself. you have to choose to step outside it.
sure, it takes effort. sure, it may put you in into conflict with others.
but really, what’s the alternative?
The Atlantic's headline "People Aren’t Meant to Talk This Much" is barely a step away from "Children are to be seen and not heard." For all the double-masking their reporters no doubt do, they're unmasking how they truly feel about the lowly masses, aren't they?
Apparently the atlantic: misses the “good old days when people listened to reporters and not to each other.” Really? Never again will I listen to reporters. Our lives depend on searching for the truth for ourselves. Reporters and politicians talk "to us" not with us. I'm tired of it.