Let me share a four letter word: Spin.
That's what the "mainstream media" does. It filters out some stuff and emphasizes other stuff, so that "reality" (think "reality tv" here) seems to be a certain way.
What has become of "mainstream media" is that it has become the propaganda arm of the establishment -- meaning those with the gold (it's the golden rule). The main job of "the media" is to prevent real revolt while at times creating its illusion, so steam gets blown off and the smoke and mirrors still go on working their magic tricks.
The mainstream media doesn't want to be too obvious about all of this, so they need to create a stink now and then and then to blame it on... well, you know who: those who would rock the apple cart for real and distribute both wealth and power to the people themselves.
It's an old game. Nothing new here.
I wanted to find a post I made a while back and plop it down here in response but meh, it's somewhere and I'm tired of digging already. No attention span lol...
It's one of the rather frustrating parts of existing in today's world. Not just the mainstream media, but ALL MEDIA. So I was a student for a while and the one thing that makes me DREAD going back to finish up my degree is writing papers, because you've got to cite sources for every single goddamn idea you want to present. Clearly the student's own mind is not enough, nor her own experiences, someone else must have said it first, someone "credible."
But who is credible nowadays?
Oh that just depends on who you ask really. Facebook is enough to make me nearly crazy anymore. OK, so we cannot trust the "mainstream media" it's all rigged, spin, a big propaganda game. But then you've got all of us Americans reading whatever our news of choice might be, thinking we've got a bead on the "truth." When really what you have are a bunch of people JUST LIKE EACH ONE OF US out there writing up whatever they want to cosign to and whatever they think and dishing it up like news because they've got a job doing that. You've got people on the left and people on the right and Breitbart and Fox News and Huff Post and the Washington Post and the New York Times and Newsweek and so on and so on and so on and so on....and every one of them are spewing onto social media as fast as people can type, and the TRUTH is only what any reader WANTS TO BELIEVE.
Take your pick. Decide what source you want to cite. I can't believe any is better than any other, it's only which one makes you feel right, now. If you listen to the mainstream media, you're just a sheep. If you listen to some 4chan super secret hacktivist, you are a tinfoil hat loony toon. There's a spectrum in between and none of them are gonna prove you or me RIGHT, or more right than anybody else with an opinion and a little patch of ground to defend with a loud obnoxious voice.
So. I only speak the truths I've seen and heard. All I've got is anecdotal evidence to prop up my "arguments." Which is why I don't bother arguing. I know my own mind. That is all. Nobody else with a louder or more persistent voice is going to come into my space and shove my opinion around. I don't have to argue with others, they speak from their own bubble and fine, good for them. I know that rape is real and rape culture and misogyny exist, I know racism and bigotry exists, I know a lot of good people exist who use words like "safe space" without mocking and condescending tones, I know people who care about others, and all I can do is walk over and stand with them. That is my little patch of ground to defend. It's all I've got.
I don't need to cite any sources for my perspective, because I trust what I have seen and heard. It is damn hard to know what to trust outside of that anymore. But I've had a sense of that for a really long time. And I've known that we are far more than ONE America since I lived a goodly chunk of time in northern Virginia, Cincinnati, Des Moines, Olympia, WA, and now Colorado Springs. I might as well have been hopping around to different planets. People spoke, acted, thought and acted utterly different in each place. Live long enough in any one place, you become convinced that this is how America is, this is how people are. You adapt. Then move, and realize how different it is. When I moved to Cincinnati, I was confused because people say "please?" and it means "what?" When I moved to Des Moines, I was startled when a fast food cashier smiled at me...like, what are you looking at? What's funny? What's wrong with you? When I moved to Washington, I had to realize that my "best friends" would happily knife me in the back and take me for everything I had, but they'd do it with a smile and a hug. Fake fake fake. But it's all good so long as you PRETEND you're a great friend. When I moved to Colorado, no one got any of my jokes! I had to relearn how to even relate and communicate in every single place. We were never ONE America. And we all pick up the flavor of whatever echo chamber we live in.
We are here speaking in one right now. Where are the trump voters in this thread? Where?? Silent. But I'd bet you some have read our words, and decided that this space would be hostile to them. And decided not to post. This isn't their echo chamber. And if I went to a space where they were talking, I'd be attacked, or expect to be, too. Everyone thinks what they think, and thinks they are right and their reasons are good. Everyone.
)
