There's two major issues in play, from what I can tell:
1) The advertising model of media is terrible. Substack does this much better, because writers produce content for THE READERS, not to get outrage clicks.
2) Since the "modernization" of the Smith-Mundt Act, it's completely legal for media and government to collude and outright lie to Americans.
The first issue is already working itself out -- millions of people are abandoning 'legacy' media for truthful voices -- here at Substack and elsewhere as well. elgatomalo calls this the "reputation economy".
But sooner or later we run into problem 2 -- the government would rather subsidize failing media industries so they can control the information. You see this in Canada already, and there was a recent bill in the US that would 'reward' loyal media outlets. (Ironically leading to the unraveling of #1!)
To top it all off, the liars are the ones calling US liars and calling for measures that would crack down on dangerous 'malinformation' -- which is true but inconvenient.
I grew tired of all the shouting, moaning, groaning, blaming, lies, and pity parties on the news. I catch a few headlines, that is enough. All the other is emotion. For the most part, there is nothing I can do about what is happening, it doesn't or won't affect me, so why get all worked up? Instead I get detailed information from thoughtful online sources I have learned to trust when it seems important to know more or where I might need to act.
Thank you AMD for an incredibly thought-provoking post. I became a Hollywood screenwriter to examine the human condition, and explore the best of humanity, rather than celebrate its worst. And very soon realized I had to hide this intent from my employers, who only wanted salacious, exploitive content the equivalent of today's "click bait." But the most compelling stories are those that resonate subconsciously. Gratuitously violent and fear-inducing scenarios do this, bypassing cerebral processing and triggering our "reptilian brain," but I don't write that. So I grounded nearly every story in some universal human truth, while giving my bosses the "commercial" elements they wanted. Stories that "Ring True In The Collective Unconscious" trigger us in ways we don't consciously realize, so they loved them, without knowing why. And luckily, there has been a radical shift at the boxoffice, recently. The typical dark, conflict-driven, derivative trend-piece movies are increasingly struggling. A $15M, positive and humanistic film about "saving children" just beat "Indiana Jones" and "Mission Impossible" at the domestic boxoffice, almost purely on word of mouth, despite Mass Media launching an all-out campaign to thwart it. And "Barbie" made $1.4 BILLION. Barbie is actually a deceptively-deep story of Self Discovery, about a woman who realizes she lives in a false bubble, defined wholly by external "stuff": her toy house, car, outfits, all the Barbie "accessories." She has no genuine relationships, no bond with Ken -- her entire world, and identity, are as fake as the plastic she's made from. This struck a deep, subconscious chord with an audience conditioned to believe the right car, brand-clothing, job, etc. will make them "happy," only to discover a life driven purely by material acquisition leaves them hollow, and empty. In the end, Barbie rejects false values, deciding to live in the Real World, to become a "Real Person." It was a metaphor; but an uplifting, encouraging one that resonated on a deep, subconscious level. I think, as you say, that "fear fatigue" is setting in and people are starting to reject manipulative messaging. Historically, Korean content is ~85% positive, uplifting, and often romantic. The best of it excels at what Hollywood no longer even attempts: revelatory stories that examine the human condition and matters of the heart, with depth and insight. And K-content viewing has soared 600% in just the last four years, with 90% of viewers living outside Korea, all over the world. I pray this appetite for more "positive" entertainment continues, and audiences turn away from the increasingly negative, ghastly view of humanity and the world relentlessly presented by Legacy Media and would-be tyrants, to pit us against each other while they take over. And I hope I can somehow get past the Hollywood gatekeepers to make my latest project, a "love-letter, to love itself." But this time I didn't hide my intent to inspire viewers' most noble instincts, so we'll see. There's still a long fight ahead.
Information overload! A reality! Separating truth from fiction a challenge. Big Pharma is a master at creating a bias as well demonstrated by the Covid con. Our current allopathic medicine model thrives on chronic treatment of ill health for life. Vaccines are in the forefront! Prevention or reversal are not dominate in medicine. The process in many cases produces a chemical dependance that requires increased dosage over time to maintain a positive effect. This maximizes the drug company's return on investment! The RNA bias produces a degradation of the immune system with each subsequent dose, which in turn re-enforces the false concept that a subsequent dose is mandatory!
When will we all wake up to the fact that the Covid exercise created a lab rat experiment on humanity.
The only way to have a "healthy relationship" with the mass media is to understand that they are your enemy.
They are not there to report "the news" or to transmit information they exist to control the way you think about issues and tell you what issues you should be thinking about.
As one who has lived without mass media for most of his life when I am in front of a TV screen e.g., I am struck at how jarring and how facile these productions are- it is patently obvious they are poor theatrical performances with hamfisted actors/actresses reading canned scripts. How can anyone not see this?
Once you understand this you know immediately that what you were subjected to with the Covid Operation had nothing whatsoever to do with a health emergency- you were being subjected to a military grade psychological operation in 2020 not a "viral event."
The urgent message that we must take from these past three and a half years is that we are under sustained psychological warfare and have been for quite some time. Even many "in the know" are still trapped in some version of the Covid merry-go-round.
The official narrative of "Covid" is a fiction- all facets it. There was no "pandemic" and there is no "lab leak" nor gain of function anything.
Excellent summary and I love your personal insights. I have watched a major shift in my interest in even the local newspaper, let alone the attention grabber world news from M.S.M. Years ago I realized that going to movies that were loud and violent upset me to such a degree that I simply stopped going. The problem is when people who are young and malleable are exposed to too much everything. Where are the parents? Well, they too are exposed to too much everything. This has been a generational downward spiral, when it hits a certain degradation, the energy slowly rises up. Perhaps I will see that trend in my life.
Thanks doc! Your info and perspective is always refreshing and thought provoking.
Many years ago my sister and I used to have discussions (arguments) on the big issues. One day I thought about what each of us was saying and realized we were both using slogans…and those same words were being used in the same way in the various outlets we were listening to. Holy cow!!! Neither of us ever made any progress on the thoughts of the other one. One day I made a fabulous irrefutable series of observations to which she replied “I don’t care. I just feel the way I feel.” Shazam! I got it. Never argued with her about anything again. Her feelings trumped any logical argument, all facts, everything. Of course she took the vaccine because “We’re all in this together” and keeps getting boosted for whatever related emotionally based media-spread reason. And of course is now vax injured (long COVID says the media.). God help us all!!!
On a side note, I had been struggling with various gastro issues…and struggling. Your posting on stomach acid (and recommendation of Dr. Jonathan Wright’s book/work) was an IMMENSE help!!! Thank you so much!!!
This is the mass medias business model. If they publish something that is sensational or goads ppl or triggers ppl on one side or the other of an ideological argument, they are more likely to get clicks , views, comments etc. Just like commercial TV in the 1960s-70s and beyond existed to sell ads and content was really “filler”, so now all the major news outlets are not reporting news, they are publishing “content” . To avoid irrelevancy and bankruptcy the content has to generate views and clicks. Veracity, ethics , morality, perspective, impartiality are all secondary or even irrelevant.
In New York metropolitan area there was an AM radio station call WINS news .
“In music, we’ve shifted from works of art that open the human heart to mass-produced music which uses a variety of algorithms known to trigger dopamine responses ad-infinitum.”
Interesting that whenever I would hear Arianna Grande I want to rip my skin off. And this was before ontological shock set in.
Thanks for labeling the brainwashing machine "mass media" which more accurately decribes the continous outpouring of refuse than does the modifier, "mainstream."
Regarding the current antics in the Middle East, there is no way I can know much about it but I suspect it's largely the usual histrionic hype typical of what you describe at the beginning of your article.
Here's a link that well describes what went on in that regard in the past and I doubt that the methods have changed substantially or materially.
There's two major issues in play, from what I can tell:
1) The advertising model of media is terrible. Substack does this much better, because writers produce content for THE READERS, not to get outrage clicks.
2) Since the "modernization" of the Smith-Mundt Act, it's completely legal for media and government to collude and outright lie to Americans.
The first issue is already working itself out -- millions of people are abandoning 'legacy' media for truthful voices -- here at Substack and elsewhere as well. elgatomalo calls this the "reputation economy".
But sooner or later we run into problem 2 -- the government would rather subsidize failing media industries so they can control the information. You see this in Canada already, and there was a recent bill in the US that would 'reward' loyal media outlets. (Ironically leading to the unraveling of #1!)
To top it all off, the liars are the ones calling US liars and calling for measures that would crack down on dangerous 'malinformation' -- which is true but inconvenient.
Sometimes the programming backfires. When I hear the word "diversity" I smell bullshit.
I grew tired of all the shouting, moaning, groaning, blaming, lies, and pity parties on the news. I catch a few headlines, that is enough. All the other is emotion. For the most part, there is nothing I can do about what is happening, it doesn't or won't affect me, so why get all worked up? Instead I get detailed information from thoughtful online sources I have learned to trust when it seems important to know more or where I might need to act.
Of course, one may simply turn off the computer and read a book.
Thank you AMD for an incredibly thought-provoking post. I became a Hollywood screenwriter to examine the human condition, and explore the best of humanity, rather than celebrate its worst. And very soon realized I had to hide this intent from my employers, who only wanted salacious, exploitive content the equivalent of today's "click bait." But the most compelling stories are those that resonate subconsciously. Gratuitously violent and fear-inducing scenarios do this, bypassing cerebral processing and triggering our "reptilian brain," but I don't write that. So I grounded nearly every story in some universal human truth, while giving my bosses the "commercial" elements they wanted. Stories that "Ring True In The Collective Unconscious" trigger us in ways we don't consciously realize, so they loved them, without knowing why. And luckily, there has been a radical shift at the boxoffice, recently. The typical dark, conflict-driven, derivative trend-piece movies are increasingly struggling. A $15M, positive and humanistic film about "saving children" just beat "Indiana Jones" and "Mission Impossible" at the domestic boxoffice, almost purely on word of mouth, despite Mass Media launching an all-out campaign to thwart it. And "Barbie" made $1.4 BILLION. Barbie is actually a deceptively-deep story of Self Discovery, about a woman who realizes she lives in a false bubble, defined wholly by external "stuff": her toy house, car, outfits, all the Barbie "accessories." She has no genuine relationships, no bond with Ken -- her entire world, and identity, are as fake as the plastic she's made from. This struck a deep, subconscious chord with an audience conditioned to believe the right car, brand-clothing, job, etc. will make them "happy," only to discover a life driven purely by material acquisition leaves them hollow, and empty. In the end, Barbie rejects false values, deciding to live in the Real World, to become a "Real Person." It was a metaphor; but an uplifting, encouraging one that resonated on a deep, subconscious level. I think, as you say, that "fear fatigue" is setting in and people are starting to reject manipulative messaging. Historically, Korean content is ~85% positive, uplifting, and often romantic. The best of it excels at what Hollywood no longer even attempts: revelatory stories that examine the human condition and matters of the heart, with depth and insight. And K-content viewing has soared 600% in just the last four years, with 90% of viewers living outside Korea, all over the world. I pray this appetite for more "positive" entertainment continues, and audiences turn away from the increasingly negative, ghastly view of humanity and the world relentlessly presented by Legacy Media and would-be tyrants, to pit us against each other while they take over. And I hope I can somehow get past the Hollywood gatekeepers to make my latest project, a "love-letter, to love itself." But this time I didn't hide my intent to inspire viewers' most noble instincts, so we'll see. There's still a long fight ahead.
Information overload! A reality! Separating truth from fiction a challenge. Big Pharma is a master at creating a bias as well demonstrated by the Covid con. Our current allopathic medicine model thrives on chronic treatment of ill health for life. Vaccines are in the forefront! Prevention or reversal are not dominate in medicine. The process in many cases produces a chemical dependance that requires increased dosage over time to maintain a positive effect. This maximizes the drug company's return on investment! The RNA bias produces a degradation of the immune system with each subsequent dose, which in turn re-enforces the false concept that a subsequent dose is mandatory!
When will we all wake up to the fact that the Covid exercise created a lab rat experiment on humanity.
The only way to have a "healthy relationship" with the mass media is to understand that they are your enemy.
They are not there to report "the news" or to transmit information they exist to control the way you think about issues and tell you what issues you should be thinking about.
As one who has lived without mass media for most of his life when I am in front of a TV screen e.g., I am struck at how jarring and how facile these productions are- it is patently obvious they are poor theatrical performances with hamfisted actors/actresses reading canned scripts. How can anyone not see this?
Once you understand this you know immediately that what you were subjected to with the Covid Operation had nothing whatsoever to do with a health emergency- you were being subjected to a military grade psychological operation in 2020 not a "viral event."
The urgent message that we must take from these past three and a half years is that we are under sustained psychological warfare and have been for quite some time. Even many "in the know" are still trapped in some version of the Covid merry-go-round.
The official narrative of "Covid" is a fiction- all facets it. There was no "pandemic" and there is no "lab leak" nor gain of function anything.
Excellent summary and I love your personal insights. I have watched a major shift in my interest in even the local newspaper, let alone the attention grabber world news from M.S.M. Years ago I realized that going to movies that were loud and violent upset me to such a degree that I simply stopped going. The problem is when people who are young and malleable are exposed to too much everything. Where are the parents? Well, they too are exposed to too much everything. This has been a generational downward spiral, when it hits a certain degradation, the energy slowly rises up. Perhaps I will see that trend in my life.
Thanks doc! Your info and perspective is always refreshing and thought provoking.
Many years ago my sister and I used to have discussions (arguments) on the big issues. One day I thought about what each of us was saying and realized we were both using slogans…and those same words were being used in the same way in the various outlets we were listening to. Holy cow!!! Neither of us ever made any progress on the thoughts of the other one. One day I made a fabulous irrefutable series of observations to which she replied “I don’t care. I just feel the way I feel.” Shazam! I got it. Never argued with her about anything again. Her feelings trumped any logical argument, all facts, everything. Of course she took the vaccine because “We’re all in this together” and keeps getting boosted for whatever related emotionally based media-spread reason. And of course is now vax injured (long COVID says the media.). God help us all!!!
On a side note, I had been struggling with various gastro issues…and struggling. Your posting on stomach acid (and recommendation of Dr. Jonathan Wright’s book/work) was an IMMENSE help!!! Thank you so much!!!
I had to get old to wait for good timing and not force things!
This is the mass medias business model. If they publish something that is sensational or goads ppl or triggers ppl on one side or the other of an ideological argument, they are more likely to get clicks , views, comments etc. Just like commercial TV in the 1960s-70s and beyond existed to sell ads and content was really “filler”, so now all the major news outlets are not reporting news, they are publishing “content” . To avoid irrelevancy and bankruptcy the content has to generate views and clicks. Veracity, ethics , morality, perspective, impartiality are all secondary or even irrelevant.
In New York metropolitan area there was an AM radio station call WINS news .
They’re tagline was “all news all the time”
Now we have “ All lies all the time”!
Thanks for a well written and thoughtful piece.
All so true and so unacknowledged at the same time.
Happy I didn't skip past it.
“In music, we’ve shifted from works of art that open the human heart to mass-produced music which uses a variety of algorithms known to trigger dopamine responses ad-infinitum.”
Interesting that whenever I would hear Arianna Grande I want to rip my skin off. And this was before ontological shock set in.
NEVER HAS DIVIDE AND CONQUER BEEN SO EASY!!
to wit:
https://commonreader.wustl.edu/how-a-company-called-blackrock-shapes-your-news-your-life-our-future/
and "Why are People so Obedient - Compliance and Tyranny":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URdXC6UtfVg
Thanks for labeling the brainwashing machine "mass media" which more accurately decribes the continous outpouring of refuse than does the modifier, "mainstream."
Regarding the current antics in the Middle East, there is no way I can know much about it but I suspect it's largely the usual histrionic hype typical of what you describe at the beginning of your article.
Here's a link that well describes what went on in that regard in the past and I doubt that the methods have changed substantially or materially.
https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-jews-and-nazis/
What an absolutely EXCELLENT Topic.