The most Orwellian tool of our rulers which does the most damage and affects the most lives is not surveillance, nor police militarization, nor government secrecy, but domestic mass media propaganda. It's also the most overlooked. It's good to protest the other mechanisms of authoritarian control, but propaganda is enemy number one.
Re China: As a furious American, I honestly bear no ill will whatsoever toward China. But I do believe US corporations and investors should be tried for and convicted of treason for the past 20 years of handing off US technology -- most of which was developed with taxpayer funding -- and offshoring jobs and (perhaps most importantly) industrial capacity to China while hollowing out much of the middle of the US.
Sadly, this repeats a common pattern in global capitalism, but the question arises: Why repeat capitalism's most pernicious patterns? No American would have voted to effectively attach US-made rocket boosters to China's rise, and yet this is what's happening. So if the US is to prove truly exceptional in any way as it so often boasts and fails to prove in any constructive way, it will come down to a contest to determine which prevails -- capitalism or democracy.
And capitalism right now is in the driver's seat, not least because (as you note) of its iron grip on the media.
I've always thought reptilian aliens were credible, with Dick Cheney as exhibit A. He didn't even have a heart for about a year. How much more cold blooded can one get.
Liberal media charges for content the most thorough and detailed like NY Times and Washington Post charges more, this is self-cannibalism not a conspiracy to slowly take charge.
My cable news watching liberal father keeps saying, "But Trump is so awful." My social media feeds, filled mostly with Dems and progressives, is an endless regurgitation of "Trump bad" or "If only the GOP wasn't so evil, the Dems would be able to save us all." It is almost as if Trump was manufactured by the establishment as the recipient for the Two Minutes Hate to make the establishment look like the good guys. And, well, to keep people watching. The great film Network explained all of this 45 years ago.
“None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.”
The printing press was the beginning of the mass broadcast speech problem. Before that the Church controlled broadcast speech. imo, broadcast speech over public property and airwaves should not automatically get the same protections as the freedom of speech of an individual in
general. Screaming fire in a crowded theater is broadcast speech, and it is regulated, so I think a point going forward is the mass media has to be delivered over public easements and airwaves, so legislation could be crafted around this to survive in the courts.
Re China: As a furious American, I honestly bear no ill will whatsoever toward China. But I do believe US corporations and investors should be tried for and convicted of treason for the past 20 years of handing off US technology -- most of which was developed with taxpayer funding -- and offshoring jobs and (perhaps most importantly) industrial capacity to China while hollowing out much of the middle of the US.
Sadly, this repeats a common pattern in global capitalism, but the question arises: Why repeat capitalism's most pernicious patterns? No American would have voted to effectively attach US-made rocket boosters to China's rise, and yet this is what's happening. So if the US is to prove truly exceptional in any way as it so often boasts and fails to prove in any constructive way, it will come down to a contest to determine which prevails -- capitalism or democracy.
And capitalism right now is in the driver's seat, not least because (as you note) of its iron grip on the media.
Caitlin, if you haven't already come across the writings of Ray McGovern, you will want to. Here is his New Year 2020 piece: https://raymcgovern.com/2021/01/01/what-i-learned-last-year/
I've always thought reptilian aliens were credible, with Dick Cheney as exhibit A. He didn't even have a heart for about a year. How much more cold blooded can one get.
Liberal media charges for content the most thorough and detailed like NY Times and Washington Post charges more, this is self-cannibalism not a conspiracy to slowly take charge.
My cable news watching liberal father keeps saying, "But Trump is so awful." My social media feeds, filled mostly with Dems and progressives, is an endless regurgitation of "Trump bad" or "If only the GOP wasn't so evil, the Dems would be able to save us all." It is almost as if Trump was manufactured by the establishment as the recipient for the Two Minutes Hate to make the establishment look like the good guys. And, well, to keep people watching. The great film Network explained all of this 45 years ago.
“None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The printing press was the beginning of the mass broadcast speech problem. Before that the Church controlled broadcast speech. imo, broadcast speech over public property and airwaves should not automatically get the same protections as the freedom of speech of an individual in
general. Screaming fire in a crowded theater is broadcast speech, and it is regulated, so I think a point going forward is the mass media has to be delivered over public easements and airwaves, so legislation could be crafted around this to survive in the courts.