The Human Snake Pit
Politics is a snake pit of lies and innuendo, the manipulation of facts in the form of half-truths, and the pursuit of power. It is those attributes, spoken in tested, carefully managed speech codes that intends to say nothing, while implying everything—that is the very nature of the language of politics.
That is why the recent 60 minutes special on “Fake News” is a very fine example of fake news.
In order to give weight to the segment, CBS trotted out old, retired Ted Koppel, in an effort create the air 0f legitimacy. Koppel bemoans the birth of fake news, through the growth of alternative media, pointing to heinous offenders like Sean Hannity, who he deems bad for “Real news.” I can only assume that by doing so he potentially sets the stage for some type of censorship of alternative media. Which, will not be easy. More likely, it is one last gasp from the failing news-media giants that have controlled what we’ve seen and heard for the better part of the past century.
There are about six mega-corporations that control almost all media content, outside of the internet. The Internet, by comparison, is to the mainstream media, what the wild west of America’s not-so-long-ago past was to Boston or New York of the same period—no law, porn, hookers, pimps, and guns—while buried deep, are big chunks of the unvarnished truth. It is also a place where you can find your own version of the truth, whatever that may be—and, in that sense, it does not bode well for a cohesive future, making “Governing” even harder. Barack Obama found this to be true. So will Donald Trump.
My assumption is, that at some point, the powerful will find a way to censor the internet. I believe Barack Obama--reading the writing on the wall--began that process a few years back when he used an arcane telecommunications law, written more than seventy years ago, to hand control of the internet to some of the biggest players in this new medium. Make no mistake, it is in the best interest of these new media giants to rule in tandem with Washington. In response, they will try desperately to keep a lid on this seething mass of information and disinformation, but they won’t be able to. At least, not completely.
The political left is their greatest ally, especially in an age where the need to capture the lucrative youth market means that reporters tend to be younger and so is the content being offered. Virtually every study ever done shows that after a certain age (about 49 seems to be the cutoff) people tend to be less influenced by advertising, and therefore less prone to spend on non-essentials, meaning, they are a less desirable advertising demographic. So gearing your content to the young, by having young inexperienced reporters as their touchstone, speaking their language, becomes necessary. It also helps that the progressives have become the new totalitarians. Speech codes and SJW’s are simply the front-line in this war.
Here is the primary mechanism for setting this in motion; Uncle Sam subsidized college for American youth. After all, who could argue with more education? These government subsidies are highly profitable for the colleges. They are even more profitable for the banks, who make the loans. They are also a winning formula for the politicians, because they can be seen as benefactors, making it easier to go to college. Think of it as an investment in their future. Not the future of the kids going to college, mind you, but the politicians who use the taxpayer’s money to buy the college educated youth vote.
All of the above constitutes fake news. Not what I’ve written, but what the media leaves unsaid, which works like this; a trillion dollars of unpaid college loans are now the debt responsibility of all Americans. Meanwhile, the kids come out of college saddled with more debt than any generation before them. Many can’t find jobs in their chosen field, but they have gone through the ideological ringer that is modern academia, which is almost solely occupied by the far left. Is there any wonder, they are for socialism? Even if socialism of a kind is precisely what brought them and us, to this juncture. This translates into debt, debt, and more debt. And, as the result, more control. Thought control. Speech control. Control.
No one will say this, except a few on the right, and maybe a few stragglers on the old left, mixed with a stinging array of bullshit, no doubt. But it is the only place where the truth—or some small portion of it, gets told.
In other words, fake news is the norm. Not the exception.
Maybe it’s always been that way, leaving us increasingly to decipher our own political future. Not
Uncle Sam—and certainly not one of a few mega corporations—run by today’s media savvy, idiot savants.
What does this mean? A rosy, unintelligible, difficult, freedom. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Mark Magula
That is why the recent 60 minutes special on “Fake News” is a very fine example of fake news.
In order to give weight to the segment, CBS trotted out old, retired Ted Koppel, in an effort create the air 0f legitimacy. Koppel bemoans the birth of fake news, through the growth of alternative media, pointing to heinous offenders like Sean Hannity, who he deems bad for “Real news.” I can only assume that by doing so he potentially sets the stage for some type of censorship of alternative media. Which, will not be easy. More likely, it is one last gasp from the failing news-media giants that have controlled what we’ve seen and heard for the better part of the past century.
There are about six mega-corporations that control almost all media content, outside of the internet. The Internet, by comparison, is to the mainstream media, what the wild west of America’s not-so-long-ago past was to Boston or New York of the same period—no law, porn, hookers, pimps, and guns—while buried deep, are big chunks of the unvarnished truth. It is also a place where you can find your own version of the truth, whatever that may be—and, in that sense, it does not bode well for a cohesive future, making “Governing” even harder. Barack Obama found this to be true. So will Donald Trump.
My assumption is, that at some point, the powerful will find a way to censor the internet. I believe Barack Obama--reading the writing on the wall--began that process a few years back when he used an arcane telecommunications law, written more than seventy years ago, to hand control of the internet to some of the biggest players in this new medium. Make no mistake, it is in the best interest of these new media giants to rule in tandem with Washington. In response, they will try desperately to keep a lid on this seething mass of information and disinformation, but they won’t be able to. At least, not completely.
The political left is their greatest ally, especially in an age where the need to capture the lucrative youth market means that reporters tend to be younger and so is the content being offered. Virtually every study ever done shows that after a certain age (about 49 seems to be the cutoff) people tend to be less influenced by advertising, and therefore less prone to spend on non-essentials, meaning, they are a less desirable advertising demographic. So gearing your content to the young, by having young inexperienced reporters as their touchstone, speaking their language, becomes necessary. It also helps that the progressives have become the new totalitarians. Speech codes and SJW’s are simply the front-line in this war.
Here is the primary mechanism for setting this in motion; Uncle Sam subsidized college for American youth. After all, who could argue with more education? These government subsidies are highly profitable for the colleges. They are even more profitable for the banks, who make the loans. They are also a winning formula for the politicians, because they can be seen as benefactors, making it easier to go to college. Think of it as an investment in their future. Not the future of the kids going to college, mind you, but the politicians who use the taxpayer’s money to buy the college educated youth vote.
All of the above constitutes fake news. Not what I’ve written, but what the media leaves unsaid, which works like this; a trillion dollars of unpaid college loans are now the debt responsibility of all Americans. Meanwhile, the kids come out of college saddled with more debt than any generation before them. Many can’t find jobs in their chosen field, but they have gone through the ideological ringer that is modern academia, which is almost solely occupied by the far left. Is there any wonder, they are for socialism? Even if socialism of a kind is precisely what brought them and us, to this juncture. This translates into debt, debt, and more debt. And, as the result, more control. Thought control. Speech control. Control.
No one will say this, except a few on the right, and maybe a few stragglers on the old left, mixed with a stinging array of bullshit, no doubt. But it is the only place where the truth—or some small portion of it, gets told.
In other words, fake news is the norm. Not the exception.
Maybe it’s always been that way, leaving us increasingly to decipher our own political future. Not
Uncle Sam—and certainly not one of a few mega corporations—run by today’s media savvy, idiot savants.
What does this mean? A rosy, unintelligible, difficult, freedom. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Mark Magula