The Programming of America
I “cut the cord” on broadcast television, switching to exclusively online content, nearly a decade ago. Most of my ingestion of news comes from reading articles and listening to commentary online; I am very particular to focus on content from people trained in their fields, such as articles from longtime investigative journalists and lectures, long-form interviews and debates with experts in the subjects discussed.
When a topic piques my interest, I seek out the source material and verify what I’ve read or heard before forming a strong opinion. If a government report is discussed in an article, I read the actual report, and when a filmed speech or incident is talked about in an interview, I seek out the raw footage. It is essential to staying accurately informed and to find out who is honest and who is spinning, and I have discovered many spins and outright lies over the years.
On the few occasions that I am forced to watch broadcast news - most commonly when stuck in a waiting room at a business - I am flat out flabbergasted by what I see. Complex situations are reduced to child-like narratives, facts that would reduce a fear-based, knee-jerk response are completely omitted and data-points that push the populace to behave in ways that benefit those in power are cherry-picked and amplified. When you have spent a decade almost exclusively watching genuine, extended discussion between experts, the cheesy production and unnatural delivery of extremely biased viewpoints that network news crams into a small slot between commercials is like stepping into an alternate dimension.
When discussing current events with friends and relatives, it is immediately obvious whether they receive all their information from these mainstream sources. Their understanding of the issues at hand is terribly one-sided, they fling subjective opinions as if they are indisputable facts, and they tend to become very agitated when questioned on their assumptions and when presented with information that contradicts their seemingly immutable views. The conversation often devolves into “good people believe what I believe and those who believe differently are bad people.”
In the last two years I have seen this destructive, binary worldview overtake our national discourse to the point where one can have their life ruined if they publicly disagree with the approved, reductionist, child-like narrative. I have seen our scientific institutions distort and cherry-pick their own data to promote a narrative that contradicts a pantheon of data and expert analysis from around the world1, all to force the populace into taking a nascent pharmaceutical product that cannot live up to the promises made at its launch. I have seen the current White House administration, who all through the election last year sowed mistrust in the rushed pharmaceutical solutions2, and who said that mandating pharmaceuticals was off the table3, perform a total reversal, gaslight the nation, and then attempt to force everyone who will not comply into unemployment, all championed by the dishonest reporting of network news.
Most distressingly, I have seen a significant portion of our country swallow this Pravda-like nonsense hook, line and sinker.
How do we rectify this information gap? How do we resolve the seemingly insurmountable gulf between those who believe the reductionist, authoritarian narrative and those who know to gather a more holistic view of the issues that affect their lives? How do we reach the people who are successfully propagandized and convince them that those who may disagree with them on public policy can still be decent, caring human beings whom they can compromise with? Is is possible for us to deprogram our friends and family? If possible, do we have enough time to do it before our society is ripped apart?
The one thing we must do, if we are to avert disaster, is take risks. We must speak up when someone we know pushes a false, one-sided narrative. Though we should always address them with respect, we must be willing to lose friends and anger family. One thing those who have been programmed by the far-left side of this phenomena are correct about is that silence is compliance. If you keep your head down and try to avoid tough conversations that could strain relationships, you will only be dooming the people you care about to a destructive, childish worldview. You will only be empowering them to make decisions that hurt themselves and others.
We are in the middle of monumental, disastrous changes to the core of Western civilization’s social contract. There will never be another moment in our generation of American civil life with higher worldly stakes and more of a reason to stand up for what you know to be right.
TownHall Top Doctor Says New CDC Study on Natural Immunity Is 'Highly Flawed' https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2021/11/02/top-doctor-says-new-cdc-study-on-natural-immunity-is-highly-flawed-n2598429
Brownstone Institute A Review and Autopsy of Two COVID Immunity Studies https://brownstone.org/articles/a-review-and-autopsy-of-two-covid-immunity-studies
Brownstone Institute 123 Research Studies Affirm Naturally Acquired Immunity to Covid-19: Documented, Linked, and Quoted https://brownstone.org/articles/79-research-studies-affirm-naturally-acquired-immunity-to-covid-19-documented-linked-and-quoted
Yahoo! News In debate, Kamala Harris says she won't take a COVID vaccine just on Trump's say-so https://news.yahoo.com/kamala-harris-says-she-wont-take-covid-vaccine-just-on-trumps-sayso-020511962.html
The Western Journal PolitiFact Says Biden and Harris Never Distrusted COVID Vaccine - But We Have the Video https://www.westernjournal.com/politifact-says-biden-harris-never-distrusted-covid-vaccine-video/
