“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
-Isaac Asimov

Over the decades, news reporting in the USA has devolved into bland infotainment rather than as a source of objective facts and unbiased information. The various different sources – always partisan – have become progressively more focused on selling products and feeding propaganda to the unwashed masses. Along the way, objectivity and the availability of neutral information have seriously suffered.

US news programming is nothing more than corporate propaganda. The MSM revolves around celebrity worship and trivial news designed to create an emotional response. Hardly any actual news is discussed.

The current state of the MSM in America ensures that the unwashed masses are kept bewildered and stupefied by an endless stream of corporate propaganda. The plan is to provide as little information as possible. And they have succeeded beyond expectations.

The MSM is too busy giving us 4000 stories about the same homeless black man robbing the same Walgreens for five stinkin’ dollars, constantly whipping up the mantra that “crime is everywhere!” and forcing Americans to spend untold billions in firearms and home protection systems from the “home security” industry.

The left/right discussion is limited in its scope. We’re talking about massive unchecked fraud and nearly invisible political power in the form of stockholders. The problem is that the FCC has no oversight over the media landscape and the massive consolidations of ownership taking place behind the scenes in America. Examining the early history of the FCC and its predecessor the FRC, one finds an earnest if one-step-behind attempt to keep in check the electronic media landscape.

This has been coming down the line since the abandonment of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, and of course the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court in 2010, which allowed unlimited campaign spending by corporations.

The FCC used to be run by non-partisan, competent people. Now it’s run by a former Verizon lawyer. That should tell you everything you need to know about the systemic de-fanging of the FCC since the Reagan Administration. The media landscape is out of control in the USA and until it becomes subject to oversight again, you can kiss journalism in this country goodbye.

The sad truth is that all of the politicians who take the bribes – euphemistically called “campaign contributions”- are no longer working for their constituents; they work for the bribes…duh.

And on the so-called ‘bread and butter’ issues – those critical to the health of the nation – both parties are on the same page. As the last few years amply demonstrated, we saw another steady diet of massive tax cuts for the corporations and their wealthy owners…and a few paltry scraps for the rest of us.

This was best illustrated by the eight Democratic Senators who voted AGAINST the $15 minimum wage.

In the USA, the MSM is chock-full of milquetoast talking heads who somehow still equate dangerous, whacked-out GOP lunatics with normal, intelligent human beings. How exactly are we best served by this weak-kneed approach of treating sanity and insanity as equal?

People like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lindsay Graham and so many others who have corrupted civilized discourse with lies, threats and violence are a disgrace to an already worthless society. The MSM should be ashamed of their craven cowardice and their misplaced “neutrality” – but they’re not.

Lies are key. Mindful of the importance of propaganda to any fascist project, the Republicans dismantled the post-WWII Fairness Doctrine in the mid-1980s and deregulated the industry. “President” Reagan went so far as to import Rupert Murdoch, the greatest reactionary propagandist in history, hastily granting him citizenship so he could expand his media holdings in this country, and do to the US what he had done to the UK and his Australian homeland. Thus was born FOX “news.”

CNN’s recent ‘town hall’ featuring former “president” Donald tRump is a perfect example of the kind of media circus we can expect in the future. We are sleepwalking into another nightmare by giving this lunatic a public forum. CNN took a lot of flak for giving tRump a forum for spreading his lies, but they had no complaints about the ratings…and neither did their sponsors…

This generation should be very well informed and socially active in this day and age considering all of the technology currently available; but studies have shown that they are clearly not. It seems that in many cases, people are using this technology – which of course could be used to help connect us all in a true ‘global village’ – to instead isolate themselves further from society with sports and celebrity worship instead of participating in it.

Many people are using all of this wonderful, liberating technology as an excuse to be more insular and anti-social. They prefer social media, video games and Virtual Reality – Instead of applying the technology as a transformative tool for positive change in society. The unwashed masses love their gadgets. Sadly, but most of us do not want to actually use them for anything but our own selfish, trivial purposes.

They are in generational lock step, zombie-like; the conformity of mindless consumerism is their personal ethos. They have been programmed and trained to CONSUME above all else; enticed into living far beyond their means [e.g., the must -have $75,000 new car on a $45,000 a year salary…].

They seem to think that by growing a beard or getting a huge, tacky tattoo on their arm or body piercings all over that they are stating their “individuality.” Ugh.

What we are witnessing is the lethal intellectual deterioration of the common people, who are being hoodwinked by the MSM propaganda, social media misinformation and QAnon conspiracy theories.

This trend is not going to be reversed any time soon. Not unless the industry is REGULATED again…and good luck with that…

America is the land of the free and home of the brave: Free to do what the government tells you, and brave enough to obey orders.