I've been saying this for years, but I think that the problems festers a bit further. Idiots buy into the propaganda masquerading as news because the education system has failed those same idiots by not providing them the tools necessary to distinguish the two, and the education system failed them because it is focused on three things: Jobs, jobs, and jobs. We've demonized the liberal arts since (of course) Reagan, and now we're reaping the very foreseeable hellscape that is a polarized reality where debate is impossible because we don't start from a shared factual experience.
Fucking THANK you! I've been saying for years now that education shouldn't be confused with job training. Education isn't a means to an end; it's an end in itself.
To piggyback on your point: Basic literacy and critical thinking skills have dropped off a cliff in the attention economy era. Now, the internet overlords are training people to get their news summarized by AI into an easy, digestible bite in order to further pump up their profits and potentially obfuscate facts even further.
I come from a long line of print journalists. Was laid off in 2009. It’s a calling. We certainly didn’t do it for the money. I believe people are hungry for the truth, and there are many thousands of us truth tellers who would love nothing better than to get back into it.
Under capitalism, as the the old quotation says, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." Schemes of domination, oppression, exploitation, and accumulation and reporting the truth do not mix well.
The shitty thing is, they're winning. Independent media is good and all, but it doesn't have the reach of Fox News, or the Washington Post, or the New York Times, or CBS News. Them being artifacts of a 30-to-100-year-old media landscape doesn't limit their reach and influence. And now they're wholly controlled by bad-faith dumbasses. To get the whole picture that those outlets provide (or used to provide), you'd have to subscribe to (using the DMV as an example) The 51st, Greater Greater Washington, Eater DC, Washington City Paper/Bethesda Now/Inside NOVA, How Things Work, Defector, a few other national-looking places like Handbasket, Wired, and 404 Media, The Athletic (maybe they can re-spin themselves off if the rest of NYT goes down in flames), and whatever comics/webcomics you want to throw money to.
This has no shot against the memes and Facebook disinformation bots. Media in this country needs to be reconstructed from the ground up. God help us in the meantime.
This is such an astute piece. I'm a longtime freelance journalist based in Oregon, covering the western United States. I'm currently wrapping up a project I've spent the last year working on about a rural community in Oregon that has no media whatsoever. A handful of horrible scandals have played out there, and the amount of conspiracy and conjecture is truly disturbing. I'm sure it's just one example of the ways having no media is impacting communities.
Indeed. Without truth, or the seeking thereof, and at least a modicum of hope, what IS the point? I keep reorienting myself to the fine line dividing the light and dark on the yin yang symbol. Surely all this torture, destruction and chaos will be balanced with compassion, regrowth and peace? (No LOLs! A woman's gotta have some respite!)
"... there is the very real problem of a population that, increasingly, is fed a bunch of bullshit, and does not have the tools to know how to escape that informational trap." You are channeling Hannah Arendt: "This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want."
I appreciate your astute writing. It's all so true. I just don't know if we can claw our way back. I personally try to keep abreast on substack and pass it along to my family. They often say I'm doom and gloom....
A passive consumer society lacked the civic engagement/participation that allowed for the vacuum to be filled by corporatism/concentrated wealth. A civics society would have enforced anti-trust laws busted up monopolies and pursued inheritance taxes, closed the tax loop holes/shelters, taxed the rich at higher rates than the poor and would have seriously discussed setting limits on personal wealth/hoarding and seriously discussed the minimal amount of wealth you need to function to be free in America. In short socialism for the rich and cruel austerity for the poor would not have happened in civically actively engaged s society. Democracy was replaced by passive consumerism. We voted for Amazon Meta Twitter/X with our wallets. Small local businesses closed before our eyes while we kept on clicking on Amazon. Comfort, ease, convenience "low costs" were our highest priority. A civics society would have seen and fought the real costs of having the likes of Bazos calling the shots.
First, kill the news; next, kill your opponents; finally, kill the human future. Stop using phrases like: “When historians of the future excavate the root causes of the Trump era…” There will be no historians worthy of the name—and soon enough no future.
“You gotta believe. Otherwise, what’s the point?” Punishing these assholes, who are literally the worst people in history, as they are knowingly destroying the human future—increasing the cost of their win.
"Kill the News" should not mean "be uninformed" however. I follow Ground News and 1440. I have a few sources I trust to a point, like the AP and the BBC. I don't ignore what's going on the world; I've just cut the pundits out of my life. I don't need misinformation or opinion pieces. Take the well-sourced research and ignore everything else. And kill CBS.
You haven’t cut the pundits out of your life; you have people like Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Reich on your substack reading list. Both are smart people, who do ‘well-sourced research”, but come to fallacious conclusions about ‘what needs doing’ (guardrails capitalism/rules-based order) instead of what the real answers are (socialism/international law).
Until the average person understands that capitalism is a dead end, and America is the Great Satan now, we have no shot at a future of anything other than global serfdom.
I don't think it can be overstated just how much of a gaping asshole bari weiss, starting with the time she tried to get her professors at Columbia fired for being too anti-apartheid.
I've been saying this for years, but I think that the problems festers a bit further. Idiots buy into the propaganda masquerading as news because the education system has failed those same idiots by not providing them the tools necessary to distinguish the two, and the education system failed them because it is focused on three things: Jobs, jobs, and jobs. We've demonized the liberal arts since (of course) Reagan, and now we're reaping the very foreseeable hellscape that is a polarized reality where debate is impossible because we don't start from a shared factual experience.
Fucking THANK you! I've been saying for years now that education shouldn't be confused with job training. Education isn't a means to an end; it's an end in itself.
100% agree.
To piggyback on your point: Basic literacy and critical thinking skills have dropped off a cliff in the attention economy era. Now, the internet overlords are training people to get their news summarized by AI into an easy, digestible bite in order to further pump up their profits and potentially obfuscate facts even further.
I come from a long line of print journalists. Was laid off in 2009. It’s a calling. We certainly didn’t do it for the money. I believe people are hungry for the truth, and there are many thousands of us truth tellers who would love nothing better than to get back into it.
Under capitalism, as the the old quotation says, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." Schemes of domination, oppression, exploitation, and accumulation and reporting the truth do not mix well.
The shitty thing is, they're winning. Independent media is good and all, but it doesn't have the reach of Fox News, or the Washington Post, or the New York Times, or CBS News. Them being artifacts of a 30-to-100-year-old media landscape doesn't limit their reach and influence. And now they're wholly controlled by bad-faith dumbasses. To get the whole picture that those outlets provide (or used to provide), you'd have to subscribe to (using the DMV as an example) The 51st, Greater Greater Washington, Eater DC, Washington City Paper/Bethesda Now/Inside NOVA, How Things Work, Defector, a few other national-looking places like Handbasket, Wired, and 404 Media, The Athletic (maybe they can re-spin themselves off if the rest of NYT goes down in flames), and whatever comics/webcomics you want to throw money to.
This has no shot against the memes and Facebook disinformation bots. Media in this country needs to be reconstructed from the ground up. God help us in the meantime.
They’ve won. Fify.
This is such an astute piece. I'm a longtime freelance journalist based in Oregon, covering the western United States. I'm currently wrapping up a project I've spent the last year working on about a rural community in Oregon that has no media whatsoever. A handful of horrible scandals have played out there, and the amount of conspiracy and conjecture is truly disturbing. I'm sure it's just one example of the ways having no media is impacting communities.
Indeed. Without truth, or the seeking thereof, and at least a modicum of hope, what IS the point? I keep reorienting myself to the fine line dividing the light and dark on the yin yang symbol. Surely all this torture, destruction and chaos will be balanced with compassion, regrowth and peace? (No LOLs! A woman's gotta have some respite!)
"... there is the very real problem of a population that, increasingly, is fed a bunch of bullshit, and does not have the tools to know how to escape that informational trap." You are channeling Hannah Arendt: "This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want."
Another banger 🙌🏻
I appreciate your astute writing. It's all so true. I just don't know if we can claw our way back. I personally try to keep abreast on substack and pass it along to my family. They often say I'm doom and gloom....
But we keep on going and hoping :)
Thoughtful, on point, and brilliantly written. Thank you.
A passive consumer society lacked the civic engagement/participation that allowed for the vacuum to be filled by corporatism/concentrated wealth. A civics society would have enforced anti-trust laws busted up monopolies and pursued inheritance taxes, closed the tax loop holes/shelters, taxed the rich at higher rates than the poor and would have seriously discussed setting limits on personal wealth/hoarding and seriously discussed the minimal amount of wealth you need to function to be free in America. In short socialism for the rich and cruel austerity for the poor would not have happened in civically actively engaged s society. Democracy was replaced by passive consumerism. We voted for Amazon Meta Twitter/X with our wallets. Small local businesses closed before our eyes while we kept on clicking on Amazon. Comfort, ease, convenience "low costs" were our highest priority. A civics society would have seen and fought the real costs of having the likes of Bazos calling the shots.
We did and do but we are the minority thus not listened to or even given publicity ! ! !
KEEP the faith and keep doing and saying. Someone will notice and you "made their day" ! ! !
First, kill the news; next, kill your opponents; finally, kill the human future. Stop using phrases like: “When historians of the future excavate the root causes of the Trump era…” There will be no historians worthy of the name—and soon enough no future.
“You gotta believe. Otherwise, what’s the point?” Punishing these assholes, who are literally the worst people in history, as they are knowingly destroying the human future—increasing the cost of their win.
Well there will be "AI" historians.
"Kill the News" should not mean "be uninformed" however. I follow Ground News and 1440. I have a few sources I trust to a point, like the AP and the BBC. I don't ignore what's going on the world; I've just cut the pundits out of my life. I don't need misinformation or opinion pieces. Take the well-sourced research and ignore everything else. And kill CBS.
You haven’t cut the pundits out of your life; you have people like Heather Cox Richardson and Robert Reich on your substack reading list. Both are smart people, who do ‘well-sourced research”, but come to fallacious conclusions about ‘what needs doing’ (guardrails capitalism/rules-based order) instead of what the real answers are (socialism/international law).
Until the average person understands that capitalism is a dead end, and America is the Great Satan now, we have no shot at a future of anything other than global serfdom.
fascinating Hamilton!!
Wow, this piece of writing is incredibly insightful.
I don't think it can be overstated just how much of a gaping asshole bari weiss, starting with the time she tried to get her professors at Columbia fired for being too anti-apartheid.