For those of us who grew up with a newspaper on our doorstep we've seen the change in media to something delivered in print being nearly obsolete. From that narrow distribution of information the public's idea of what was true was interconnected and stories that made print became all important in people's lives. Because of the importance of the stories in the paper, that they could result in social, political, and economic change and even lead us to war, those stories were assumed to be prepared by people that were objective and trustworthy. Some, throughout the generations of print media knew that wasn't true. But did the public? And if so, then why would they keep buying papers? To see what the new lies were maybe?
Some of our friends and listeners can remember the old days of television news being quite similar. Talk Radio as well. How we pine for the old lies when we never expect to be told the truth. The competition in media used to be over who broke the info first and it still sort of is, but when cable news came around having a bunch of news outlets saying the same thing, true or untrue, wasn't sensible business. Enter the "alternative."
A false dichotomy is a logical fallacy, it forces someone to choose between two decisions that are presented by the person controlling the argument. By accepting rather the "this" or "that" in those social situations people generally accept what's presented to them. There are of course, many other false choices that you can present, but that can complicate things. The best intellectual tactics are the simplest and hone in on our drives or instincts as people. People yearn for simplicity, convenience, and comfort. When a Fox News or whatever presents itself as an alternative to the news that you know is fake, the news that they report must be true right?
Sorry, truth doesn't work that way. And people not understanding how to even prove something true before accepting it as such is as big of any issue with any cable news, alternative media, and channels like mine. Because the truth isn't easy to prove. It takes work. It takes a lot of thinking. Many times it asks people to sacrifice their simplicity, their convenience, and comfort and some just don't want to make that sacrifice. So what do most produce instead?
Simple emotional garbage. The kind Jerry Springer would be proud of. The public that relies on the alternative media gets sound bites and rhetoric about complex issues, character attacks, mind reading, projecting motivations on to people and abstract things like countries, hypotheticals, but rarely any in-depth look at anything in an objective way.
As it turns out the alternatives presented to most of us are just a bunch of media conglomerates and those that inspired to be like them, in those powerful positions, serving the same entities at the top of our societal hierarchy. Just a bunch of reverse mirror images of the other "sides" we're supposed to choose from. Doesn't matter if it's 2 or a thousand, nothing is the real alternative to the garbage presented to us as news if it's not raw, uncensored, and open to the public.
It doesn't matter how big of an audience it has, doesn't matter how fancy the production is, and it doesn't matter how charismatic the people are on the screen if they are not only telling you the truth but also explaining why something is true. Showing evidence. Citing sources. And standing by their word and their work to provide it. Correcting themselves when they are wrong and showing humility and remorse for their mistakes.
The Alt to the Alt is here. As another column of the old media empire falls in cable news, we'll be looking to knock over all the phony alternative ones too. No sacred cows here and that includes us. Hold us accountable the same because we love hearing from The Crew.
Together let's discuss here each week what can be proven and what can't. What evidence has been presented and what hasn't. What has been asked and what hasn't. Any news that we call ours is one based in fair and objective truth no matter what that may be.
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Funny, I was having a discussion with a former elementary school teacher, and they shared a 'game' that was played with the students called 'this or that'. The conundrum was blind or deaf. I passed the test. After a short reflection, my reply was, "neither". I was then informed that I wasn't conforming to the rules of the game.
Clearly the state indoctrination system is conditioning young minds at an early age.