If I were an alien studying Earth from afar and had little to no knowledge about Earth’s past, cultures, or systems, I would only be able to conclude a few things.
For one, we’re fascinated by violence and destruction to the point of finding it entertaining. We adore conflict, be it physical or digital. While these things can be seen in many of our world leaders, I’m not entirely sure they would see people like President Donald Trump or Chinese Communist Party head Xi Jinping as our real leaders. I think the aliens would initially conclude that our leaders are actually the news media.
And in a way, they’d be right.
In a way, we are ruled by the media and readily so. We watch the specific channel that confirms our bias and we believe what it tells us to believe. CNN may brag that President Donald Trump’s rally had many empty seats and say that it’s a sign that his popularity has declined significantly. CNN will also brag that the seats were empty because Tik Tok users reserved them and never showed up in order to purposefully keep people from attending the rallies, and people will celebrate this while still believing that his declining popularity is also true.
(READ: CNN Cheers on Tik Tok Users Sabotaging Trump’s Rally)
You can watch as rioters burn down buildings, loot businesses, and commit acts of extreme violence then, with a burning building behind him, watch as a news reporter from MSNBC tell you that the riots are peaceful and that the idea that it’s an unruly crowd is false.
People will see this with their own eyes but believe exactly as their leader, the media would tell them to.
It’s clear that the media has a firm grasp over the minds and hearts of the people. It’s the tool by which millions can be controlled and persuaded in the blink of an eye. It’s become so effective that a report doesn’t even really need to be made. A headline or a tweet will suffice in order to give its viewers whatever marching orders need to be handed down at the time.
It can do this because not everyone has the time, energy, or interest to delve into the facts or go hunting for the rest of the story. Working people have only so many hours in the day and many would rather spend it doing something they would enjoy a lot more. A passing “Now This” video or a quick tweet from a left-leaning journalist is enough news for one day. A CNN chyron, even with the television on mute, can deliver an entire narrative in less than ten words.
The media can tell you what to think more easily than many people understand or even believe.
This is the age of media rule, and as you can see, when the media is ruling the people we descend into chaos. Why? Let me explain by reiterating a very important point about how we see our media.
There was a time when the media acted more like a service to the people. There were facts delivered by seemingly unbiased reporters and people came to trust the news media as a source of information. Our culture largely adjusted itself to believe this and carried that feeling with it throughout the decades. Now in 2020, much of our culture still views the media as a service here to deliver the facts.
It’s not. It should be understood that the media is not a service. It’s not here to help you understand anything or serve up explanations that would keep you better informed about the world around you.
The media is a business.
The media has a vested interest in making you watch because when you watch it makes money and any ideologues will also be able to push whatever narrative they choose. They make ad dollars by attracting your eye with stories and footage of death, destruction, and mayhem. If it bleeds, you can bet it’s going to lead…if the right criteria are met. If it’s going to make you worry and watch them for more updates then the media will continue to spoon-feed you the latest in apocalyptic pornography so you feel better prepared and knowledgable.
This means it actively wants disaster to happen.
A perfect example comes from Real Clear Politics commentary writer Thomas Price and C. L Gray who wrote on how the media is openly wanting a second wave of the coronavirus to hit the United States:
The media is churning out countless alarmist stories each day about the threat of COVID-19 and the dangers of societal reopening. “Risk of new lockdown rises with fear of second COVID-19 wave,” writes Reuters, as one example of the genre.
These stories generally incite, rather than inform. They cherry-pick facts and lack context. Only when the COVID picture is viewed in perspective are people able to make wise decisions about their actions. It should be safe for society to continue broadly reopening while directing resources to specific at-risk populations, such as nursing homes and prisons, which are more vulnerable.
The media has focused on increasing numbers of positive tests and hospitalizations in parts of the country to imply reopening is reckless. “Confirmed coronavirus cases have risen by double-digit percentages in 16 U.S. states that have gradually loosened restrictions since Memorial Day,” says Marketwatch.
As the Real Clear Politics writers point out, Covid cases and Covid deaths are two different stories, but the latter isn’t being told because the increased case count sounds scarier, and they’ve already spent a lot of time and effort implying that Covid is one of the deadliest viruses out there (it’s not). What’s more, it’s only highlighting rises in Covid cases in hotspots, whereas in many other states the rates are still falling.
This is just one example. During President Donald Trump’s economic boom, media outlets saw too much good news coming out of the Trump camp and decided to begin spreading the narrative that trouble was brewing on the horizon in the form of an economic recession. Absolutely no proof backed this claim up and even economists denounced the idea, yet the media forged ahead with the narrative. Trump accurately pointed out that the media was just hoping a recession would happen.
We can say that our politicians are in charge, but at the end of the day, the media is the one directly putting the people on edge, telling them what to think, and feeding them stories that have little to no basis in reality and all for its own benefit.
As you can see, with the media currently deciding what our nation hears, sees, and thinks, it descends into divisive chaos where lives are ruined and people die.
