Information is king.

When people are fully informed about situations, circumstances, elections, etc., they are equipped to make good decisions, and most good decisions are made out of a sense of empowerment, not fear. I’ve never forgotten the words of Rush Limbaugh, during one of the first times I’d ever heard his radio show. I was still a liberal all those years ago. I knew I hated Rush Limbaugh. I knew he was a bigot. I knew he was ALL THE PHOBES. I knew he was irredeemable. I knew all that about him, but I didn’t even know the sound of his voice because I’d never once taken the time to listen to him personally. The media told me, and they wouldn’t lie.

But one day, I borrowed my in-laws’ car while mine was in the shop. I didn’t want to mess with their radio stations so I left it on the talk radio station they had programmed as I ran around Chicago and Gary doing my errands. It was a long morning, but there was an interesting host on the radio and I found him fascinating. I was in and out of the car, so I never heard him identify himself. I just knew it was a talk radio station and this guy was making sense. At one point, the host set up a commercial break – an “obscene profit time out.”

“This is Rush Limbaugh and you’re listening to the EIB Network.”

WHAT???? I was listening to *choke, gasp, cough* RUSH LIMBAUGH??? And I liked it? 

I nearly drove off the road in shock. That was the beginning of my journey toward conservatism, but that’s not the story I mean to tell. During that particular program, Limbaugh talked about politics and the necessity for the media to get stories right, because they are supposed to be offering information so that Americans can make informed decisions about any number of issues. Instead, the “drive-by media,” as he so lovingly described them, was sowing a lot of distrust and lies which led to a lot of fear. Then he said this (and I’m paraphrasing nearly 20 years later, but I think I remember it pretty accurately):

“Whether it’s in voting, or in your own personal life, never make a decision out of fear. Decisions made out of fear are almost always bad decisions.”

It’s probably not the most unique piece of advice, but it was unique to me at the time, and it’s something I’ve thought about ever since.

How many times have you complained about the frustrating “low-info voters” in your region who keep electing corrupt, terrible, very bad politicians? I live in California, so that’s almost a daily complaint in many quarters. If we do a little emotional math, Limbaugh-style, we can see that many of these voters in blue areas are making their electoral decisions based on fear – fear of those awful conservatives, fears of racism, fears of whomever the next Literally Hitler™ might be, fears of a Republican White House, fears of another world war, etc., etc. Their voting habits are borne of their anxieties, and it shows.

Why are they so fearful? This is practically a rhetorical question for any RedState reader, but I’ll answer it anyway, because that’s my job.

It’s the fault of the mainstream media, or the legacy media, or the left-wing media…pick your favorite label. You know exactly who I mean. Occasionally, for work, I’ll put on CNN or MSNBC for the day to keep an eye on their reporting and get a better idea of how the left is thinking on a given issue. Yes, it’s torture. I do it for you, America. I leave every single one of those binge-sessions feeling bitter and depressed. If you spend even just two hours watching CNN, it’s not hard to understand why progressives are so angry and nasty much of the time. If all I watched was CNN, I’d be scared sh**less all the time too. It’s nothing but doom, gloom and ads for medications, which also come with their own doom and gloom in that fine print.

It’s misery, 24/7.

The mainstream media has made fear a commodity, and it is selling like gangbusters. They know they’re selling division and sowing hatred. They know they’re giving half-truths and sometimes just outright lying. They know they are activists pretending to be journalists. That’s the plan and they have no shame about it.

If information is king, then Big Tech and their mainstream media allies are the court jesters, making a mockery of what is good and true about our great nation.

The fear they’ve sown in the average left-wing voter has led to a terrifying new era of Big Tech censorship, violence against pro-life organizations, and discrimination based on political affiliation. The fallout has been brutal and there’s no indication of when it will end. Conservative media outlets like RedState have been struggling to deal with the censorship in particular. We do not want to follow the rules of the progressive lunatics who currently run social media when it comes to our reporting and commentaries. The reasons should be quite obvious by now. However, when your revenue depends on ads controlled by Google, and clicks shared by Facebook, and retweets on Twitter, it is nearly impossible not to be snagged in the censorship net. We have two choices – cave to their demands or close up shop and move on.

But wait! There’s a third option we can take, and it is one we are taking here at RedState. We can free ourselves from the dependency on Big Tech to fund our reporting. We enter a direct agreement with consumers, cutting out the advertising middleman…he hates us, anyway. We can support our audience’s growing demands for content that gets right to the point without having to massage language just to pass the Facebook police.

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