I Hate the World
Jul 20, 2017 · 7 min read

I HATE THE NEWS

by I Hate the World

Yes, I absolutely HATE the news.

No, this is not a right-wing “fake news” rant. Outright fake news does indeed exist, but the problem with news is SO much deeper, and the ways in which news manifests negatively in the minds it encounters is much broader and more insidious.

In fact, leftists have been frightening me the most lately, as they have historically been smarter when it comes to questioning the integrity of the media. They have a history at looking at any profit-seeking industry with at least a little skepticism, if not downright distrust.

Unfortunately, that absurd character known as “Trump” who everyone I’ve ever known in my life thought was a douchebag at best (up until his decision to jump into politics, which gave half of all American citizens sudden-onset amnesia), as well as belligerent ass-clowns like Alex Jones, have forced liberals to actually rush to the media’s DEFENSE.

Hey, bash Trump all you like, but don’t do it by pretending that the news is a beacon of honesty and fairness!

That said, let’s get real — real about the fundamental reasons behind the untrustworthiness of news…

The root problem with news is the root problem with many of the ills in society. Almost all news organizations are for-profit entities.

It’s IMPOSSIBLE to be a for-profit entity and not be biased and driven by the pursuit of increasing revenue.

Traditionally, news is owned by a large company, and it makes money by drawing in a large audience of readers, viewers, or listeners. To this audience, the news company charges other large companies to advertise their products and services for sale.

The moment the money starts coming in is the moment that the news is forever tainted. The news, from that point forward, must be vetted for content that pleases the advertisers. This guarantees that the news will forever be tilted towards half-truths.

But it goes much deeper than that.

Big news companies are owned by BIG companies, and advertising with them is so expensive that only other BIG companies are advertised by news media. A little brotherhood of social overlords forms.

And those companies, generally-speaking, abide by the same general narrative that benefits them. Capitalism is awesome, the United States has a purely humanitarian agenda to spread democracy and freedom throughout the world, and so on.

In reality, these big companies buy politicians, they buy policies that help increase their profits, they line up federal bailouts to hedge their high-risk gambling, they get legislation passed that stifles their competition, and they even have the political clout to influence the economic policies of OTHER countries’ governments.

These companies and the politicians work together to further each other’s agendas. Nearly ALL major news media is currently controlled by just 6, large, publicly-traded corporations.

This is some EXTREME power. And you can be sure that that ALL large news organizations are more about spreading propaganda than they are honest, high-integrity reporting. At best, they hit us with petty, emotional topics that distract us from what’s really going on.

At worst they can sway public opinion about things with TREMENDOUS FUCKING SOCIOECONOMIC IMPORTANCE.

Don’t believe me? Watch the Venezuelan media conspire against a political leader to help get him overthrown. The really scary shit starts at around 30 minutes in. Trump is right to be paranoid. This isn’t just something that happens in Venezuela. The U.S. media wrote the playbook for this kind of thing…

This isn’t conspiracy talk. This is common sense.

There are millions of incidents and occurrences every day. News organizations choose what to report, they choose how to report it, and they can’t help but be biased. As publicly-traded companies, they even have a legal obligation to do only that which furthers the company’s profitability.

They do it smoothly and subtly most of the time. Watch, listen to, or read any news with that in mind, and you’ll see right through it. It’s really obvious.

The news media also FULLY understands how to persuade the masses. The playbook on how to achieve this most effectively was written by Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays first used his methods to work with great results for the tobacco companies, and then later for many other companies and the U.S. government (for purposes of swaying public opinion on war, overthrowing the Guatemalan government, and more).

One common and simple tactic the news media mega-machine uses is repetition. With the sheer numbers of news media outlets controlled by just a handful of companies, their intentional use of repetition to sway public opinion is very obvious.

While most of the clips in the video are relatively frivolous examples (although a couple are clearly run to increase consumer spending), the fact that they have the ability to do this on occasions when something is of vital importance is horrifying.

Repetition is just one, simple tactic. There are many other more subtle and subversive psychological tools used by news media to influence public opinion. They are well-understood by those who use them, and used masterfully. It comes through in the subtle ways they portray certain topics and stories.

Average citizens have very strong and concrete opinions about a wide array of things, but they often have NO IDEA where those opinions and beliefs came from. More often than not, the seeds for the formulation of those one-sided, polarizing, narrow-minded beliefs were planted by the media.

The news is also compensated by the size and engagement of their audience.

Ever notice how right before a commercial break they’ll hype up the next story like it’s really important, and then when you watch the story it’s actually not a big deal? Or maybe you’ve seen a CRAZY headline that sounds totally shocking (if true), but the article doesn’t match it at all?

That’s deception.

And in the current age of news overload, the vast majority of news is consumed in headlines only, and the headline is the most falsified and exaggerated aspect of the news!

It’s not their fault.

We shouldn’t get mad at them. They are rewarded for this behavior with more views and ultimately more money. The system we live in reinforces that type of behavior, and we all do it. We can’t help but be influenced by money, because that’s what we all use to survive and achieve social status. But that doesn’t make it honest or trustworthy. It isn’t, and shouldn’t be treated as such.

And this is also why even relatively independent news networks that rely on donations, or are non-profits, etc., are STILL at least somewhat untrustworthy — although some are of course worse than others.

Ultimately, businesses will all be run like businesses, driven by profit in the end. Business gonna business.

Consider something that happened to me…

I’m about as pure of heart as it comes with my intentions. I have no desire to accumulate wealth, and I see the accumulation of wealth in a world where many don’t have enough for even their most basic needs as FLAGRANTLY immoral, regardless of how socially acceptable (even celebrated) it has become.

But I had a business going and it was doing well. I hired several people and paid them the exact same salary as my own. In fact, as the head of the company, I paid myself a little less. I was eager to share any and all good fortune with them.

But after a period of rapid growth, there was a sudden downturn. I got overextended, and, before long, I was in a situation where I owed more money than I had.

I was stuck. There was nothing I could do.

And so, in the interest of keeping my closest and most beloved partners and their families well-fed, I had no choice but to engage in more hype-laden and deceptive marketing out of desperation.

I literally became what I hate the most trying to help them. I was put into a moral dilemma. ME! Someone who has had an outright hatred for commercial deception for as long as I can remember.

It didn’t work out, and I eventually had to let them go without giving them their full pay. They all DESPISE me now, and feel that I cheated them, when in reality all I ever wanted to do was succeed and give them all a completely equitable share of that success.

And that, my friends, is an inconvenient… No, fuck that, it’s much more than inconvenient. It’s a TRAGIC side effect of the system in which we all participate.

And news media of all kinds is but one more extension of that, just as prone if not even MORE prone (due to its tremendous power to influence) to corruption and bias, as any other industry.

You should know that. You should understand that. Fully. Beyond doubt. That doesn’t make you some kind of “conspiracy theorist.”

And if you choose to consume news — and you should take this caution into any and all information that you consume — digest it with TREMENDOUS skepticism.

Trump-humper or not, it’s all at least partly fake, presented in a way to influence your beliefs for someone else’s benefit, or at the very least exaggerated to capture your attention. Don’t let your disdain for Trump convince you that it’s all REAL!

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I Hate the World

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