Peter Kropotkin wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 4:23 amBy your own account, we are unable to trust the media. Why should we trust the media, which by your own account, is false and corrupt.
Media is media is media. Fun fact: 6 corporations own 95% of all the media in America. How can we trust any media if this is true?
Where are you going to draw the line? Great, don't trust the media. Then you can't trust any of them. Now what?
Actually we have to start simply from what has been asserted and what you are confirming: that the MSM have been corrupted. How? Why? When? And what does this mean? An assertion is merely that until we gather more evidence. For the average person, busy with the living of life and responsibilities related to that, I say that it is nearly impossible to *get to the real truth*. In that situation that person is dependent on entities (corporate newsrooms) and people who work for them, and these put together *stories* which have a developed editorial line.
One other thing I'd say: I would suggest starting also with an examination of the news consumer -- in this case with you! I know you are as suspicious of me (and what you refer to as Conservatism) as I am of you, but I would say that we both need to be put under a microscope and to examine the structure of our intellects, our background in education, but also our political and social orientations. Because if, and this is just an example, if you or I do not have a capacity to reason soundly, examine evidence, and to have a platform of rationality (there may be a whole group of needed qualities) then we ourselves will be
defective interpreters of the information presented to us.
So we have two factors: 1) the individual who receives information and 2) entities that form the information for his "consumption*.
Additionally, and we should all be aware of this, we are in the midst of civil conflicts that are like battles and low-scale wars. And we should know that in war "the truth" (truthful perspectives) are sacrificed to the need to have poignant, sharpened idea- and perspective-weapons.
There is another element here, an important one: We must be aware that in times of social and political upheaval -- cultural war -- that there are entities and powers whose singular and true interest is in getting things to settle down so that *business-as-usual* can resume. But this also implies, on a larger world scale, that there are elites (as they are called) who have everything to gain from a globalized system that functions in a proper, productive and business-like way. So I would say one has to be aware of the collusion between a nation's intelligence apparatus and these business enterprises.
Within that context, and given the social crises in the United States, one could and perhaps one should expect that on a larger scale that the events of today are being *directed* to at least some degree. Now, to what degree we cannot know with certainty. But we do have stories -- evidence in fact -- of the employment of the FBI in processes of going after various people and groups. But what role then does the FBI have? And what role has it had in US politics? That is a question that requires an answer.
I realize this is a loose sketch of different aspects that need to be put out there on the table. Note that there was a time when someone -- like you for example -- would have been interested and capable of seeing all the pieces of the larger puzzle. It was the traditional Left that did the exposés on Federal police abuses (the FBI against MLK and even its involvement in his assassination, just one example).
But now the Left-Progressives seem to stand on the side of *the State*. They seem to take up causes that were formerly held by the Right. For example their seeming support of war. Of government activity in directing or influencing events within the social sphere(s).
So now we return to the incidents around George Floyd. It is actually astoundingly complex, isn't it? A videotaped event of a cop subduing an uncooperative Black man. Taken just on the face (what we see) will immediately influence anyone looking at it toward a conclusion of police brutality. But then there is another context: a society roiled up for a whole group of reasons. Anger, frustration, a rebellious attitude toward police authority. But all of that in a context of narratives about *systemic injustice* and, let's say, the stoking of resentments. A great deal of this intended to create bad feelings about Trump.
These things have to be looked at and considered from a distance and from a non-prejudiced perspective. Who can attain that? Who sees clearly?
So we can see that the event (the video) and then the death of this man was, to be truthful, a perfect storm that became completely explosive. And the event (this is my perspective of course, having studied it) was glommed onto by people and entities with an interest in its exploitation. For what purposes? Well, that is a question that takes time and energy to answer.
Now, should I *believe* Liz Collin's reporting? I do not think the answer should
immediately be yes. But this is the problem, isn't it? How much time do I have, or you have, at your disposal to dedicate to one incident like this? Myself, I am influenced to believe there is *more to the story* than we have been led to believe.
But what about the trail and the conviction? The implication is of bad faith on the part of the judge. That requires another time-consuming look. Who has the time?
Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2024 4:33 am
That's definitely not the story I've generally heard regarding the George Floyd incident. Is it possible that the mainstream media are that far off the mark? It's almost surreal to think so. Something doesn't add up.
And when you (or we) begin to put together just why things don't *add up* we are then at a point of better understanding the immense confusions operative in our present, and the reasons why the battles are being fought to control and direct perspectives. If the question is Why are things like this? And How can I get real and true information about things -- that question leads into many others
