Media madness drove the panic over the coronavirus. It’s a factor in the damage to much of the global economy. And all the health and social problems that are now surfacing. Shutting healthy people up is not natural. We need to move and to be part of a community. Technology helps but cannot replace natural interaction.
Now, Increasing numbers of people are realizing that the virus is not going to cause the huge number of deaths that was the excuse for the shutdown. Life is starting to return to normal. Restrictions are being lifted in some places, there is more activity. The momentum to get back to reality will soon be unstoppable.
For the mainstream media, the panic and doomsday predictions over the coronavirus are running out of steam.
A new panic was required.
The death of George Floyd, allegedly as a result of excessive force by a police officer while being arrested provided the opportunity for the next chapter of media madness.
In my previous post, I wrote about now being a good time to go on a social media diet. I am still on that diet but had to comment on the media madness sweeping much of the world.
Recently, I spoke to someone (a Canadian) with enough time on his hands to spend many hours a day watching and listening to mainstream media and getting an overdose of media madness.
Some of his comments:
- America is burning
- America is out of control
- President Trump is finished – will be out of office in weeks
- America as one country is doomed – it has to break up
- How can Americans tolerate such brutal police forces
There was much more, had he not mentioned President Trump by name, I would have thought he was giving me a review of a Civil War movie.
That is how much power the media have over huge numbers of North Americans and others who are too conditioned, too trusting or too disinterested to look for balanced reports of events or to consider things from a different perspective.
Media Madness is the 21st Century Propaganda Weapon
As we have seen with the panic over the coronavirus, frighten enough people into a state of panic and you can get them to comply with the harshest restrictions on their freedom. Restrictions that would have been unimaginable a few months before.
My restricted but balanced media diet includes alternate sources. I saw a reporter from a major network being exposed for claiming a protest was peaceful while a car was burning behind him. Another dodging a bottle deliberately thrown at him.
I also watched with sadness – but not on mainstream media – footage of black store owners standing in front of their trashed and looted stores. People of all races helping each other protect their businesses and homes.
By doing some digging, it appears that the percentage of people killed in police shootings who are black at 13.6% is almost identical to the 14% of the American population who are black.
Hypocrisy
During the last weekend in May, Chicago experienced its highest number of murders in 60 years with 18 people killed – not by police – 24 dead and 80 shot over the 3 day weekend. No protests, hardly a mention in mainstream media. But calls for police forces to be disbanded. Are people living in a fantasy world?
Here in Canada, our prime minister breaks his own shutdown rules to join a protest over the death of George Floyd while the killing of a Canadian Indigenous woman by a police officer is virtually ignored.
Following people from all across the political spectrum on social media shows how much support President Trump does have. How millions of Americans are not the evil racists the media makes them out to be. How most Americans do not subsribe to the liberal claim that racism in America is systemic.
Most weeks I talk to Americans on the phone or via Zoom. it’s clear to me that America is not burning. The country is not about to break up, not about to lose its place as leader of the free world.
It’s also clear to me that those with vested interests who are promoting the idea that lives of one race matter more than those of others are the real racists.
The old saying about the tail wagging the dog has never been more appropriate.
It’s a strange world.
What do you think? Leave a comment.
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