Which News Sources Should Activists Use?

Political activists, and leftists as a whole, are often confused by which media sources to read from.

This isn’t an unfounded problem, since there’s truly no media outlet without its flaws.

You have to walk a fine line of trust and distrust in what the media tells you, changing up your sources, and making the extra effort.

Let’s talk about what you can do to get a better view of the current events of the world.

Should You Use The Mainstream Media?

The mainstream media undoubtedly has many flaws, but it is the dominant source of relevant information in the country. So should you dismiss it completely or use it carefully? Well, the answer isn’t so simple.

Understanding Propaganda

If you haven’t read Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman’s brilliant Manufacturing Consent, then you should get on that right away. It will explain the roots of your distrust of the media, and why it’s legitimate.

In a nutshell, they argued that the press is owned by wealthy elites who have every reason not to want certain ideas published to the masses. The phrase “manufacturing consent” wasn’t even theirs. It belonged to Walter Lippman, one of the founders of our modern system of media.

Lippman was arguing in favor of manufacturing the public’s consent, suggesting that the idiotic and meddlesome outsiders (me and you) have no place in the political arena, because they will only act in their own interests. Instead, you must manufacture their consent in order to properly carry out policies against them without interference.

He argues that the “more capable set of men” should be running the show, and the public should be reduced to a mere spectator position.

It’s logical. In dictatorships, you can think whatever you want. You won’t say anything about it because you’ll be killed or imprisoned if you do, so the masters don’t need to control your opinions.

However, in free societies like the US, it’s crucial that you have the “right opinions” because the masters can’t stop you from doing something about it. They know that we are, collectively, the only threat to their power. It’s…