Didn’t they go bankrupt and shut down most operations years back? Oh wow not even that long. May 15th 2023 they filed for chapter 11. Seems they got a right wing sugar daddy. No worries, that’s never impacted journalism where that has happened. If you don’t count every time it’s happened.

Well yes given that we are largely talking about mainstream media. Mainstream implies there are other smaller estuaries that the media feeds into. Does that matter really? I’d argue not.

From its Inception. Media has been a valuable and coveted tool of capitalists and fascists. One only has to look to 1920s and 1930s Germany to see what that can bring about. Yes, subversive content definitely does make it through from time to time. And those in the know chuckle a little bit. While most people have no idea it was even there. Like that several minutes segments Bo Burnham sang with a sock puppet in his last Netflix special. About all anyone remembers of it is that it wasn’t the funny they wanted. Completely missing the message. Never seeing or hearing the message about the growing fascism and media’s role in it. Wait? Bo Burnham, a silly songwriting YouTuber prescient? Yeah I was kind of surprised too. Netflix absolutely let it slip through. Though at the time I think they still haved way more good will behind them. Probably not feeling too implicated or threatened.

Yes there can absolutely be good media. Unfortunately the media at Large is largely capitalistic parasitism. Even more unfortunately is that’s what most people are only exposed to. Where are the poet laureates of our day? Where are the people writing catchy protest anthems. (I listen to them. Most people don’t and don’t care to ) Where is this generation is Woody Guthrie or Arlo Guthrie? I bet you one exist somewhere. No one’s ever heard of them. And that’s on purpose.

It’s all bread and circuses these days. Who cares if there’s a fascist in office. The McRib is back and that one low effort reality TV show. That every goober in America is addicted to for some reason is starting a new season.

Believe me I know enough about being out of the mainstream. I was goth when goth was goth. I listen to postpunk before it became alternative. I listened to electronic music before Skrillex was born or whoever this David Guetta guy that’s really popular for some reason graduated Primary School. I have not listened to radio or pop music and nearly 15 years I have no clue at all about who’s popular right now. I can introduce you to so many obscure and awesome artists. No one cares. It isn’t what everyone else they know is listening to or watching unfortunately.

Wow starting off contradicting yourself. It’s an interesting argument Style. Not sure how it’s going to work though.

All right so I’m not going to defend Merrick garland. I wish that he had done better too. Unfortunately he is kind of what you want. Someone who will try to stay out of the way and seem impartial at least. We’re going to see first hand what having a blindly ideological and engaged Department of Justice will look like and why it’s a bad thing very soon.

That said Merrick Garland did not appoint the judge that sabotaged the case. Merrick Garland and the Democrats did not appoint the Supreme Court Justices who sabotaged the case. And it’s neither the executive branch or a political party’s place to act as a balance or check to the whole f****** judicial branch of government. Even with that whole checks and balances crap is b*******. It was the congress’s job. The Congress which Democrats never solidly controlled in any meaningful sense unfortunately. Especially due to Senators Manchin and the sinema.

There are plenty of actual things to blame Democrats for. That they didn’t put on the sort of performative play that we would have liked to have seen is way at the bottom of the list.

I suggest you read up on Walter Mondale. Who as a lawyer is in some small part that we are all entitled to an attorney. ENTITLED! Or Michael Dukakis who posthumously exonerated two Italian anarchist immigrants. Wrongfully convicted of murder and executed in 1927. Yeah they’re no Che Guevara, and that’s a good thing. But the American population soundly rejected both.

It wasn’t till 1993 that Democrats found success again. With the leadership of a corporatist self named 3rd way Democrat.

Now we can probably agree that the lesson Democrats learned from that was bad. But it was also valid. They’ve seen repeated success with it since. This whole claim that if only Democrats would embrace the left, that they would start winning again. Is utter bullshit however. Is it what this country needs? Absofuckinglutely! But this is a country that now almost a Century after the Red Scare is only just timidly starting to embrace actual left-leading politics again.

Even then it’s generally only the most online of the most online. Your average person on the street couldn’t tell you the difference between a Democrat and Democratic Socialist and a social democrat. Let alone what an actual libertarian is or what anarchists stand for. And are still put off by such terms. Not to mention that no actual ideologically left cleaning group holds any significant presence in any governing body town city state or at Federal level. How the hell would we be of any help to an actual governing party? We’re too busy fighting amongst ourselves to even go for the soft seats.

The Democratic party could not even prosecute a guy who tried to murder Congress. So the thinking goes - Why the fuck would someone vote for them when they do fuck all?

It was never the Democrats job to do that. It was congress’s. Democrats did try. And they absolutely could have done better in many areas. I’m not defending them on that. But we need to also recognize that a large portion of Congress was flattered and extremely impressed that Trump was able to sic so many people on them. That they had no choice but to eagerly and gladly defend him while sucking up for him. Conservatives love an authoritarian. And without a few conservatives. Democrats were and never did accomplish much of anything.

Somehow behind the bastards is never fun but always enjoyable. Well at least if you enjoy learning. It can still be depressing but enjoyable. And Robert addresses everything with the right type of black/ sardonic humor to make it more palatable. I have not seen / watched that episode? I think they’re doing full video now as well. At least I remember seeing him do some with Cody Johnston and a few others Katie too. But behind the bastards is always good.

Well, by “broken” I mean “Not being used in a manner befitting humankind”. That is to say, it’s been misused.

Objectively it has always been used to its owner’s benefit whenever they desire. That is how the media has always functioned. And how it currently is functioning. They’re simply was more diversity of ownership at one point which made it harder to notice monolithic opinion shaping. Ideologically I’m 100% agree with you that is how the media should be used. But being in touch with reality I can say 100% the media has never been used that way. The only media but even remotely comes close to operating that way would be community or straight up publicly funded not for profit media.

Relevant counterpoints to current events . . . I guess we could use some form of successfully beneficial online community and compare it to greatawakening.win or whatever the Qanuts are posting to these days.

While that is absolutely something we should be looking into. It in no way disproves any of the historical examples of sensationalist capitalist/ownership bias Etc throughout the media historically. Property serves its owner. Always has always will. Therefore not a Counterpoint.

Nowhere did I deny that she did. I simply stated that amount of money is a drop in the bucket when it comes to politics. Especially gathered once every 4 years. $1 billion every 4 years even if it’s spent perfectly would still be ineffective compared to the multiple billions of dollars spent per year collectively pushing conservative propaganda.

And yes I know but but but Obama. Things have changed drastically since 2008. The propaganda has concealed and consolidated throughout our entire mass media to an extent unimaginable to someone in 2008.

And while it is bad for Democrats to mismanage funds. Bad democrat. Bad democrat. It’s kind of missing the forest for the trees in this instance. And helping the opposition more. Keeping ourselves divided. But there are a lot of people on money more focused on destroying things than building things so that’s not unusual.

There’s plenty social action we’ve only begun to use. Exclusion, ostracization, and especially ridicule to it’s fullest extent. People in the last 8 years have started cutting out conservative family members. We need to go further. Are you on twitter? Then you should be ridiculed and harassed about it till you leave. Facebook? Same thing. Do you watch cable news, or any outlet that has these people. Especially if they don’t have the journalistic integrity to push back. Who the hell is dumb enough to watch that shit. Not anyone we would willingly associate with. Though that’s only part of the equation.

We also need to promote and work hard to support actual non profit driven journalism. Building up viable alternatives. Nationwide and in our communities. There are people out there who need a bigger audience. If you’re familiar with YouTube coffeezilla for instance.

Our complacency has been our downfall. This time a French Revolution style action will not work. They won’t all be located conveniently nearby to go after. They will be all over the world many of them hard to reach. In the end even France has still rotted from the inside regardless. And I shouldn’t even have to mention the Follies of Vladimir Lenin. Whose ideology has failed everywhere it’s been attempted.

And the biggest hardest thing of them all. We need to be able to reach out to many of the disaffected people brainwashed by wealthy right Wingers. They would be recruits to turn against the people who currently own them. But that’s the hardest thing. Reaching so many of these people seems impossible.

They simply don’t have the funding to do the same operations at scale. Which is the whole point. Recently it was found out that Russians were funding Tim Fool and other right wing influencers to the tune of nearly $100,000 a week to put out a barely edited propaganda video once a week. Every two weeks he made as much money as recognizable notably left leaning media members like Sam Cedar earn in a year.

People keep posting about how Democrats keep breaking fundraising records. They only break them once every 4 years generally. And those are only the records we’re aware of.

Between all the dark money behind groups like Fox News, OANN, daily wire, The Blaze, and millions of other smaller propaganda Outlets. None of whom turn a profit on their own or make money. They are funded through wealthy Investments because they know the propaganda pays dividends.

Democrats haven’t had funding like that since before Reagan broke the unions. Which is specifically why Reagan broke the unions. And a lot of our problems can be traced back to the loss of Union power and Union fundraising.

You want to know why Democrats don’t pay a lot of attention to the unions anymore. This is why. The unions and people in general cannot even begin to compete with the amount of money sloshing around out there for conservatives. And that’s why Democrats have been out there so busy chasing it. Until we get rid of money in politics. Or actually find a way for regular people to begin to push back in similar ways there won’t be a change.

It absolutely is. They may be limited on what they can check. But critical thinking skills which is the main thing I’m advocating for could easily eliminate a lot of the junk. Which is more than anything what I’m advocating for. Critical thinking skills get people thinking about sources and verification and not just accepting what they’re told.

They do it every 4 years only. Republicans break unofficial funding records daily. Wealthy capitalist financiers pump untold sums of money into media outlets to provide campaign messaging constantly. 24/7/365 every year. Dwarfing every single record Democrats have broken summed together. Just of the tip of the iceberg we know. Tim pool was being paid by your buddies the Russians / Putin in the realm of millions of dollars. For making one to two minimally edited propaganda videos per week. Every 2 weeks he would double what someone like Sam Cedar earns in a year. It’s why there’s such a disparity in messaging Democrats don’t have those kind of resources or accessibilities.

You say that as if anyone ever had a chance of stopping a banger like this

At your age and where you’re from. It’s certainly not a sin to not know. That’s reserved for all the people from here who are my age or older and do not know or care. And I’m sure I would be just as ignorant about your local politics myself. That said Reagan is absolutely worse for sure. A lot of people would hate to admit it. But Trump could be a good president if you were surrounded with right people. Unfortunately a bad person like him looking for acceptance and affirmation only surrounds himself with the worst people possible. People like Reagan

He was worse than trump. By, every, single, measure. Trump just seems worse due to the collective damage of 40+ years of sabotage. We could play the game trump or Reagan and you’d be surprised how often the answer is yes.

Reagan was a true believer. Who sold out his Union. A venomous racist and homophobe. That would even make Fred and Donald trump pale a bit by comparison. And that’s saying something. Trump is a self centered waffling, empty vessel who cannot hold an idea let alone an ideal for more than a moment.

Then you should be able to provide relevant counter points to current events and the constant creep of sensationalist yellow journalism. Otherwise you’re just disagreeing to disagree.

When it comes to mass media it’s actually been this way far longer. The 50 years statement was in relation to just postwar propaganda output ala the red scare. It existed and was popular before that too. But I look forward to you actually posing something to actually disprove it other than “nuh uh”.

No not specifically. Again many of these people deny community with those they disagree with because of ideology. Though as someone pragmatically anarcho communist I do agree it is the better method. Working in communities.

The problem is how does one effectively address attacks facilitated through government? Is education reeducation? We’re not talking about instilling any sort of ideology. I despise ideology generally. Vanguard parties specifically. We are talking about basic critical thinking skills. Checking and verifying sources. Not just blindly believing what others tell you.

Third party candidates are often part of the misinformation machine. Used as an attack Vector as well. The problem is Democrats cannot address everything. Oligarchs fund conservative media more than most people realize. So many outlets exist just to push a narrative. Not to make a profit. Tim Pool and several other right-wing demagogues were recently exposed for getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars effectively a week to put out one or two low effort barely edited videos of propaganda. They made more in a couple weeks than someone like Sam Cedar for instance makes in a year. And they are just the ones we know about. Democrats simply cannot compete with or push back against all of it with the minuscule funding they do get.

Solidarity is great. And I I’m all for it. But how do you have solidarity with a group of people that cannot even agree on what constitutes reality. How do you address the material conditions of people who reject addressing the material conditions if it also helps someone who isn’t them.

The answer is you cannot. Not until critical thinking skills Etc are addressed. As long as people are blindly ideological of any stripe. There can’t be solidarity

How would you fix something that isn’t broken? This is what for-profit capitalist media does and has always done. Manufacturer consent for capitalism and its desires. Regulation in the past made it mildly less obvious? I mean they still breathlessly covered and promoted the Red Scare a half a century ago.

Not to mention that state and nonprofit media still have issues. How would one fix any of them? The only way to fix the media is to fix the voters. Actually teach critical thinking stills and encourage them. Not gullibly devouring anything fed to you unquestioningly.

You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make them drink. All the information to debunk every claim ever made by Trump is out there. All anyone has to do is look. But most people cannot be bothered. They will just go with whatever hearsay they see on Facebook.

On that note I recently had to deal with my sister getting a bit frothy. Raging about how the Harris administration had spent so much more money than the Trump administration had on some meaningless thing. I had to insert myself and point out if there had never been a Harris administration. And that not even the Biden Administration had done what she was talking about.