Sit down. I have something to tell you. And it's going to make you sad.
But it's also an opportunity you must take. And immediately.
It's this: People you love and respect are actually relying on legacy media brands for news and information.
Entirely.
Here's what to do.
But it's also an opportunity you must take. And immediately.
It's this: People you love and respect are actually relying on legacy media brands for news and information.
Entirely.
Here's what to do.
Do not engage in a frontal attack. Obviously, do not insult their intelligence - many of these people are in fact highly intelligent and accomplished.
They just literally do not know better. They are normal, trusting people. Americans like you and me.
Remember: It's not as if NYTimes, Washington Post, NBC News and CNN announced, "We aren't doing what we did when you grew any more. We don't corroborate reporting, we don't seek both sides of a story, we don't print corrections. We work for one side now."
Didn't happen.
So you have to gently, respectfully ask, regarding a given news item, what they think about "X" or "Y" fact or report or video which goes against the Narrative. Just very respectfully.
They will, of course, be unaware of this fact, because they rely on legacy media brands.
If they are at all respectful toward your thinking or input, offer to send them what you have in mind.
It can't be something from BreitbartNews or JamesOKeefeIII or any "Alternative News" source. You're trying to break very, very entrenched habits here.
Remember, you're not proving anything substantive with a link like this. You're making them aware that there's something that really happened that is remarkable, newsworthy, interesting - and that is not reported, or is buried, in the "newspaper of record," the NYTimes, etc.
Here's another example of a story that was reported, but - believe it or not - smothered outside the extended circles of people reading these words right now:
Again, you're thinking, pshaw, everyone knows this, but no.
YOUR NICE NORMAL FRIENDS WHO DEPEND ON GRAMPA'S "JOURNALISM" BRANDS DO NOT KNOW THIS.
Indeed, if they'd heard about it all, they only heard the DNC version, to wit:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/23/politics/cuomo-new-york-nursing-homes-coronavirus-patients/index.html
That's ok. You still need to gently move them a degree or two away from the direction they're in now.
It's going to take a long time, but you need to keep a store of links to news reporting, video and other information from sources they already trust bookmarked for this.
It's going to take a long time, but you need to keep a store of links to news reporting, video and other information from sources they already trust bookmarked for this.
This is really important to do, because every day you are moving among people who are completely digesting a version of the facts affecting our world, our society and our politics that is no more or less than propaganda.
They really can't even imagine this.
Most people in your office, for example, believe - in June of 2020 - that Trump actually "colluded" with Russia; that Mueller proved this; that newspapers got well-deserved Pulitzer prizes for helping reveal this; AND THAT HE WAS IMPEACHED FOR THIS!!
They don't really know exactly what the difference is between Ukraine and Russia, because when they grew up (as when I grew up), Ukraine was part of Russia.
They just know that the Democrats, who they know care about people, said this over and over, and also the papers did.
They just know that the Democrats, who they know care about people, said this over and over, and also the papers did.
And they understand that the only reason Trump was not removed from office "after Mueller impeached him for Russia" was partisanship on the part of Republicans in the Senate, except for that hero Romney.
They have no idea what a travesty of a proceeding the impeachment was.
I am trying to get across nothing more than a fresh appreciation for the utter disconnection between the mental landscape of your perfectly fine friends and neighbors and people who actually follow current events.
They have been lied to repeatedly by institutions they trust.
If you don't do this, the loss will not only be theirs, and their votes and political support in coming elections.
The Left is engaged in a wholesale effort to rend this country apart in order to avoid the reelection of Donald Trump this year. Nothing is off the table.
Included in "nothing" (in fact, way up on the list) is separating people who, like you, understand what has happened and what is happening, from your friends, families and co-workers.
You are absolutely being targeted for this purpose. The goal is to make you a pariah.
If they can get you fired or get your clients or advertisers or employees or vendors to stop doing business with you by threatening their livelihoods or safety on the premise that you are a "racist" or a "fascist" or whatever next week's "ist" is, it will happen. It will.
You must begin now, therefore, to open up a little bit, a tiny little bit, of daylight between the completely comprised sources of disinformation that are making this possible and the hearts and minds of your friends who have not yet been turned against you.
I said this would make you sad. It should. It's sad.
And these nice, trusting friends of yours are stuck in the middle. It's going to be much easier for them to just go with the flow, you know.
But look. Your company is already fearfully giving money to awful causes.
You are already being trained in groupthink and grouptalk. Your social media is already being vetted. If you are anonymous and have any influence, someone is working on unmasking you and ruining your life.
Your friends "normalizing" the awfulness of you is unacceptable.
And now it's quite official: Government, commerce, the professions, the media (of course) are absolutely worthless on this.
The police will abandon you to the mob. This is something your friends don't know, by the way. They should. Show them. It's very scary to nice people.
Government will not protect your rights to think and say what you believe.
Intellectuals will argue that it shouldn't.
Let's not get into the courts. They are not going to protect you or your friends, we all know that. At all.
Chances are the national or international umbrella for your religious denomination is not going to help, to put it mildly. It has probably already become a dedicated part of the side trying to eliminate what you thought were actually the tenets of your religion.
Nope.
I don't want to get beyond my original purpose: to encourage you to gently, respectfully and with a maximum of discretion expose the nice, normal people who still talk to you to suppressed facts and information, sourced from outlets they recognize to the extent possible, today.
It's something everyone can do, and it may not be too late to plant in them a seed of doubt about the Narrative - a reminder that they, too, once thought of themselves as people who thought for themselves...
That you're okay, just like them, and interested in the truth.
I can't say it's not too late, but it's worth the effort to try. Thinking about what we're facing, and the utter failure of every institution that was supposed to act as a buffer against instability and violence, I don't know what else most of us can do.
Start tonight.
Maybe Prager University could help us develop a course in how to do this