a tender critique of grassroots media
About fifteen years ago I was blindsided by a new media phenomenon the likes of which would set my young self on a course of discovery I consider both empowering and harrowing.
Outlets such as globalresearch, zerohedge, bibliotecapleyades, therealnewsnetwork, humansarefree, wakingtimes, activistpost, collectiveevolution, and a number of other random ones that I can't at the moment recall helped to shed light on fringe issues that, for me, served to broaden my understanding of the world while testing my gullibility.
For the first time I came to see the significance of investigative journalism, and ultimately, the prolific schism that exists between uncensored independent reporting and the corporate media industrial complex overseen by the state.
Groups of hardworking thinkers, researchers, and reporters came out of the gate strong, many of whom are dissenters and nonconformists themselves, many of whom have been going strong for well over a decade now without a tenth of the financial support received by the corporate press conglomerates of the world.
All things considered, the new media landscape is certainly not immune to criticism—mainstream media has crucified it for years, characterizing its reporting as nothing more than conspiracy theory, misinformation, falsehoods, and other hegemonic watchwords.
To thinking individuals it should be clear by now that the barons of the corporate press have a vested interest in maintaining its monopoly on public perception, done through a tightly-controlled, uniform press establishment. It follows that any challenge to the carefully staged status quo of mass media would be subject to tense ridicule, as has been case with so many excellent journalists, outlier reporting agencies, and dissenters.
That concludes my tender intro.
If I see one more op-ed about the fucking World Economic Forum I swear to gawd I'm going to donate all my dogecoin to the Council on Foreign Relations!
For a fair amount of time now I have been a reader of an assortment of apolitical indy media.
I try to avoid sectarian reporting, notably the political theatre of statism and its trappings. It's trivial to me, so I steer clear. But only within the last five years have I come to notice a disappointing trend in the reporting and commentary of apolitical indy media: It's becoming an echo chamber.
Operation Pandemic showed us how much traffic alternative content creators could drive through their websites, resulting in a wealth of clickbait, as well as a wealth of high-quality investigative journalism too (a part I loved).
That said, I suppose I'm just tired of reading about corruption. And I'm tired of having my attention throttled by parties that stand to gain from my attention.
So I suppose the problem is me, not grassroots media.
I don't want to read about the struggle in Rojava, or the next UFO “leak,” Ukraine or Syria or Russia, new pollution, more debt, economic freefall, scientism, culture wars, privacy violations, germaphobia, and so on, ad nauseum. I know. I get it.
But tbh, I don't think I need more of this knowledge right now in my life. What I need is wisdom.
Wisdom is the intercourse of information and understanding.
Wisdom is knowledge applied.
It is not about the endless consumption of media, no matter how vanguard it appears to be. What are you going to do with it anyway, with this habitual indulgence to stay up to speed? What's yer motivation to consume?
I don't give a fuck about what the plutocrats of the world are doing—I already know what they're doing and it bores me. It bores me because it is losing relevance in my life. It's losing relevance to me because I am trying to create a parallel structure, not enable the dying beast before us. Isn't life about going out there and addressing your concerns in real-time?
Taking chances?
Adapting to challenges?
Disrupting patterns of thought and behaviour?
Building community?
Do it now, you fucking boob!