It is sad to see the state of our country as it is today so divided by our views on everything from political persuasion to racial issues to even feverish arguments about the weather.
Even as our nation should have been celebrating that more Americans were working to support their families and businesses that were back from the brink of death and savings accounts were growing, we now find ourselves back in a place of social demise.
We can no longer talk to each other because we rely on ‘communicating’ through social media. Humans communicate most effectively face-to-face, and not through emojis and icons.
Though we speak (or at least we did 2 weeks ago) of the Coronavirus, the real virus that is killing Americans is the media.
We know the media is a medium of propaganda single-handedly responsible for brainwashing us into believing what they see fit; forcing us into being addicted to the drug they are selling – and selling for big dollars.
It doesn’t matter which media outlet you choose, they are all guilty of it, and you are affected no matter how small the window of exposure is. Just like a virus. It is a business and it is how they survive. The more divided we are, the more enraged we become, the more we watch like the zombies we’ve become, the more profitable they are.
Before 24-hour media, we had to seek out information. Yes, the information was more limited, but I’m not sure that was such a bad thing for our psyches.
We judged politicians by the outcomes of legislation passed, not by the stories and opinions we listen to incessantly on television. We judged people by our personal experience of them – not by the way the media portrays them.
We talk about how divided our country has become. Liberals blame Trump. Conservatives blame Obama. No one is blaming the real source – the media. The constant streaming of negative narratives supporting their positions has perpetuated a division for the past two decades.
Let’s take a real look back as to when we started talking about a divided country.
According to Wikipedia: Although all-news radio operated for decades earlier, the 24-hour news cycle arrived with the advent of cable television channels dedicated to news[1] and brought about a much faster pace of news production with an increased demand for stories that could be presented as continual news with constant updating. The O.J. Simpson murder case in 1994 and 1995 created the 24-hour news cycle and ushered in the era of cable news.
The advent of cable news brought with it the need for a great profit and the ability to stream 24/7. Previously, news as reported as ‘facts’, events that happened that week or that day. They had roughly 30-60 minutes to report everything happening in that timeframe. Fast forward to cable news channels with full days to fill, they had to add their rhetoric to fill the space and to create addicts that we’ve become. The more viewers = the more money they made. Humans love drama, we become bored without it. It is addictive to the brain. It leaves us wanting and needing more to keep us entertained. Formerly, we used to read books and play games to be entertained. We had to get our information by researching it. Going to libraries and searching microfiche reels to find it. It was succinct and fact-based.
Now, we get fed whatever it is they want to feed us. Our minds have become puppets to the drones we see on television. Notice how you start your day. You wake up, the day looks much like yesterday until… until you turn on your drug of choice. You start watching and your mind begins to become puppeteered by whomever you chose to be its puppeteer. You start to feel angry and frustrated by the ‘news STORIES’ of the day. Stories told to keep you addicted to their drug. The longer you watch, the more they win. The more dramatic a story they tell (think back to the soap operas that used to dominate television channels before 24-hour news).
The news has replaced soap operas – let that one sink in! It’s the ultimate cross between soap opera and reality tv.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be anyone’s puppet. I’ll admit, it’s hard. Do I want to be informed? Definitely, but I don’t want to be bombarded. When I turned off the constant news coverage – a more peaceful place emerged. The world as a whole was much better, a nicer place to be. My friends were no longer enemies. The war ended between this opinion and the other, and it became a conversation about understanding how it is we came to form these opinions.
While the media is brainwashing us into believing that the president or the presidential candidate is the criminal to blame for dividing our country – think again. They turn the blame away from themselves because they have the microphone. They are the guilty ones. Guilty of dividing our country. Guilty of reversing progress made between races or religions. Guilty of destroying family relationships. Guilty of disintegrating our society.
Start to notice how much of the media is filled with bad stories, divisive stories. I’ve switched to the term ‘stories’ because it is no longer ‘news’. They are storytellers acting as if they are news providers. Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley were newscasters. The trolls today are storytellers coloring events with how they want the story to be portrayed. They are nothing but entertainment shows backed by big dollars who have you in their clasps and infect you constantly.
The angrier you are, the more you watch. The more you watch, the more they win. Stop blaming an entire group of people (liberals, conservatives, Trump supporters, white people, black people, cops, etc). Start putting the blame where it belongs – the biggest drug dealers in America – the media. Does this mean we should turn a blind eye to what destroys our country? No. I am simply saying that we know how to discern between wrong and right, but the media’s portrayal is divisive. We are made to feel angrier towards each other and not towards the wrongful incident itself.
Symptoms of the Media Virus (if you have any one of these symptoms, you might be infected)
- You have become viscerally angry over issues that don’t directly affect you.
- You have engaged in ‘lively’ debates with friends and family over social media and may have even lost or ‘unfriended’ people as a result.
- You have posted or reposted more than 5 memes to ‘prove a point’.
- You have experienced discord in your marriage as a result of debating the hot topics of the day.
If any of these apply to you, your prescription is to turn off the media and eliminate social media for 30 days and notice how peaceful the world becomes.
I am disgusted about what we have allowed the media to get away with! The majority of people in this world are good people and you would NEVER know it by watching the media.
Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!
Please join me in the Turn It Off movement by outing the media for what it is… I’m not interested in posts that continually divide our country. I am interested in Americans who want to ban together to stand up for a better society. A better society starts with eliminating the real drug dealers of our country – the news media.
Now, excuse me as I go shower off my disgust.
Written by: Lauren Doyle, Getting Results Inc
Permission Granted to repost
