How To Conquer The Mainstream Media & Other Life-Saving Tips

ost reasonably intelligent people know that the mainstream media outlets are generally full of crap. Disinformation, manipulative advertising, Hollywood propaganda, so-called reality TV, unparalleled news bias, the list goes on and on. But it's just too easy and so much fun to point this out that I would be remiss if I didn't begin by illuminating this reality of modern life with a few juicy examples. To begin, let's take a look at one of my favourites, the fact that, according to this study by Fairleigh Dickinson University, FOX News viewers are actually less informed than people who watch no news at all.

Cryptocurrency vs. The HSBC

Ah, the world's banking institutions, where to begin? Perhaps as good a place as any to start would be this: the HSBC money laundering scandal whereby this giant multinational bank admitted to laundering billions of dollars for illegal drug cartels. Yes, that happened. Couple that with the horrible policy missteps before and after the crash of 2008 and you've got some woefully unethical business practices, committed by institutions that are were trusted by billions and that billions rely on. In fact, the corruption displayed by the world's largest financial institutions has been unparalleled, and  it reveals that there is in fact a two-tier legal system, one in which the banks are above the law. These institutions govern and impact our day-to-day lives more than anything else in our society, and yet they're just another indication that the systems in place don't remotely serve our interests, the 99 percent. It seems safe to assume that when our daily lives are so intertwined with the policy and decisions of these institutions that there should be not only some form of regulation (there is very little left after deregulation became the new way of doing business), but also accountability, and it has become clear that there is none. 

Snowden, The NSA and You: Part II

n Part I of this article, we discussed the moral and ethical issues surrounding our implicit acceptance of total population surveillance by the NSA and others. In Part II, we'll take a look at what actions and techniques we can all employ and what we need to understand to defend ourselves against this threat to our human rights.

The threat to our freedom of expressing ourselves without fear of our government labeling us a terrorist is growing larger every day. Despite the efforts of Snowden, Manning and others, the powers-that-be continue to spy on our every email, text message, phone call and internet search. Their budgets are mind-boggling (enough to eradicate poverty and injustice worldwide many, many times over) and their clandestine, back-room, illicit deals with the likes of Google, Apple, Facebook, Skype and a slew of others is akin to a novel about some dystopian future where things have gone terribly wrong. But there is good news: the power to take back the Internet and your communication with your colleagues and loved-ones freely and openly is within your reach. There are free tools (some developed by the NSA ironically) that can empower you to search the Internet freely, send email that cannot be read by someone other than the intended recipient and communicate your thoughts and ideas without fear of recourse from the government and its ever-growing militarized police force. The beauty of all of this is that it's very much a David & Goliath story, where we win against the massive forces of government surveillance and we effectively render their giant surveillance machine powerless with a few simple steps.

Snowden, The NSA and You: Part I

The means of defense against a foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. - James Madison

d Snowden states in the first few minutes of his meeting with Linda Poitras in the film CITIZENFOUR, that he prefers to go by Ed. I find it interesting that, for some peculiar reason we all still insist on referring to him as Edward in the cultural lexicon, and I sometimes wonder if this triviality might annoy him. If I were ever afforded the opportunity to pick this heroic man's brain, I would be tempted to ask him this question, but I probably wouldn't. A figure like this deserves our deepest gratitude and respect. For the purposes of this posting, however, I will refer to him simply as Mr. Snowden for this reason, but I digress. When Mr. Snowden decided, with a deliberate conscience, that he needed to expose the over-reach of authority that the NSA and it's affiliates and counterparts were exercising throughout the world, he did so because of his ideals and because he wanted to make the world a better place for all people (to make such personal sacrifice for the betterment of all, is this not in fact the very definition of heroic?). There is no question about his motivation to do what he did, in fact he's been quite frank about that, and (except for those that can only win their arguments through the manipulation of language and meaning) we can all understand this.

Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance. Media is of course where this form of tyranny is most obvious. - Albert Maysles