The first question people usually ask when they're trying to become media literate is "where can I get *real* unbiased information from?". The tough answer is that you can't. Curtis is right here to say that you can classify types of journalism the same way you can classify the power structures they serve.
What is left out is that journalisms real darwinian function is that is it PROPAGANDA for the regime that employs it.
It is easy for westerners to observe Chinese sate media and understand that it is propaganda for the Chinese State. It is less easy, though still obvious to most, that Russian media is likewise a propaganda medium for the Russian state.
What is harder to see (and a harder pill to swallow) is that "conservative" media is generally propaganda for DEMOCRACY. Which is why you can watch a Tucker bit hit on 5 or 6 salient points in a row, only to finish by showing how this underscores the importance of "participating in democracy" or... driving your truck to Ottawa or DC. The chum box aesthetics of these rags is not some unfortunate by-product of the lack of taste of its creators. It is a feature of all things democratic. In the words of every annoying protest chant ever... "This-is-what-democracy-looks-like!". Most people can tell that this too looks like propaganda, but they might be hard pressed to figure out what it is that is being propagandized (maybe facism!!!).
The hardest nut to crack of all though is MSM. I try to ask people who are interested in media literacy to watch types of new they know to be biased, so they can be more aware of the biases of "regular" news. If this is Propaganda, who is it propaganda for?
The answer of course, is that it is propaganda for ITSELF. Its purpose is not to report world events as they unfold, but to justify actions it has already decided to take.
Sure SpaceX is a monarchy but is Linux? Is Linus really the king here? The requirements for an OS is staggeringly vast, constantly evolving with security threats, compatibility concerns, and the whole thing relies on the good will and voluntary contributions by believers. On the other hand, the rocket ship's requirements are calculable from first principles, there's even a formula you could write down in Excel that would clearly define the requirements. And which of these problems is more like the design consideration for a 21st century society?
As for buying your car from a king, no king or kingdom actually knows how to make a car. In fact it's the tire king, who has developed synthetic rubbers, the gasket king studying sealing efficiency, it's the supply chain that's built that car. If you want a car you don't build a plant in the DPRK, you lookaround the most talented midwest farm hands tinkering in their barn. Which brings us right back to our dear old Oligarchy as the the tentative answer to modern production problem. Of course wouldn't it be nice if this society we're designing was more than just efficient and innovative economically, but actually kind of based?
Well it turns Oligarchy is the most natural form of government ever found across all societies. Think the platonic idea of an Iroquois Nation - sure it's rule by the chiefs (the few) - but each tribe believes in its own leaders, gets heard out, can retain its own culture, and has real power to pushback on the intolerable. If you're not feeling the noble savage vibe, think about the colonists: William Penn didn't need to be the king of North America for the whole thing to work, he just had to represent Quaker interests with competency and sincerity. And Jimmy Hoffa didn't need a gavel and a wig to make sure his tribe had fair rules to play by.
The problem, as I keep saying, is that we're on the Reservation: Our geriatric tribal council finds it far more profitable to sell out the health and economic capacity of the people for grants they can siphon, and special privileges they can dispense. Gray Mirror is a bit too harsh on the character of the average Indian here - he is lazy! he can't organize! he is too taken with Spirits to be granted full rights. But SpaceX does show us the potential of these understimated people. Get a state school engineer to head up propulsion, hire like a thousand Texas oil jacks to weld and solder and you have yourself an inter-planetary class spacecraft in five years. The human capital is there, for now at least. But the meth is being pushed onto the Rez. Is the plan really for the generation raised inside face masks and instructed on every deviancy known to man going to be the ones to put a unification monarchy into orbit?
All of us here have at one time loved le free market. But under collusion, this system breaks down and its merits are diminished - the rare shared agreement on economics shared by friend and foe. And just as the point of antitrust is not to nationalize the industry but to restore it to a state of honest competition, so too we must depart from our Oligarchy to arrive back at it. How do we do this?
I am having a tough time seeing preference for monarchy over pure cultural influence these days. Putin is a monarchy, but is Russian expansion good? The Russian media machine is simply gross and definitely not for us, a Putin #influencer extension.
Is the regime style second to culture and people? Would love to hear your answer to this is some form/in some paragraph of an article or something.
I enjoyed your description of The Epoch Times as a mysterious kung fu cult! At first I was suspicious of all their Chinese text online, too. Wikipedia, as of today, says The Epoch Times was founded by a practitioner of Fallen Gong (spellcheck), who have been persecuted in Communist China for decades now. I thought the Left would have badmouthed The Epoch Times worse on their Epoch Times Wikipedia page, but I like the little that I read. I pay The Epoch Times monthly fee for their great video documentaries, great video host personalities, and great video interviews.
Seems like the New York Times is more of a Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine than The Epoch Times. Orange Man bad? CCP good?
This week, Michael Malice has a great interview with Lily Tang Williams, running for Congress, who tells of great inhumanity, growing up under the CCP. Why do folks stick with CCP NYT propaganda despite the truth being suppressed and twisted?
A medium-effort comment. 1) Why are we ignoring the republic as a form of government, meaning the celebrated Ciceronian hybrid of all three forms? 2) Why can we not have the republic back? Why is monarchy the only way out of the oligarchic rot? Why is a Madisonian-federal system, of the kind we had until FDR or so, cannot be restored? One may argue that colonial America WAS an oligarchy, and that our revolution instituted a republic in its place. Why can we not do it again?
Madison didn't believe political parties would exist. Seems to me, all democratic populations will cluster into two factions. And try to annihilate each other. Madison's experiment lead to the most bloody civil war in history a generation later. And then to whatever's happening now. The experiment failed.
The history of monarchies is also filled with conflict and civil war. That's a feature of being human. There's no Kantian "eternal peace." But up to a point (including after the Civil War) the republic was functioning. The Swiss republic is still functioning. I would also argue there a clear *primitive* element to monarchues, the oriental despotism we used to make fun of.
Perhaps, but let's say it's an undesirable feature - make it clear in an updated constitution. I still don't really get the "monarcy or bust" dichotomy.
The American founders were prescient when they enshrined the right to keep and bare (2a) because peace through strength is a truism. History is the tale of power dynamics and despite current fashion, we are not exempt, end of history thinking is plainly wrong.
Curtis is persuasive, inertia is the force behind the rule of the few, power is broadly distributed and mailable, defeating oligarchy is like pushing on jello. So I think as a practical matter the many (the people) need a cudgel, a tool, a threat to stop the momentum of oligarchy, thus the right to form a “well regulate Militia”. Smart and practical.
Without the threat we are left with only our good looks and quick wit; no the pen is not sufficient, not mightier than the sword, the real world requires muscle, inertia is heavy and widely distributed so lotsa muscle is needed.
First
The first question people usually ask when they're trying to become media literate is "where can I get *real* unbiased information from?". The tough answer is that you can't. Curtis is right here to say that you can classify types of journalism the same way you can classify the power structures they serve.
What is left out is that journalisms real darwinian function is that is it PROPAGANDA for the regime that employs it.
It is easy for westerners to observe Chinese sate media and understand that it is propaganda for the Chinese State. It is less easy, though still obvious to most, that Russian media is likewise a propaganda medium for the Russian state.
What is harder to see (and a harder pill to swallow) is that "conservative" media is generally propaganda for DEMOCRACY. Which is why you can watch a Tucker bit hit on 5 or 6 salient points in a row, only to finish by showing how this underscores the importance of "participating in democracy" or... driving your truck to Ottawa or DC. The chum box aesthetics of these rags is not some unfortunate by-product of the lack of taste of its creators. It is a feature of all things democratic. In the words of every annoying protest chant ever... "This-is-what-democracy-looks-like!". Most people can tell that this too looks like propaganda, but they might be hard pressed to figure out what it is that is being propagandized (maybe facism!!!).
The hardest nut to crack of all though is MSM. I try to ask people who are interested in media literacy to watch types of new they know to be biased, so they can be more aware of the biases of "regular" news. If this is Propaganda, who is it propaganda for?
The answer of course, is that it is propaganda for ITSELF. Its purpose is not to report world events as they unfold, but to justify actions it has already decided to take.
Sure SpaceX is a monarchy but is Linux? Is Linus really the king here? The requirements for an OS is staggeringly vast, constantly evolving with security threats, compatibility concerns, and the whole thing relies on the good will and voluntary contributions by believers. On the other hand, the rocket ship's requirements are calculable from first principles, there's even a formula you could write down in Excel that would clearly define the requirements. And which of these problems is more like the design consideration for a 21st century society?
As for buying your car from a king, no king or kingdom actually knows how to make a car. In fact it's the tire king, who has developed synthetic rubbers, the gasket king studying sealing efficiency, it's the supply chain that's built that car. If you want a car you don't build a plant in the DPRK, you lookaround the most talented midwest farm hands tinkering in their barn. Which brings us right back to our dear old Oligarchy as the the tentative answer to modern production problem. Of course wouldn't it be nice if this society we're designing was more than just efficient and innovative economically, but actually kind of based?
Well it turns Oligarchy is the most natural form of government ever found across all societies. Think the platonic idea of an Iroquois Nation - sure it's rule by the chiefs (the few) - but each tribe believes in its own leaders, gets heard out, can retain its own culture, and has real power to pushback on the intolerable. If you're not feeling the noble savage vibe, think about the colonists: William Penn didn't need to be the king of North America for the whole thing to work, he just had to represent Quaker interests with competency and sincerity. And Jimmy Hoffa didn't need a gavel and a wig to make sure his tribe had fair rules to play by.
The problem, as I keep saying, is that we're on the Reservation: Our geriatric tribal council finds it far more profitable to sell out the health and economic capacity of the people for grants they can siphon, and special privileges they can dispense. Gray Mirror is a bit too harsh on the character of the average Indian here - he is lazy! he can't organize! he is too taken with Spirits to be granted full rights. But SpaceX does show us the potential of these understimated people. Get a state school engineer to head up propulsion, hire like a thousand Texas oil jacks to weld and solder and you have yourself an inter-planetary class spacecraft in five years. The human capital is there, for now at least. But the meth is being pushed onto the Rez. Is the plan really for the generation raised inside face masks and instructed on every deviancy known to man going to be the ones to put a unification monarchy into orbit?
All of us here have at one time loved le free market. But under collusion, this system breaks down and its merits are diminished - the rare shared agreement on economics shared by friend and foe. And just as the point of antitrust is not to nationalize the industry but to restore it to a state of honest competition, so too we must depart from our Oligarchy to arrive back at it. How do we do this?
Absolutely brutal attack on Viva Frei. Ouch. The look and feel of the last few poasts is giving me hope that Moldbug is back.
I am having a tough time seeing preference for monarchy over pure cultural influence these days. Putin is a monarchy, but is Russian expansion good? The Russian media machine is simply gross and definitely not for us, a Putin #influencer extension.
Is the regime style second to culture and people? Would love to hear your answer to this is some form/in some paragraph of an article or something.
I enjoyed your description of The Epoch Times as a mysterious kung fu cult! At first I was suspicious of all their Chinese text online, too. Wikipedia, as of today, says The Epoch Times was founded by a practitioner of Fallen Gong (spellcheck), who have been persecuted in Communist China for decades now. I thought the Left would have badmouthed The Epoch Times worse on their Epoch Times Wikipedia page, but I like the little that I read. I pay The Epoch Times monthly fee for their great video documentaries, great video host personalities, and great video interviews.
Seems like the New York Times is more of a Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine than The Epoch Times. Orange Man bad? CCP good?
This week, Michael Malice has a great interview with Lily Tang Williams, running for Congress, who tells of great inhumanity, growing up under the CCP. Why do folks stick with CCP NYT propaganda despite the truth being suppressed and twisted?
A medium-effort comment. 1) Why are we ignoring the republic as a form of government, meaning the celebrated Ciceronian hybrid of all three forms? 2) Why can we not have the republic back? Why is monarchy the only way out of the oligarchic rot? Why is a Madisonian-federal system, of the kind we had until FDR or so, cannot be restored? One may argue that colonial America WAS an oligarchy, and that our revolution instituted a republic in its place. Why can we not do it again?
Madison didn't believe political parties would exist. Seems to me, all democratic populations will cluster into two factions. And try to annihilate each other. Madison's experiment lead to the most bloody civil war in history a generation later. And then to whatever's happening now. The experiment failed.
The history of monarchies is also filled with conflict and civil war. That's a feature of being human. There's no Kantian "eternal peace." But up to a point (including after the Civil War) the republic was functioning. The Swiss republic is still functioning. I would also argue there a clear *primitive* element to monarchues, the oriental despotism we used to make fun of.
"a Madisonian-federal system, of the kind we had until FDR or so"
Does a "Madisonian-federal system" feature the central government making war on states that want to leave?
Perhaps, but let's say it's an undesirable feature - make it clear in an updated constitution. I still don't really get the "monarcy or bust" dichotomy.
The American founders were prescient when they enshrined the right to keep and bare (2a) because peace through strength is a truism. History is the tale of power dynamics and despite current fashion, we are not exempt, end of history thinking is plainly wrong.
Curtis is persuasive, inertia is the force behind the rule of the few, power is broadly distributed and mailable, defeating oligarchy is like pushing on jello. So I think as a practical matter the many (the people) need a cudgel, a tool, a threat to stop the momentum of oligarchy, thus the right to form a “well regulate Militia”. Smart and practical.
Without the threat we are left with only our good looks and quick wit; no the pen is not sufficient, not mightier than the sword, the real world requires muscle, inertia is heavy and widely distributed so lotsa muscle is needed.
The corporate press is the enemy of the people.