Tokenism is behind much of our "Freedoms".
Of course, it is wonderful that I get to live in a country that does not band messages from being disseminated. It is often stated that we have retained the right to Free Speech and in many ways we have--in other ways we have not.
When it comes to free speech and ideas on T.V. and radio, the game is rigged.
Though not directly through law, speech is definitely controlled, much of it outright censored, even condemned. The Internet is still relatively free, at least for now, but it is currently under attack. And due to this, I am continually on the phone with the offices of elected officials telling them to vote this way or reword that way, whatever bill has been, yet again, influenced by the world's media giants. Media giants like Comcast are continually trying to curtail our access to free information. The mass media is attacking our ability to access locally generated information and free speech. It wants the market and since it cooperates with the politicians, the politicians cooperate with it. Both rather that we see their own idea of what we should hear, see and be taught. Within the mass media, taboos, illusions, and manufactured truths are created and perpetuated. Again, real free discourse is functionally forbidden. New and intellectual ideas of language, economics, race, democracy, war; ending government corruption and protecting justice, are left to a few public radio stations like (www.kpfk.org) KPFk. Our current media system is not far in function from what existed in Nazi Germany. Just as there, when dealing with those the state has targeted as criminals, the government's side is inevitably presented most favorably, only lip service is paid to the rest. When it comes to those seen as the “others”, facts are indeed given but, just as in Nazi Germany, the side of the police is the one made believable.
When it comes to free speech and ideas on T.V. and radio, the game is rigged.
Though not directly through law, speech is definitely controlled, much of it outright censored, even condemned. The Internet is still relatively free, at least for now, but it is currently under attack. And due to this, I am continually on the phone with the offices of elected officials telling them to vote this way or reword that way, whatever bill has been, yet again, influenced by the world's media giants. Media giants like Comcast are continually trying to curtail our access to free information. The mass media is attacking our ability to access locally generated information and free speech. It wants the market and since it cooperates with the politicians, the politicians cooperate with it. Both rather that we see their own idea of what we should hear, see and be taught. Within the mass media, taboos, illusions, and manufactured truths are created and perpetuated. Again, real free discourse is functionally forbidden. New and intellectual ideas of language, economics, race, democracy, war; ending government corruption and protecting justice, are left to a few public radio stations like (www.kpfk.org) KPFk. Our current media system is not far in function from what existed in Nazi Germany. Just as there, when dealing with those the state has targeted as criminals, the government's side is inevitably presented most favorably, only lip service is paid to the rest. When it comes to those seen as the “others”, facts are indeed given but, just as in Nazi Germany, the side of the police is the one made believable.
In truth, the real-life persistence of widespread corruption within the political and justice systems have been everywhere for centuries. In general, the black and white (pun intended) between good and bad that we are shown is much more pervasive and gray than we are led to believe. The foggy gray is everywhere. It is there when things like Citizens United is protected by the supreme court e.g., money equals Free Speech, so billionaires can easily “speak” to politicians). It was there in true black and white when the Pentagon Papers were revealed and the revealers condemned. It is also there when the patrol car breaks a traffic law. It was there when we were teenagers watching a cop lie or threaten some form of violence and/or use excessive force while disrupting our social gatherings. It was there when they stopped you or a friend of yours and told a lie or showed up in traffic court lying to gain a guaranteed conviction. The judge acting as a puppet for the street cop. The cops do not even have to make complete sense, but the judge still sides with them. It has been there as friends we know in law enforcement or fire continually break traffic laws but don't get ticketed--often even when their offense involved alcohol. And on those rare occasions that a cop is not let off, full-blown vendetta-like retribution is sparked. Ticketing wars between the two involved departments explode--evidence of a corrupt system is there too. Though with the proliferation of cameras and avenues to disseminate the images much of the corrupt policing has been reduced, they are none the fewer signs of the corruption of an unbiased law and benevolent government.
Also similar to Nazi Germany, proof makes it out in the form of a defecting officer who comes forward to expose that justices' worst nightmare is departmental policy. We have been told about a culture of lying, both to gain convictions of others and to protect other police from conviction. Though police openly attacking suspects has long since not been the norm in America, again dropping with the proliferation of video cameras, It's also there with those police beatings and murders that are videotaped by the wrong person and one way or another make it public. The police no longer can simply make their patrol car video get “lossed”. For decades, some Americans naively
