Starving the Truth-Making Beast

Last week, I talked about the George Floyd riots, and since then, things have gotten way worse. A man named Raz Simone has declared himself to be the ruler of Seattle’s new autonomous zone. Pretty much every corporation continues to give money to Black Lives Matter, an organization that has done no positive thing since its inception. But the media is completely ignoring the fact that a rapper has basically taken over a major metropolitan area.

In last week’s post, I said the following:

So why is this unhelpful “Civil Rights” narrative being pushed when its net result is human suffering? For my money, it’s because the truth-makers of our society – the media and academia – are, quite frankly, out to lunch. They seem to think that, since the original Civil Rights program was so successful, they could accomplish anything if they recreate that original magic. But winning some political contest using this tactic isn’t going to reach any kind of resolution to the conflict, but prolong it. It only creates a climate of resentment and paranoia. Since the truth-makers don’t see this, and they aren’t trying to create this climate of resentment and paranoia, we must conclude that they are, in some way, delusional.

I mean, if the truth-makers are to be believed, then for the past four months, we’ve been needing to stay under quarantine in order to prevent the outbreak of a deadly disease. But now, since one man was killed by a bunch of corrupt cops in one police district, black rioting is being defended, nay, encouraged. All while Covid-19, a disease that requires social distancing to contain, a disease that disproportionately affects black people, is still a problem. If somebody smarter than me can explain how to square this circle, feel free to do so. In the meantime, I’ll assume that it isn’t me who’s detached from reality, but the institutions busy contradicting themselves.

This systematic insanity tells me that there ought to be radical changes in the way our society deals with problems. Because until the people in charge of delivering information to our society and managing the public square are replaced by people who are willing and able to consider the problem as it actually is, our democracy will be torn apart.

Of course, people like me or you can’t do anything about this. We can’t tell multi-million-dollar media conglomerates or prestigious universities like Harvard or Yale what to do. All I can help inform people of what’s happening.

This truth-making beast must be starved if we are going to be able to have sane conversations again. Because of this, I’ve been thinking the past week if there could be anything else I could do about this problem, and I’ve come to a conclusion: if you want something to be done, you do it yourself.

This post as a call to action. I’m saying that any one of us could be an alternative to the failing news media or schools within your local area!

Right now, there are several areas of America that have become news deserts. Local news media is dying right now, being gobbled up by large corporations that all have the same sort of biases and blind spots. If you think this is a bad thing, then it wouldn’t hurt to try and inform people, right?

In order to be an effective reporter, you have to know the situation on the ground. Learn who the movers and shakers are in your community. Who are the politicians in charge? Who are their donors? Their allies? Their enemies? Who are the owners of the local news media? Their owners, publishers, editors, reporters? What are their interests? Their beats? Their vulnerabilities? Try to find out.

From there, you can start a locally-focused newspaper or blog. Topics could include:

• What’s your city council actually up to?
• What’s the stuff the news isn’t reporting on?
• How does crime actually work in your town?

Another neat trick I’ve come across is called “Asking for Comment.” Whenever somebody important messes up, you and your friends call up everyone who supports that important person and asks for their opinion of the supporter’s opinion. All this requires is a website, a contact directory, a news archive subscription, and a telephone. This may sound kind of underhanded, but it’s how you get the interesting stories.

As for schooling, the homeschooling movement is something that appeals to everyone. Not only is homeschooling on the rise, it’s also something that can be sold even to kids going to public school. It provides an alternative viewpoint to what’s being taught in schools, and it’s important that kids get that alternative viewpoint, especially as schools curriculum becomes estranged from what parents in the area want.

Homeschooling parents want free to cheap primers from a reputable source. So why not become that source? Surely, you must know something about math or history or business. Why not incorporate that into something.

It’s important in these trying times to stand your ground and defend the truth. Morally-disapproving mobs, both online and in real life, are trying to gain conformity for their own agendas, and they will never be satisfied by forgiveness. Rather, we should try to stand with our communities and try to defend ourselves and our values from the forces that threaten to swallow us. There’s a lot of division right now, but if we speak the truth as a community, if we build something positive, we can make a difference in our own way.

Will you join in me in starving the beast?