Global Mass Propaganda

Instant global communication was pure science fiction until the 1980s. A dream that promised boundless opportunities for an exciting, borderless future. So here we are using this marvellous technology for decades now. When did it all go wrong? When did utopia become dystopia?

Humanity has always pursued global communication and movement.

The year is 490 BC. The city is Marathon. A guy runs 40km to Athens with urgent news. Let’s be clear: this wasn't to announce a hot new amphitheater act or Aristotle's groundbreaking philosophy. No, not this. The “why” was about a battle victory: Athenians had crushed the Persians.

The year is 1557 in Macau, China. The Portuguese Empire established its presence there, drawn not by Confucian wisdom but pursuit of power: economic control secured through military strength. This commercial trading post remained Portuguese territory until 1999.

Here we are today, where pure greed is never a good reason for anything.

The use of global mass communication channels by the tech oligarchs like Musk and Zuckerberg to manipulate human behavior and maximize profits is filthy. People are pushed to consume the same garbage for the sake of consumption and political power. Bizarrely “harmonizing” faces with square jaws, frozen botox expressions, and duck lips. The legacy media owned by billionaires is no better. It’s all set up as one large propaganda network.

Future generations will have a hell of a time cleaning up the mess we’ve left them.

But there are still real people flourishing even in the driest desert on Earth. People reporting on alternative and new media and new platforms like Bluesky and Substack. Join them and praise them.

Step away from X, Facebook, Instagram, and the legacy media. CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are all bad; the only difference is how bad.