From the propagandists of The Guardian
And so he turned to alternative sources of information: podcasts like Bannon’s War Room, hosted by alt-right figure Steve Bannon, which regularly broadcasts baseless claims about ballot dumps and illegal voters. And an old favourite of his, the rightwing Catholic podcast The Taylor Marshall Show.
In the US, Australia and across the Anglosphere, people regularly spend hours with strangers talking directly into their ears. Around one third of Australian news consumers are reported to be podcast listeners, and indications are that numbers have grown during the pandemic.
Sinister sounds: podcasts are becoming the new medium of misinformation
Oh dear me! How’s possible that maybe more than a third of people in Anglo-speaking countries dare to seek information outside the government-approved means of propaganda distribution? Who they think they are? Free citizens or something? Something must be done to stop the clear and present danger of Free Thought!
This will not be allowed by the Powers That Be if they get their way. What I think we will see in the future is a desperate and possible successful attempt to control the access to the internet by those not politically-approved. Sort of a No-Fly list applied to anybody who might be deemed dangerous: You are on the No-Net List? You cannot get service at your home, nor you can buy a computer or device with WiFi or any other way to access the Internet. In the era of cyber-speed, you will be forced to the speed of horse-drawn buggy, not even Pony express.
And, of course, it will probably fail too.
” If there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh, well, there it is.
Life will find a way.”
Ian Malcom – Jurassic Park
Hat Tip MarkBravo
Some people read Orwell and are scared, others read Orwell and get a hard-on.
Guess which group writers at The Guardian fall into.
They don’t read Orwell — he’s a non-person among the British left.
I must meme this
Australia news had positive stories about Trump all the time. And they had truthful stories about election fraud.
“Dangerous Content”
I remember when that meant that YouTube removed all the “how do you make explosives” and then it was “how to make things that can hurt people”
Now it is ideas that they don’t like.
OK, I am just as guilty as anyone else on this front. I have often said “don’t listen to ________” or some similar statement. That is typically followed up with a disclaimer, “They have a strong political bias” Friends listen to NPR all the time, and I continually let them know they are not getting the full story.
However, there is a big difference between my saying _____ news outlet is not telling you everything, and penning an editorial that vilifies podcasts for spreading “disinformation.”
In fact, I would probably tell my friends to actually go and read the “disinformation.” To get an idea of what other people, who do not necessarily hold similar political views are saying.
And, that is the difference between an intelligent adult, and a toddler. When the toddler hears something they do not like, they try to drown it out to stop others from hearing it as well.
NPR has gone beyond “strong political bias”. They are on record (the Hunter laptop story) as having a policy of deliberate suppression of news.
I don’t see a problem with the term “disinformation”. To me it means lies camouflaged to appear as news, and it’s a perfectly good term to describe a lot of what is sent out by the NYT or NPR.
As for “dangerous content”, others have pointed out that dangerous words have killed more people in history than wars or explosives. Consider the death toll from marxism; it far outweighs the death toll from the warfare in WW2. But given the Bill of Rights that is still protected.
Note that the Guardian publishes in England, a country where freedom of speech does not exist, no more than it does in other parts of Europe.