Mainstream sources that control narratives, and are owned by the same extremely wealthy people that we're complaining about now owning TikTok?

Sorry, this doesn't pass the smell test for me.

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asveikau 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Right now the Ellison family owns both CBS and the US version of TikTok, so sometimes the connection is kind of literal.

But this complaint is pretty old, I think of Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent. (Setting aside his Epstein connections for a moment) The way we do censorship is much less the methods of a traditional totalitarian state and more like the private sector policing what is acceptable discourse.

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ericmay 8 hours ago | parent [-]

The problem with Chomsky's argument is that you can't do anything about it. Every country, every group in power, democracy, republic, chiefdom, &c, is participating in manufacturing consent and even if you fight to gain power, once you gain power you wind up doing the same thing.

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asveikau 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm not citing Chomsky with a claim that he's unassailable, just that it's a very old complaint. I also think he was right about a bunch of stuff, and wrong on others.

As for what he suggested, this is reminding me that I never read his work On anarchism. I heard him speak favorably about the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. I also found that topic very interesting when I was getting a Spanish minor many years ago at college. I am sure many HN commenters will disagree that it's something to emulate.

	▲	ericmay 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I think I have that book but haven't read it. I did read Manufacturing Consent but it has been some time. I didn't mean to imply that he was unassailable, just had that critique of that general point. I think his writing is very interesting, in general, and it always helps expand the mind to new or reframed ideas.