by Raveen Jeyakumar
When I was young, the Western mainstream media I was introduced to were CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera.
Now and then, my father would listen to them in the background while he attended to other tasks.
I got the most exposure in my grandfather’s house, instead of my own, as I never was one to watch the news. He would routinely watch any one of those three channels at night, and I would occasionally join him to get informed and spend time with him.
At that young age, I naturally assumed that the mainstream media were truthful and observed the highest standards. I mean, they were supposed to be the most-watched channels for news and had wide international influence, after all! So why wouldn’t I trust them to give me factual, objective information?
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The longest stretch when I watched such news was in the months leading up to the 2020 US election. I wanted to be up to date with the progress of the Democrat candidates, as I desperately wanted Donald Trump to lose.
My main concerns were that:
- He was going to start World War Three with all his irresponsible sabre-rattling and tough policies against several other nuclear powers
- His dismal handling of the pandemic – his lax, irresponsible policies caused the virus to widely spread, resulting in countless hospitalisations and deaths in the US. It also caused it to spread to other countries and mutate into more virulent, harmful strains
So when Joe Biden won in November, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, thinking he was going to be way more diplomatic and responsible in his foreign policies and his impact on the global stage.
Boy, was I wrong, as I would eventually realise.
Becoming exposed to the truth
My introduction to more objective, independent news media came in mid-2020 when I stumbled upon Brian Berletic’s YouTube channel. He regularly analyses US government’s meddling in Southeast Asian countries to sabotage China’s rise as a global superpower.
I started watching his videos regularly, as they were intriguing and revealed information I was unaware of. It was from his analyses that I realised:
- Just how much the Western mainstream media (both news channels and print media) lie and spread propaganda
- They are essentially tools for the ruling class to manipulate their citizens into supporting their greedy, destructive agendas
- The US ruling class, in particular, is heavily involved in instigating social unrest and coups to replace other countries’ leaders with those subservient to Western interests
It was primarily through his videos that I grew aware of the US government’s backing of the Hong Kong protests, efforts to break Taiwan away from China, and false accusations of the Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang.
Information based on experience
A couple of months later, I discovered another channel called ‘Barrett’. The vlogs feature a British father and son living in China who make videos about their observations of Chinese society.
Watching their videos made me realise how the Western mainstream media spreads lies and propaganda about the Chinese system. I learnt from them that the Uyghur situation in Xinjiang was not all like how Western leaders and news media made it out to be.
One of their analyses that really left an impression on me was how different societies perceive concepts like freedom, democracy and human rights differently.
- Many US citizens may place more emphasis on having more than one political party to choose from, no pressure to wear masks or take vaccines, the freedom to own firearms, and the right to openly protest against and challenge the government
- Many Chinese citizens may prioritise a decent social safety net, a poverty-free life, proper treatment of the working class, personal safety from crime and low corruption in the political system
The Barretts made me realise that you just can’t 100% apply certain cultural beliefs from one part of the world to societies in other parts of the world with different cultures, historical backgrounds and political systems.
Western leaders and mainstream media overlook these important factors when labelling countries like China as “undemocratic” or having “human rights’ abuses”.
My trusted news sources
During Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, I watched insightful videos from The New Atlas. They delved into the background of the problem and debunked Western mainstream propaganda.
The channel exposed the lies and misinformation in mainstream media reporting of those events and by Western political leaders.
Around that time, I also started following four other YouTube channels for political analysis: Alex Christoforou, The Duran, The Jimmy Dore Show and Breakthrough News.
Soon after, I completely abandoned watching Western mainstream news out of anger and disgust over their blatant lies and misinformation.
My favourites are those first two channels, as their reasoning and analyses resonates with me. Their informal nature of analysing and discussing events makes it more engaging and easier to follow.
I like Jimmy Dore as well. He mixes a lot of humour into his presentation of the news, although I may not always fully agree with his analyses.
Overall, I trust these four sources to provide me with fair and truthful information. In contrast, my trust in the mainstream media fell as I watched independent videos pointing out their lies and propaganda.
My biggest eye-opening moment
It was at that point that I starkly realised just how similar the Democrats and Republicans were in their destructive foreign policies and war-mongering. I had thought Biden would be way more mature and responsible than Trump and stop all the sabre-rattling against other global superpowers!
Well, that proved to be false after watching analyses from those independent news sources. They showed how the Biden administration (along with other Western leaders) heightened tensions with Russia by supplying weapons to and training Nato troops in Ukraine.
This behaviour has continued from the start of the war until now. The Biden administration appears hellbent for the Ukrainians to keep fighting. After all, the long-term US goal is to weaken Russia, initiate regime change in Moscow, and grab Russia’s abundant oil and gas.
I became disillusioned with the Democrats as they proved to be just as bad as the Republicans in:
- Launching proxy wars
- Being subservient to the military-industrial complex
- Indulging in war-profiteering
- Involving themselves directly in regime change in other countries
- Stealing other countries’ natural resources
Watching those independent news sources made me realise just how evil both mainstream parties really were and how they were not much different from each other.
And man, was that realisation fully cemented when the war in Palestine broke out last year! Both the Democrats and Republicans fully and consistently supported sending arms and money to the Israeli regime, thus directly enabling a genocide!
Devastating effects on society
By now, I have come to despise the Western mainstream media and their political leadership, given the level of brainwashing and harm they routinely inflict on society.
Their actions have been highly irresponsible and despicable. Consider how successfully they have manipulated people into supporting the ruling class’ destructive geopolitical agendas around the world.
Many people passively consume the news and accept whatever is being presented as the truth. We are conditioned to not apply rational and critical thinking whenever we consume such information. Heck, even I had the same approach all those years whenever I watched the mainstream news – until the 2020 US general election.
This makes the deliberate lying and spreading of propaganda by the Western mainstream media incredibly dangerous to any society, as recent history has shown us.
For decades, Western political leaders have misused mainstream media as their mouthpiece to control the narrative and manipulate their citizens into supporting their destructive agendas and wars around the world, whether it involves the Middle East, Latin America, Russia or China.
Why? So that their own citizens will passively go along and not question those agendas. The main goals are almost always to:
- Steal other countries’ natural resources
- Install leaders who are subservient to neoliberal capitalism
- Engage in war-profiteering through endless wars and conflicts
If more people know the truth and strongly push back against the ruling class and boycott the large corporations with whom the politicians are in bed, it will be difficult for them to carry out their destructive plans.
It will also be harder for political leaders to justify spending so much taxpayer money on such endeavours. Their chances of getting re-elected will drop given the public’s anger.
That is the last thing that they want, as they crave power and the lucrative profit-making opportunities that come with it.
Hence, their disinformation and propaganda campaigns are relentless, ensuring that their people are heavily conditioned to think in certain ways.
For the most part, they have been hugely successful! Consider how people in the US and UK view Russia and Vladimir Putin, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and communism.
Much important background information is conveniently left out in Western mainstream media’s reporting on these countries. This is to ensure that people form a narrow, biased viewpoint towards such topics – the one their own leaders want them to have.
Consider foreign policies as well
It is disheartening to see so many commenters on these blogging platforms who have bought the mainstream media’s lies and propaganda on the various geopolitical conflicts around the world.
Also concerning is how some people are unaware of or ignore the severity of their government’s actions around the globe when deciding who to vote for. Instead, they form their opinions mainly based on domestic issues. They fail to accept that both sides of the political divide in many nations are truly rotten and that a third party is needed.
Wars will not cease if many people support ruling class agendas and are unconcerned about their reasoning. The cycle of exploitation, destruction and suffering will simply continue.
Connect the dots
People’s inability to connect the dots in the pattern of propaganda is incredibly frustrating.
If you know your government and mainstream media lied to you about why they invaded Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 2000s, isn’t there some part of you that questions the credibility of their claims on Russia and China and their decision to send arms and money to Ukraine and Taiwan?
Isn’t there some part of you that goes: OK, where have I seen these types of claims before? Is this history repeating itself?
What’s more frustrating is when I see some people with some awareness of one geopolitical issue, but then they believe the mainstream media on another issue. What the hell? Why can’t you see the pattern here?!
Wake up!
It is sad and disappointing that it takes a live-streamed genocide in Palestine with so many brutal deaths to wake people up and make them realise their leaders and media have been lying to them about their – and Israel’s true intentions – in the Middle East, Hamas and other important factors.
Does it really have to take so many deaths for people to start thinking critically and question the mainstream narrative? Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case, as many people still passively consume the news.
Stop listening to mainstream media
The only way we are going to end harmful geopolitical wars and global conflicts is if people in the West unite and strongly push back against their leaders’ agendas.
If not, those Western leaders will take us to World War Three, given their insane war-mongering against nuclear powers like Iran, Russia and China.
But such change can only happen if people stop getting their news and information from the mainstream media and instead seek more independent sources.
The mainstream media will not change by themselves. Many of them are funded by the ruling class and industrial complexes that support all these geopolitical wars in the first place.
Sure, this turn to more independent sources will at first require some trial and error as not all independent sources are reliable. However, it is crucial that we actively seek the truth.
Only if we are aware of what is actually going on can we decide what is right or wrong, instead of what our leaders and mainstream media constantly tell us.
Raveen Jeyakumar is a writer who is passionate about social and environmental issues. His work can be found at https://reformthesystem.substack.com/
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