It’s been a busy few weeks when it comes to domestic and international politics. Both conflict and propaganda are escalating. People are divided further than they ever have, and it should be obvious that the divide is intentionally being accelerated by social media algorithms and the 24/7 news cycle. Although I’ve previously covered immigration and the LA riots, there’s been a lot more information I’ve discovered regarding the funding of these protests. I also don’t think there was significant coverage of the fall of Syria by major media outlets, an event that has massive significance when viewed through the lens of the current escalations between Israel and Iran.
A lot of shouting has been made from the modern propaganda boxes known as social media, the news and classic TV broadcasts. Elon Musk and Donald Trump have engaged in what can only be described as a silly, and very likely staged, ridiculous slap fight. Epstein narratives are making their way into the news again as Los Angeles moves from forest fire season to riot season. Meanwhile, Congress has become functionally illiterate as they continue to vote for bills that they do not read. Bills that are ushering in an era of magical wrong answer language machines (a.k.a “AI”) permeating their way through state and local governments. There are a lot of distractions out there, so it’s important to understand why it’s all most certainly propaganda and surveillance narrative.
A lot of major events, disruptions and tragedies are flooding in with 2025. I’ve already talked about the numerous new year’s events, as well as the continued narrative of vigilantism carried over from the previous year. In just a few short weeks, a lot has been added to the bizarre outrage frenzy of the new quarter-century. Elon Musk has shown his true colors with the censorship on Xitter over H1-B visa arguments. Meanwhile, people are actually believing the insane nonsense Zuckerberg is spewing about how Facebook will now reduce censorship. Los Angeles has had a devastating fire that’s destroyed thousands of homes and lives—a disaster that is only made worse by political exploitation of the entire situation. All of this domestic news overshadows the ongoing conflict in much of the Middle East, which threatens to spill over into the rest of the world. We’re not even through January.
I think some of my early thoughts on the CEO killer have panned out. The story of Luigi’s Mansion has become even more ridiculous as time has gone on. The news concerning drones is laughable dribble. As 2025 has started out, we’re greeted with an exploding Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel, along with someone driving through a crowd in New Orleans. Whether these events were truly random acts or they were carefully planned and orchestrated is completely irrelevant. The media has latched onto these events, directing a narrative over domestic issues. It helps to ignore and overshadow the toppling of Syria’s government by the American, Israeli and Turkish support of terrorist organizations. If this is just the first week of 2025, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down while on a business trip in Manhattan on Wednesday, December 4th. Almost immediately, security camera footage was released of what appears to be a targeted assassination. All over the Internet, jokes and memes were made praising the shooter for what appears to look like an act of vigilantism by a citizen upset by American’s broken health insurance system. A narrative was built by the media almost immediately. The whole story, and the reaction to it, has really brought out the absolute worst in people and generally lowered my hope for humanity.
The Internet Archive was allegedly hacked, and their crawler stopped updating conveniently prior to the election. Although the Wayback Machine was partially restored, most of the archive’s services were down for a considerable amount of time. The Internet Archive has recently gone through a substantial amount of legal trouble, and some of their content has disappeared after they restored all their services. For an organization that has preserved so much of the old Internet, the recent events are quite troubling. They bring into question the entire integrity of the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine.
In 2016, I had returned to America after several years outside the country. I did an amazing job of avoiding most, but not all the election season. I didn’t see any meaningful difference between either candidate. Hillary Clinton was evil and corrupt, and her name is associated with a “two to the back of the head” suicide. I joked with a friend that I hoped Trump won, just so that people on the left would finally get angry about endless wars again. I don’t think I was quite prepared for the absolute media fueled-hatred of those who opposed the Orange Man, nor was I prepared for those who saw Trump as America’s only hope. In the years since that election, I found myself on a journey, both across America and through an insane political landscape.
I immediately got messages from friends on Saturday following the assassination attempt on Former President Trump. One friend immediately thought that the event was staged. Another said he thought there was a “nonzero” chance it wasn’t staged. One friend has since changed their stance, indicating the simple answer is the most likely. I find it absolutely fascinating that people who have watched a controlled media continually lie to them for the past several years (if not our entire lives) are so willing to believe one of the most outlandishly contrived Hollywood cinema style plots as if it’s 100% genuine. People feel like they have to believe a story, and we’ve been conditioned to believe in heroes and the impossible.
I recently documented how I archived content from creators I subscribed to on Locals. I subscribed to VivaBarnes when they first joined the platform in 2020, and I also subscribed to Louder with Crowder when it switched to Locals from The Blaze. For years, I felt like both had done an excellent job of informing and/or entertaining their audience in some very difficult times. However, both have had their own controversies over the years. Over time, I gained less from the subscriber-only content. The quality of their work has degraded. My own research has found they’ve both been pushing their own narrative stories, sometimes directly opposed to the facts of the events they cover. I don’t regret supporting them, but I think I’ve exhausted the value I received from their videos. This month, my subscriptions end for the only two people I follow on Locals.
Recently Steven Crowder ran an investigative piece alleging a high ranking female executive at BlackRock was connected to a forum used to exchange sexually explicit material involving minors. This allegation was based off of a single e-mail address, tied to the individual by means of several background check websites. This investigation was horrifically sloppy, and had no concrete evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. Crowder’s team has done amazing investigation work during the most controversial election of our time. However, this investigation was abhorrently bad. It was followed by a serious of other questionable investigations where Crowder went after the porn industry, and a small local school. As the show seems to drift further away from the topics many American conservatives actually care about, he also is facing more accusations from former staff members about his conduct as their employer. As someone who has been a fan of his content for years, I find it disheartening to see the quality of his show in a sharp state of decline.
