The choice of language is also important. Lots of people are using terms like “coup” or “insurrection” causally. The experts meanwhile note why this is not appropriate, with careful comparisons to historical incidents: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/why-this-wasnt-a-coup-c...
Does this matter to anyone? No. After constant amplification of a hyperbolic take on the Capitol riot, the truth seemingly doesn’t matter anymore and instead its derivative stories are the new battleground (for example “should social media increase censorship of moderates and conservatives”). In short, the damage has already been done, seemingly permanently.
We saw bias in the other direction last year, with underreporting of criminal political activity. Like you, my city has experienced a constant stream of riots from BLM activists. In 2020 we literally had daily blockades of highways, autonomous zones resulting in deaths (CHAZ), widespread destruction of businesses, and more. Seemingly all of news media, social media, and even academic research studying BLM-associated rioting inaccurately portrays what actually happened.
It’s scary to see how widespread and unchallenged those prevailing narratives are. I think a lot of people forget that “propaganda” doesn’t have to come just from scary foreign state actors - in practice it is much more likely to come from domestic sources, such as masses of activists blindly repeating falsehoods in unison. The journalism industry is supposed to protect against that but it’s actually part of the same machine. The only way to counter the effect is to read and listen to many different sources with different biases.
The choice of language is also important. Lots of people are using terms like “coup” or “insurrection” causally. The experts meanwhile note why this is not appropriate, with careful comparisons to historical incidents: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/why-this-wasnt-a-coup-c...
Does this matter to anyone? No. After constant amplification of a hyperbolic take on the Capitol riot, the truth seemingly doesn’t matter anymore and instead its derivative stories are the new battleground (for example “should social media increase censorship of moderates and conservatives”). In short, the damage has already been done, seemingly permanently.
We saw bias in the other direction last year, with underreporting of criminal political activity. Like you, my city has experienced a constant stream of riots from BLM activists. In 2020 we literally had daily blockades of highways, autonomous zones resulting in deaths (CHAZ), widespread destruction of businesses, and more. Seemingly all of news media, social media, and even academic research studying BLM-associated rioting inaccurately portrays what actually happened.
It’s scary to see how widespread and unchallenged those prevailing narratives are. I think a lot of people forget that “propaganda” doesn’t have to come just from scary foreign state actors - in practice it is much more likely to come from domestic sources, such as masses of activists blindly repeating falsehoods in unison. The journalism industry is supposed to protect against that but it’s actually part of the same machine. The only way to counter the effect is to read and listen to many different sources with different biases.