One important (and mostly non-mainstream) concept is the idea of manufactured
consent. The idea was originally described in a book authored by Noam Chomsky
and some other guy in in the 1980s. For a quick summary, check out this video
on YouTube which provides a great summary (use
youtube-dl to completely
avoid the ads).
I won’t summarize manufactured consent here, but I do want to
discuss something I’ve noticed as a trend on the Internet these days.
Generally, I’ve noticed there seem to be 2 types of people: those who have
been highly exposed to ads and mainstream media, and those who have eschewed
such things and recognize the bullshit in everything you find from these
outlets.
One example that I see over and over again, is how many people really do
believe that billionaires create wealth for everyone rather than sucking it
out of the system and hording it for themselves (“trickle down”). They also
believe that poor people don’t deserve help, and it’s their own fault they’re
poor. They never question the system, and even though they believe they’re
edgy and outside-the-box thinkers, it turns out they are actually perfect
examples of indoctrinates. Their heads are chock full of ideas (or rather,
programming) injected by the propagandists.
The only common thread I can find is that these people simping for
billionaires tend to watch cable TV and allow themselves to be exposed to
ads. It’s similar to my pet theory about how the people who voted for Trump
are the same folks who watched “The Apprentice” and were exposed to his
bullshit on the TV, but also didn’t have the necessary awareness to recognize
that the entire show was, in fact, complete bullshit.
Thus, I conclude that the best thing you can do to re-wire your brain and
thought patterns, unbias yourself, and delete the propaganda programming is
to block all ads, stay off mainstream media, reject any and all media content
with paid ads, and quit all ad-based media platforms.
Happy holidays.