Propaganda, alternative media, conspiracy theories, and the search for truth

Imagine for a moment that you are an average citizen of the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall falls. There is a sudden increase in contact with the West. You realize that everything you thought you knew about history, current events, economics, and foreign cultures was deeply flawed. Media, the education system, politicians, and even your parents has lied to you about almost everything—not so much through blatant falsehoods, but primarily through distortions and omission.

Now ask yourself whether the same kind of deceptions and omissions cloud your own understanding of the world today.

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I wrote about Fake News and modern yellow journalism over a year ago, and regardless of your political inclinations, it should be apparent that sensationalism and selective reporting skew what is presented as "news" today. Editorial bias is inescapable regardless of any claims to objectivity because things that don't fit the prevailing worldview just don't get covered. Modern corporate news outlets can't avoid having an institutional bias on economic and political matters.

The surge in alternative media is in part a reaction to the failings of the legacy media outlets, but this does not mean any given alternate perspective is automatically more accurate or reliable. Despite its flaws, the mainstream media does have outlets that exhibit certain valuable journalistic standards. Assertions without evidence, no matter how plausible they seem on the surface, or how deliciously salacious they may appear, are not news

Good investigative journalism is often dismissed as conspiracy theory kookiness on the level of ancient aliens and flat earth theory when it runs afoul of the official narrative. On the other hand, there are innumerable real examples where government and the media have colluded to hide the truth from the public, but this does not prove that the Moon landing was a hoax either. The label "conspiracy theory" has no inherent meaning, but its use as a pejorative neither proves nor disproves an assertion.

We live in the information age, but not all information is created equal. We also have myriad examples of distortion and omission all around us, and skeptical inquiry is more essential than ever. Relative press freedom compared to the Soviet Union and Pravda does not guarantee truth in media, and neither "left" nor "right" slant has any more bearing on truth than does the mouthpiece of a single party state. Doubt everything, especially when it aligns with your preconceptions, until you can examine it in depth. This isn't refusal to engage with the world, just refusal to be easily duped by deliberate lies or well-meaning mistakes.