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Josh Kearns's avatar

The implied value judgment about the "informed public" versus the "mass public" is revealing in this passage:

"Trust is not uniform across societies. Globally, trust in institutions among the informed public—defined as people who are college educated, are in the top 25 percent of household income in each market, and exhibit significant media consumption—has risen during the past 20 years whereas more than half of the mass public during the past decade repeatedly say the “system” is failing them. The gap in trust in institutions between the informed public and the mass public has increased during the past decade... Similarly, the gap in trust in business quadrupled during this period..."

The "uninformed" mass public seems to have a better grasp on reality than the "informed" public, i.e., the upper-class people who staff the media, gov't, think tanks, and tech firms.

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I can't help but think that the proliferation of identity politics in the US is intentional and that its consequences of segmenting and weakening society are the desired end. You can't find a program on a major news or media outlet which doesn't include obviously divisive language and attacks on traditional morality and ideas. More and more I think that this is a main device being used to divert public attention and subvert public resistance whilst the fabric of our society is being changed into one with fewer and fewer and fewer freedoms.

I also highly doubt that the CIA is not involved in domestic matters such as what we are presently witnessing. During the development of the A-12 Oxcart plane (later renamed the SR-71 Blackbird), they set up and ran front companies here in the states through which to source the large amounts of titanium which only came from Russia at the time. Yes this was regarding an external security threat, but there are many other recent examples of CIA activity here.

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