I want to get more into current events

So, you want to get into current events, do you?

I know exactly how you feel. I've been there: feeling like I don't know enough about what's going on in the world to keep up with the conversations going on all around me.

My dad would say, "hey, Don, you're never going to get anywhere in life if you can't talk in a sophisticated manner about current events. At least start watching CNN. You should also use my Wall Street Journal login."

I would try to get into it. I'd bookmark a few links, find a few new things to read about that were interesting. But there was a problem.

I never knew where to stop.

There were articles after articles on all sorts of topics happening all over the place. When I was done reading one, there were another ten links to follow, some even before the article was finished.

It was endless.

Plus, I never knew what the next trending topic was going to be, so I just kept trying to read about as many things as I could.

The weird thing is that while I didn't really like watching, reading, or listening to the news, I was consumed by it.

It sucked, in more than one way.

Most of the articles on a particular topic were all very similar. As I read more and more, I found myself beginning to agree with the articles. Or perhaps, the articles were agreeing with me. They were agreeing with what I was already thinking.

I read the same conclusions in so many different places that they started to become my own.

Then I thought to myself,

I already know this stuff, what's the point of reading more about the same?

If I keep going, I'll just keep learning the same lesson over and over and over again under the illusion of many lessons.

Why do I have to spend my time consuming this shit? Just to be able to talk about it?

What made it interesting was finding the counterculture. The typically seedy sites with opinions completely opposite to the mainstream narratives I had been consuming.

Fat and cholesterol were good for you. Others knew it clogged your arteries.

Others knew that the man who shot JFK was acting alone. I knew there were several shooters, possibly one in a sewer drain.

I knew that the Earth was round. Others knew it was flat.

And there would be no ending to feeling bad for people because they weren't getting the right information or understanding the problem properly.

And as much as you might try, they'll never get it right. They'll never listen.

They'll never learn the truth.

And now it's gone a step further - we are quick to criticize people for the opinions they hold, while having enough cannon fodder in case they have done their proper reading of their (wrong) side of the news.

But, the thing I had been failing to understand was that there is no universal truth. There is only individual truth.

We act in the manner that corresponds to the truths we have created.

While it is true to so many that fat and cholesterol clog your arteries, my truth causes me to laugh at my doctor when he suggests I should watch my cholesterol level.

While I believe the counter narrative of multiple shooters, others believe the mainstream narrative.

I will probably not take a flat-Earther seriously, mainly because my truth of a round Earth is so much more popular.

The trick, once you realize that you can create any truth you want for yourself, is to recognize the news for what it is. It's someone else's written version of the truth. And as you consume someone else's truth, parts of it become your own.

You are a collection of all the experiences you've had - or haven't had, and reading someone else's version of the truth is an experience in and of itself.

Even right now as you are reading this, you are developing a new truth. You will look at things differently from now on, just as you have after the countless truth-changing experiences you've already experienced.

Whenever we experience something that makes us feel something, from reading an article about how fucked we are in foreign policy to a family member's death, we create a new truth that stays in place until something else changes it.

A truth in existence stays in existence until altered by another experience.

Wait, I thought this post was supposed to be about the news?

Every moment of your life is an experience. If you are just sitting, you are experiencing your chair, the air, and whatever your eyeballs are taking in. If you are reading this, you are experiencing something in your mind.

Just like anything else in life, you can choose how you want the experience of getting more into current events to go. There's no right answer, and there's no optimal way to do it. At the end of your life, you'll die regardless of your decision today.

To put it as simply as I can, you have three options, and it's the most cliché thing ever:

Have you seen The Matrix? Great movie...

If you are wondering what the third option is, let me first ask you a question. Think seriously about it before reading further:

What's the difference between the pills?

Have you thought about it?

Is there any difference?

What else do you know that goes by these colors?

What's the difference between republicans and democrats?

What's the difference between Fox and CNN?

Is Fox the red pill and CNN the blue pill?

Any stream that is resonant with what you already beleive is your blue pill. A stream that causes you cognitive dissonance is your red pill.

You like taking the blue pill more.

It's easier.

As you watch this video, pay close attention to the logos and who is speaking:

For me, the blue pill is typically associated with streams of consciounsess coming from any one of the six largest media companies, who reportedly are a source for over 90% of the information consumed by Americans. It's no wonder that their truths are so widespread.

These people want you angry, divided, and submissive to their messaging.

They want you living in fear (of disease, guns, nuclear war).

They want you to believe in saviors (pharmaceuticals, laws, politicans, Curry).

They want you to buy the products they are peddling.

Take a look at their org structure:

21st Century Fox tried to buy TimeWarner,
but then Disney went and bought parts of 21st Century Fox!

The red pill comes from the other 10%, from sites like this.

These people want you to stop listening to the scripted lies told by the mainstream media.

These people want you to take control of your life and believe in yourself.

These people want you to buy their products.

Yup, they also have products to sell. But the difference is that the red-pillers advertise their products at the bottom of their articles with big "BUY NOW!" buttons. It's a bit more honest to be that direct, I think.

The third option

As I said, there is a third option.

Have you figured out what it is yet?

Did you watch to the end of the video?

What happens at the end?

At the end of the day, what is the one thing that you can trust above all else?

What doesn't have any incentive to lead you astray?

What do you feel the third option is?

If you're interested in knowing why it is legal for networks to show propaganda, here you go.