by Arjun Walia, Collective Evolution
Being a part of and a voice within the “alternative news” network, I’ve had a front row seat to just how many changes and how much censorship has occurred since we started, all the way to the present day. Although I do not prefer the name “alternative news,” it’s simply just news, nothing ‘alternative’ about it. It’s up to the people themselves to examine the sources and decide if it resonates with them or not.
The problem today is that we have too many people reading headlines, and not enough people examining sources and thinking for themselves. We rely on a handful of corporations that own approximately 90 percent of major information sources to give us our information, thus turning off our critical thinking and action caps and using our gift of intelligence to figure things out. We let someone else do it for us, and as a result we’ve become dependent on them for information. Anytime this source is simply questioned, some people can still have a fit.
Another issue is that many of us live lives, completely engulfed “in the matrix” and not concerned enough to do anything about. Welcome to the shift in human consciousness, and by that I mean the way we think about ourselves, our world, and how we live here. Change can take place with the simple shift in the way we perceive our reality, and while we continue to live our lives within “the matrix,” we can still make a big impact by doing so and have fun doing it. It’s all about how you perceive it, and it’s all about treating others the way you’d like to be treated.
More people have been inspired to do something, more people are starting to care and become self-aware. This is exactly why ‘alternative’ media networks got so popular in the first place, because of this shift in thinking. Because our willingness to question those who we place in power is growing. We question their motives, their actions, and provide substantial evidence. People are not stupid; we have the ability to discern and disseminate information. The problem is taking the time to do so.
People’s minds are expanding and opening, and thus are more able to entertain new views and evidence that paint a different picture from what we’ve been spoon-fed all of these years. Cognitive dissonance is becoming a thing of the past.
What is the solution to the recent “fake news” problem? As Edward Snowden puts it, not to censor information but to think critically.
“The problem of fake news isn’t solved by hoping for a referee, but rather because we as citizens, we as users of these services, help each other. We talk and we share and we point out what is fake. We point out what is true. The answer to bad speech is not censorship, the answer to bad speech is more speech. We have to exercise and spread the idea that critical thinking matters, now more than ever, given the fact that lies seem to be getting more popular.” (source)
Leaked Documents
Recently, journalist, author, and filmmaker Mike Cernovich had inside information that Google was actively suppressing alternative media. According to him, he obtained documents and took screen shots sharing how a Google contractor was advised to rate infowars.com, a popular alternative media website, as “low-medium” on the reliable website index since its stories are “often debunked.”
Google did not deny this. In fact, they confirmed it, according to The Business Insider, but claimed that the contractor was not instructed to do so, but rather, he “mistakenly told staffers working for the search engine that infowars.com should be ranked as a low-quality site.”
So, it’s up to the readers to decide what they want to believe, but personally, based on everything else that has happened over the years, I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’m specifically referring to the “fake news” phenomenon. Facebook recently teamed up with corporations like ABC and Snopes, among others, in an attempt to limit the amount of “misinformation” that can be spread on the internet. As a result, these authorities are not letting the people examine information and sources for themselves, but rather determining what is real and what is ‘fake news’ according to them.
This is yet another example of infringing on our right to access information openly and freely.
It’s hard to imagine how they thought this type of intervention would be a smooth one, as the announcement sparked outrage among millions of people, who in turn called out mainstream media as the real ‘fake news.’ For example, as a result of the announcement by Facebook, three time presidential candidate Ron Paul released a list of “journalists” who colluded with the Clinton campaign. You can view that list HERE.
With all of this happening, and what just recently transpired, it wouldn’t at all be surprising if Google was actively doing the same thing.
It’s quite ironic, especially given the fact that multiple award-winning mainstream journalists have come out stating that mainstream media is full of corporate and government agendas, that they are instructed and paid by these entities to make up stories and create fake news. I guess not much has change since the inception of the CIA’s operation Mockingbird, has it? You can read more about that and see some examples in an article we previously published, here.
Why & How ‘Alternative Media’ Become So Popular
What’s transpired over the past few years is something that’s never happened when it comes to the world of information. Out of the industrial and technological revolution came the free press, but it was quickly snatched up by a small group of people and the corporations they run that now control over 90 percent of the information we hear and see. Approximately fifteen years after the internet was made public, alternative media was birthed. Collective-Evolution was one of the first, and we had front row seats to the attention the stories we were putting out every year and how we were amassing more and more attention. It wasn’t long when alternative media sites began having more than a billion eyes on them at each year’s end.
This was the first time that information and attention with regard to what’s happening in our world was directed away from mainstream corporate media, and as a result they lashed out and were quick to label many sites as promoting ‘fake news,’ as discussed above.
When this massive spike happened, and a massive amount of information started to creep out into the mainstream like never before, Facebook algorithms changed, and site traffic instantaneously dropped.
Although the amount of viewership has been cut by well over 50 percent, these recent events brought even more attention to alternative media in a way like never before. It goes to show that information is threatening. That alternative media networks, free press, and people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are a threat. We are told that these entities are a threat to national security, but it seems that instead, they are a threat to the power and control structure that the west and their allies have amassed over the years in their quest for global domination.
A wise man, among many, once told us that “an announced need for an increased need for security, will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of censorship and concealment. That I do not tend to permit, so long as it’s in my control.” – JFK (source)
