The X-Stack Files

Your quarterly reminder that the big media publishers are lying to you.

Riding on the heels of the most epic AI meltdown EVER beginning of this month, I’d like to spend today talking about the transfer of information, “factfulness” (not a word yeah yeah I know), and the evolution of how we process mass amounts of data as humans.

We live in a day and age of dishonesty, distrust, and general skepticism. Skepticism itself is healthy in small doses. It keeps you out of all the nasty traps that are being constantly laid at your feet. For many older people, it’s simply not intuitive to just *doubt* things that are said by “authority figures”.

The Baby Boomers grew up in an age where the TV/radio was the news. If it was told on a screen or through speakers, by a well spoken man in a suit, it had to be true. They passed that on to Gen X, who grew the trend, and even inherited it. Gen X created modern television advertising as we know it still to this day, and made some incredible strides in the fields of manipulation and subtle psychology, much to our continuing detriment. Gen X also spearheaded the invention of political media. They ran the radio, TV, and journals that morphed into pure political propaganda over the next 20 years.

They passed it on to the Millennials, who had skeptics among them, but in general were perfectly content to pick a flavor of media and freely cite it as a valid “expert” source. I feel bad for the Millennials. It seems to me that they got utterly shafted in the worst ways, for about 20 years straight (maybe 1992-2012?)

The Millennials attempted to pass their ways onto Gen Z, who utterly rejected the status quo. If the Boomers believe anything that’s on TV, and the Millennials believe anything written in a Journal, Gen Z believes literally nothing at all. If you had to make a case for what they fall for, it’d be books. Gen Z typically will read 1 book on a topic and use it as the end-all be-all for their topical knowledge. That, or they go full spectrum mode and read every book ever written about it, and get analysis paralysis. They (we) have no concept of the fact that literally anyone can get a book published, it doesn’t have to be accurate or correct, or even supported by research/facts.

I don’t say all this to criticize, or hurt feelings, simply to set the stage. The modern media landscape is terrifying, and it’s important to understand how we got here.

Today, there are really only a few companies that control the entire narrative of the western world, particularly the US. They’re exceptionally large, and have been doing it for so long that spinning a story for a political goal is like riding a bike for them. They’re built to influence a generation of loyal viewers, and haven’t ever really had to deal with skeptics on the mass scale we have today. Literally, the first “native internet user” generation ever was the one to uncover the enormous corruption happening both in our government, and internationally. Gen Z, in our infinite autism, has unmasked countless “conspiracies”, caught an untold number of lying politicians red-handed, and somehow has kept the receipts for 95% of it.

You’re welcome (half-joking).

But how does this happen??? And why do they continue to attempt to lie after they’ve been caught so many times?

It’s fairly simple. When small, independent media companies start, the founders usually have the goal of delivering honest, straightforward journalism. “We’re gonna be the good ones!” they say, pumping out stories of official corruption, and fighting The Man. People love it! It’s what real journalism is. More and more of the “regular” population subscribes, tunes in, and buys from them every month. They gain a level of clout with the general public, to the point where most people accept them as a trustworthy source. Would you believe bought n’ sold publications like The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The New York Post used to be genuinely respectable places, who did real journalism for real people?? I know, it’s tough to picture, but it’s true.

So after a while, that little independent media company is no longer little, and can’t be considered independent, due to their sponsors and outside influence. The owner has likely stepped back, and is looking for an exit. Now that they have influence, power, and clout, 1 of the 3 media giants makes them an offer, likely some impossible amount of money, and they sell out. The founder gets to exit, and either start a new one, or ride off into the sunset. After a nice quiet acquisition, the newly purchased media outlet begins slowly but surely shifting their message (mandated by their new shadowy overlords) to match whatever message it is that the people funding the big media giant want to push that week. They’ll find or commission questionable studies, or bring on “experts” (who are known only within their own field to be quacks) in an effort to drag their readers over to a side. It’s very sad, and I only learned about it after I watched several of my favorite small time news outlets experience it, and began paying attention to the process. For my own sake and safety I won’t name them here.

The big companies play a different game, at a different scale. Their day to day operations are far less subtle, more so the hammer than the scalpel.

The large media outlets get their marching orders directly from *somewhere*, who knows, but it clearly comes from someone or some group. Every company on one “side” receives the same orders, ammunition, and timeframe, and they get to work. Have you seen the montages where they have CNN, MSNBC, and every other left-wing news station repeating the exact same sentences, in the exact same tones, with the exact same facial expressions?? It’s dystopian af. Super weird and extremely discomforting. I’ve seen the same thing on the other side with right-wing X accounts, as well as the news, but to a lesser degree.

Buddy of mine had an excellent example that proves the point, which I’ll use here…

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One day, you see news reports of people across the country wearing purple hats. You’re a bit confused, as you’ve literally never seen anyone wear a purple hat out in public before. You ask around and sure enough, your friends, family, and coworkers feel the same. For the next week every single news channel, journal and big social media commenter continue talking about how everyone is wearing purple hats. They’ve now added on a meaning to the symbol. According to them, wearing a purple hat signifies that you’re against kicking puppies. Paid influencers (confidentially, they often won’t tell their fans they’re being paid to spread propaganda) begin wearing purple hats, and talking about how wonderful it is to be raising awareness against kicking puppies.

The people on the “other side” fund a series of studies by a questionable “expert” to determine that kicking puppies is actually good for them, and that you should do it regularly. Normal people of course, still know that all of this is ridiculous and strange. Around this time, arguments on social media about whether or not you should kick puppies begin surfacing. The “ahckshually” people are out in droves, all fighting to dunk on one another for free clout, or ratio the “experts”.

All throughout this, regular ol’ folks like you and me (I’m assuming) are looking around thinking “what the actual fuck??”, why are we arguing about kicking puppies??? Of course you shouldn’t kick puppies! And there’s really no reason to be virtue signaling about it if you don’t, because that’s just normal… You start to feel like you’re going insane, it just can’t be that difficult to see how crazy the whole thing is, right?

But that’s exactly the point.

Tensions continue rising between the “Hatters”, and “anti-Hatters”. There are videos everywhere of people having public confrontations about the issue, and even getting physical. The term “nazi” is thrown around a few times.

A few years go by, much to the same tune, and everyone begins to realize how silly the whole thing is. People who refuse to wear purple hats do not, in fact, automatically enjoy kicking puppies. Families have been destroyed, friendships ruined, and trust lost forever. People who picked a side and actively participated either block it out from their memory, or dig in deeper and make it their entire personality. After all, their pride requires them to be the good guy in the story.

There are no apologies by the news stations, the “journalists”, the “experts”, the politicians, and the other charlatans, they’ve already moved on to the new current thing, wearing sunglasses upside down to signal that you don’t hate black people.

The media learned one thing from the purple hat (literally just fill in the blank, it’s a universal fit) fiasco: they can get a known quantity of people to do literally anything they want them to do, if they are provided with an “expert” and a good enough virtue to signal.

All the while, the regular people in the middle feel utterly disheartened. They just watched the entire world lose their minds, and everyone is pretending like it didn’t happen. It’s the ultimate gaslight.

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That’s just how it goes. It’s a machine that knows how to use it’s weapons to accomplish it’s goal.

I’m encouraged to see that people are able to recognize it now with fair regularity. If I had to bet on something, I’d bet that they’re going to double down on the psyop efforts. Until the current “regime” of old farts is out of power, they’ll continue to try the same old tricks, and rely on the same old means.

I expect it’ll take an exceptional amount of pain and suffering to undo the knots holding the system together, but once we do we have a chance to do it correctly. Keep the bureaucrats and manager class out of the media, forcefully if so, and allow true dedicated journalists (and shitposters) to do what they do best.