Mainstream media manufactures consent for war
By Sameer Siddiqui, Contributor
From the US all the way to China and Russia in the east, all countries have increased their military spending. I am not at all surprised that countries feel threatened by each other, and want to protect their critical routes of trading. For example, China building the islands on the South China sea is aimed to protect its maritime routes as most of its energy imports come through that route. The US, Russia and some European countries are the primary sources of weapons manufacturing and exporting. The companies that make these weapons make huge profits by selling them to customers overseas. The only reason they can sell these arms is because there are conflicts all over the world and not campaigns for peace; their entire business model is based on more conflicts and less peace.
This model of conflict is further illustrated in the companies making these weapons. The US defence companies use a concept called “political engineering,” which is the designing of political institutes in a society. They build most of their weapons within the US and employ thousands of people. With so many voters working in these companies, any political candidate who campaigns for reducing defence spending and increasing spending on education or healthcare would be labelled as one who doesn’t care about the people of their constituency and if they win, it would lead to thousands of jobs losses.
I believe we should be very careful in accepting any news when it seems like all the news channels are on one side. The way I see it, the media plays a very critical role in manufacturing consent for more wars. Does anyone remember when they lied that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction? They use a tactic whereby they repeat lies until people accept those lies to be the truth. The latest example of this tactic can be seen in the US where mainstream media has repeated a lie that President Trump and his campaign staff were somehow working covertly with the Russians to get him elected. To date, I don’t believe that any concrete evidence has been given.
In my opinion, the whole Russian election conspiracy can be easily debunked because the US intelligence agencies monitor all electronic communication in the US. If there was indeed some collusion or hacking they would know about it. I think that the media cannot accept that Trump won the election by his own hard work and without the Russian’s help. The neoconservatives and war lovers in the US are afraid that Trump could end up having peace deals with Russia and other countries. That is why it is my belief that the Russian conspiracy theory was created to prevent Trump from conducting diplomacy.
Every nation building up more weapons is a race to the bottom. Each country must gradually reduce its arms under the guidance of an international observer else we leave the next generation in debt and destruction. We all need to stop watching mainstream media and look for alternative sources of news. Yes, there are some good journalists out there, but they are a minority. I believe watching the mainstream media in a way hypnotizes us.
