Dodging the propaganda mall crowd: To thine own self be true

Back in the day, young people and soccer moms used to hang out at the local shopping mall when they had nothing better to do. Typically, they’d exchange the latest gossip, malicious or otherwise. Enjoy, guilt-free, cheap eats together somewhere in the mall’s food court. And occasionally filch something from one of the shops if the spirit moved them. But above all, they socialized, in person, face-to-face, one-on-one or as a group. Today, that’s all gone. And, unsurprisingly, malls are going downhill for various reasons. In their stead, today’s generations congregate at the propaganda mall, otherwise known as social media.

Dodging the propaganda mall crowd: To thine own self be true Charles-Durning_Texas-Gov_-Best-Little-Whorehouse_800x482

Dodging the propaganda mall crowd: To thine own self be true Charles-Durning_Texas-Gov_-Best-Little-Whorehouse_800x482

That means that rising generations addicted to portable media platforms get an incomplete picture of the other side of their conversations in many cases. Without traditional, in-person visual and personal signals as messaging flies back and forth, there’s no way to gauge honesty or integrity on the other side of the conversation. Which is why you need to be on the lookout if you’re using social media almost exclusively to provide social contact.

I initially dealt with this in my first article based on Caitlin Johnstone’s excellent treatise on the subject. There, we explored the first 5 of her 32 tips for avoiding the influence of propaganda. Johnstone’s next several tips involve developing the kind of strong personal integrity that enables you to dodge the lies and fake news put out by the propaganda mall crowd.

Already practiced skeptics should read Johnstone’s full, original article here. My edited version appears in this series, with my own comments and observations following each excerpt.
I’ve subtitled my own riff on Johnstone’s tips as:

32 Tips for Avoiding Propaganda Hell

(6 through 12)

https://www.commdiginews.com/entertainment/dodging-propaganda-mall-be-true-to-yourself-122425/

Dodging the propaganda mall crowd: To thine own self be true

Dodging the propaganda mall crowd: To thine own self be true

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