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Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 29, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I think the usual claim is that all media companies are owned by rich people with a vested interest in exercising their editorial control to limit talk of class consciousnesses.

The coverage of Occupy Wall Street was probably the place I can recall where this was most blatant, where working class solidarity got to be big enough a news item that the news media couldn't completely ignore it, but instead did everything they could to downplay it and not talk about the goals of the protests. Even so, the protest managed to have one meme that was too good/pithy for the media to completely suppress, the idea of the "1%" vs. the "99%", which is a pretty concise message of working class solidarity, although Sanders's focus "billionaires" may be a clearer version of that message.

The Toxoplasma of Rage should probably also be considered: that is, you don't need a secret cabal pushing Culture War items, modern (social) media structurally encourages Culture War content because it maximizes engagement=ad money.