To what extent have your views on politics and social issues been shaped over the years by media, mainstream or social?

Probably quite a lot. That’s a very difficult question to answer, and I suspect even people who will deny it for themselves probably unknowingly have also.

Noam Chomsky pretty much summed it up in Manufacturing Consent.

https://chomsky.info/consent01/

There was a recollection of a Soviet era Pravda chief who expressed admiration for the seamlessness or American neo-liberal corporate propaganda and the fact people do not even realize there is a vast corporate funded propaganda machine.

Many things. Capitalism is the best system in Western democracy because it encourages individual freedom and innovation. It allows people to start businesses and compete, which leads to new ideas, better products, and economic growth. This system rewards hard work and creativity, helping everyone to have the chance to improve their lives and achieve their goals. I noticed and found this out in my Sophomore year at the University, hearing from people like George Will, William F. Buckley Jr. and Rush Limbaugh, Brit Hume, Ronald Reagan, Malcolm X were some of my biggest heroes and some of the books that deeply inspired me in my life:

“The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves” by Matt Ridley

“The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else” by Hernando de Soto

“How Capitalism Saved America: The Untold History of Our Country, from the Pilgrims to the Present” by Thomas DiLorenzo

Malcolm X

Malcolm X: “You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker.”

Shows how well you have been propagandized by the media about politics and economics.

https://communist.red/malcolm-x-you-show-me-a-capitalist-i-ll-show-you-a-bloodsucker/

Thanks for playing.

Malcolm X: “You show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a bloodsucker.”

Shows how well you have been propagandized by the media about politics and economics. 

Thanks for playing.

One of Malcolm’s early misunderstandings of Capitalism, true. But you are most certainly welcome.

Quite a lot probably. Had I grown up in, say, Teas where the media has a different view of politics I would probably also have held different opinions. Pretty much all our information on politics comes from the media so of course we are affected by how it is reported.

Over the years of checking out mainstream and social media I have come to better understand that: the function of politicians is to enrich themselves and their friends at the expense of tax payers with the aid of the MSM. Social media is filled with intentional dis/misinformation and clueless idiots, but it also has some brilliant informative content that can't be found in the MSM.

After receiving some links and references from followers of ‘alternative media’ ( they are suspiciously reluctant to share these ), it became clearer that the mainstream media, despite its many flaws, is a preferable source of information.

As for social media, Twitter is even more of a cesspit for idiots and bots these days.

I try to follow good advice from an old schoolteacher on politics - read more against your opinions than you read in favour of them. Good advice but I’d add choose your material wisely - some conspiracy crackpot in a basement or grifter/failed entertainer on YouTube isn’t really useful.

I would say it laid the foundation and my views growing up. But as I grew older, especially during the start of the pandemic and access to alternative sources of information, I now have a healthy dose of doubt on mainstream media and would tend to cross-check it with those alternate sources.

You really ought to get your politics from reading political philosophers, starting with Plato. Mainstream media used to introduce such stuff in debates and discussions with substance but they long ago abandoned the idea of elevating the level of discourse among the people and have gone the same way as mass education systems - to distract people from this ridiculous, destructive system, justify it by omission, and find meaning in vacuity.

As Frank Zappa put it: "Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex."

When I was 12 I went along with the majority view. I also had a few every day life experiences. The first was the consuming alcohol on the bases of getting drunk/ high. I did that 2 or 3 time before I turn 13 and started high school. That year try pot out even after all the negative propaganda on pot. That is when I started to wake up, because after experiencing alcohol and the heavy effect of the alcohol high compare to the placed high of pot and the propaganda about pot being addictive not being true.That is when I really started to question the status quo.

I try to follow good advice from an old schoolteacher on politics - read more against your opinions than you read in favour of them.

Same.

Good advice but I’d add choose your material wisely -

Well-spoken

some conspiracy crackpot in a basement or grifter/failed entertainer on YouTube isn’t really useful.

There are many crackpots everywhere, not just on YouTube, but also on other social media sites, opinion articles, etc. As adults, we just have to see and search for what and who we think are the more reliable sources we can trust.