[fragmede]

With the rise of Craigslist and the Internet, mainstream media is more reliant than ever on advertising. If there's a cute story about someone being nice, well, that's cute but boring. But if there's someone being horrible, gosh, I'm going to rush to go over and stare at the car crash, judge them for being horrible, be angry that they're horrible, feel smug about the fact that I'm not horrible. Possibly go on some sort of screed about "those people". All the meanwhile, I'm watching the advertisement because I really have to see whatever the thing is right after that.

"The media", in so far as it's a monolithic group (it's not), needs to get us riled up, divided, and angry. Not for some nefarious shadow government pulling the strings reasons, but because they need to pay the bills.

What's fascinating is how well the media as a whole manages to do it. Some portion of the masses can accept a mainstream point of view (eg wearing masks), but it seems a certain percentage of people just really have to not. And to those people (who are all the same), "alternative outlets" sell them on being special and that they are the only thinkers out there. Not like the rest of the sheep wearing muzzles. It would be funnier if it weren't literally life-threatening right now.

Step back, consider your principles, and draw your own conclusions. But it has to be okay if those conclusions simply accept what the mainstream narrative is telling you. Which is wear a mask, especially when indoors with groups of people.