It is very politically correct to frame any trouble in terms of "the pandemic". To talk about coping, days "blurring together" (forced meme "blursday"), and how pharmaceuticals and other products of "the machine" can help us "just get by". ¹ It is almost as if everyone is being encouraged to embrace the idea that they are traumatized and then to trust state-sanctioned solutions to solve their problems.

The "mainstream narrative" pushed in one form or another by all major media outlets is one of surrendering agency and capitulating to a kind of gnostic worldview in which reality is cruel and impersonal, and only throught he mediation of a kind of "Scientist/expert" priest class can we hope to make progress. You are allowed to think how "trippy" quantum physics is and marvel at the latest cosmology "discoveries". ² Certain parties will be more than happy to sell you various products aid you in forgetting what has been done or to distract yourself from what is going around you.

Consider some slogans going on,

• "trust the experts"—let the establishment make decisions for you; don't question the narrative
• "build back better"—note the "666" in 6uild 6ack 6etter; people in power tore down the "old order" and are now trying to market a "sustainable/green future of increased surveillance, more restricted freedoms, and living arrangements that make us more tightly bound to governments and major corporations.
• "stop XYZ"—regardless of what XYZ is, "activism" of this sort often amounts to doing nothing. Giving people the illusion of being influential by joining in official outrage sessions provides a cathartic release in a controlled setting from the perspective of administrators

Note that the people pushing all of these things have massive budgets and platform control. So while it may seem like "everyone is talking about such-and-such", we see how social media platforms, bill boards, and signs around the city, and other places where people advertise are monopolized by the same parties with the same sorts of funding sources pushing the same sorts of narratives.

Here, I'm not just calling "fake news" on everything—I will in fact cite many major media outlets themselves reporting on who they are and who funds them:

• "Big Media Companies And Their Many Brands — In One Chart" (2016) by NPR.
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting — "A Private Corporation Funded by the American People"; while news outlets like NPR or the BBC in the UK may sound "neutral" in that you might presume that these organizations are just "working in the public's interest", closer examination reveals they are just as "for profit" as other companies, only they have a different model for getting revenue and project a different image to the public.

Big money and big government are behind both "private" and "public" media, and they are work together to push the same sorts of narratives. Big Tech has emerged over the past couple decades as a partner in crime. Look up how these various big players buy up or assimilate smaller companies/organizations to see how the octopus spreads its tentacles.

"Main Street" vs Wall Street

So does everything suck? Of course not. The establishment players I'm talking about are are bank-rolled by coercion (taxes you don't really have a choice about paying or not; big corporations can weaponize laws/lawyers like smaller players can't). They are nearly everywhere and continue spreading their influence.

• "The real reason why Bill Gates is now the US' biggest farmland owner" (New York Post, 02/27/2021)—meanwhile, "normal people" struggle to own any land at all
• 5G pushed on you; you didn't have to ask for it
• Electric/self-driving cars means surrendering your autonomy; where does electricity come from? Does manufacturing this stuff cause a lot of pollution? A quick investigation will reveal that the "green revolution" probably does more harm than good for the earth.
• Proliferation of veganism and plant-based ultra-processed foods; just look around town, you'll see all of this stuff

There is a multi-front push for consolidation of control by some very powerful people. Most people aren't "in" on some giant conspiracy—we all need money to feed ourselves and/or our families. That being said, you only need a few villanious actors and then a lot of people who will just "go along with the program" to pull off schemes of evil design.

So don't go bully your local bank teller—that won't help anything. Do, however, choose to spend money on "main street" (i.e. small, medium-sized normal people businesses) and avoid giving control to the power hungry badguys when you can!

Outrage

Events to express outrage over are being fed to shotgun style to the population. If the race-baiting communists of BLM don't "get you", then maybe talk targetting your demographic will be more moving (e.g. Anti-Asian crimes; talk about the Mexican border). A one-size fits all fear-mongering scheme is to talk about more regulations for firearms—more careful discussions about what sorts of weapons people use to commit crimes (illegally acquired) and

Participating in state-sanctioned outrage doesn't help anything; it keeps your hands tied and makes you passion-driven and ineffective. Power hungry people would like you to be trapped in a rage-cycle because then you are tamed—it is like playing with a cat with a laser pointer. Only the laser dot is stories given to you by the news and the cat is your attention.

Independent Voices

Rather than naively trusting the big boys' news narratives, getting the perspectives of people "on the ground" gives a fuller picture of what is going on. This isn't a "Democrat vs Republican" or even "Right vs Left" issue—transcend the dialectic.

Here's some people I've watched lately (these are not overtly political or religious channels; useful information for anyone interested):

• Coffeezilla—especially valuable for his work uncovering scams/pyramid schemes
• ThisIsJohnWilliams real estate investor formerly based in California who discusses many finance related topics, including current events/taxation/etc
• Academic Agent—based British guy who discusses topics like pop culture and economics
• Mental Outlaw—lots of tech and corporate topics as well as practical info on DYI computing

In this day and age where it is increasingly difficult to find more "independent" takes via search engines (including Google, "the Youtube Algorithm), sharing/spreading links the old fashioned way is often the best way to be ackshually informed, I think.