It works both ways. The media feeds us bullshit because bullshit is what we demand. Compare the popularity of the Great Global Warming Swindle to the popularity of the Inconvenient Truth. We want to be scared, so the media feeds us scare stories. We want to believe in fantasies, so the media feeds us fantasy stories. The content of the media reflects popular demand.StilesBC wrote:I don't believe in any of the hype around this swine flu. I think it is a power grab by government and a money grab by the drug companies. Together with a complicit media (as always) we are being fed mass propaganda to instill fear, panic and complicity.
Eat well, exercise, keep a stash of storable food in your home. Those are recommendations I would make to anyone at anytime. But to avoid public gatherings is way over the top. Especially for a disease that has killed far fewer people than the average flu does.
The real issue is not the news. It is the reaction to the news. We are in a period of declining social mood. People are more likely to believe the worst if they are already pessimistic. That is why this has received even more coverage as SARS with a fraction of the casualties.
The drug companies obviously have a lot to profit from these hypes. That is one reason hypes concerning imaginary diseases are fed into the public mind. However, if the public was not so susceptible to these delusions, then the drug companies could do nothing, so this effect is not only caused by the greed of the drug companies but also the stupidity of the public.