With almost any group of Westerners/Canadians, it only takes a few minutes before someone reveals how heavily shaped by media narratives they are.
It starts with things like believing there’s still such a thing as real “democracy,” or that some politician or prime minister is genuinely there for the people. The current PM wasn’t even elected in a general election — he was placed into the position through a party leadership process then followed up by a charade of an election.
Then someone inevitably starts repeating cartoon-level ideas as if they think there's a rabid pack of Muslims out there who hate us for our “freedoms,” without any awareness that Western countries have spent decades bombing, invading, and destabilizing large parts of their region.
Or I’ll have to listen to someone talk about how a drone-bombing war criminal like Barack Obama was a great president while simultaneously parroting whatever slogans they heard from friends about Trump being an “orange conman.”
Yes — he is. But snap out of it.
Both sides of the spectacle run on the same shallow talking points.
It was the same during COVID. Suddenly everyone turned into an enforcer — pressuring friends, shaming people about vaccines, repeating whatever lines were circulating that week. The same people who talk endlessly about “freedom” had no problem piling on when social pressure was in style.
Then when the trucker protests happened, they suddenly found their voice — not because of principles, but because they felt personally inconvenienced or affected. When something touches their daily comfort, they become loud overnight.
But when the subject is endless war, proxy conflicts, or the growing risk of World War III, the same people are strangely quiet again.
That’s the pattern.
People only speak out when it affects their immediate comfort.
Otherwise they remain silent, passive, and perfectly content repeating whatever narrative is circulating around them.
What I almost never encounter are independent, critical thinkers.
Instead, I keep finding myself surrounded by programmed sheep, walking around with spirals in their eyes, repeating whatever narratives were installed in them.