The Orange Octopus

I wrote something yesterday about that feeling of overwhelm, the inability to even come current with all of the juxtaposed disasters right now. I think any time we have this kind of messaging it’s difficult, because I feel it now even: in my house on this day at this moment, we have a blue sky and it’s 72° and I just fed my favorite horse an apple and a carrot. That’s the disconnect. Asymmetry, you could say.

Anyway, here's the headline.

The issue here is with the media coverage. This is not a new concept, but it is steadily getting worse. Basically, once we removed the fairness doctrine, and then we did all of this consolidation inside the different networks, such that there are just many fewer journalists on the ground for any given beat, you end up with the perfect environment for widespread propaganda. This is how you control the message.

With just an informal poll of the people in my life, with all due respect, I don’t know anyone that is particularly news-savvy, or strikes me as substantially adept at sifting through the noise, so to speak. And to the contrary, I know of many in my daily life that don’t seem to either be paying any attention, or have any sort of skepticism with regard to this news sources they consume. Basically, either people don’t care, or they’re not doing much homework. Unfortunately, at least at this point, that’s not enough to be knowledgeable. The average consumer is a sitting duck for all of the pro corporate & pro war messaging that is washing over us every minute of every day. It’s wild.

If you pair that with the news we’re getting from teachers on the ground in both primary and secondary education, this paints a picture of the future that is, if nothing else, very different from now, and in a worst case scenario is a race to the bottom that will sell out humanity in a way that seems to ignore the value of nature while inflating the utility of personal monetary wealth into something more like godpower.

I don’t tend to bring this kind of stuff up too often because I find it depressing. The choice that Google Maps and their larger parent company Alphabet has made, by adopting whatever silliness el Pulpo Naranja comes up with (see Gulf of America and Lake of America), is an unfortunate example of how money and political inconvenience can outshine the will of the people in these everyday decisions. I also wonder how long this Lake of America charade can go on.

But until then, I propose an update to the five-letter acronym we have for the names of the Great Lakes. Once, it was HOMES:

Huron

Ontario

Michigan

Eerie

Superior

For as long as we are forced to look at Lake America in the place of Lake Ontario, I give you:

Superior

Huron

America

Michigan

Eerie

What does that spell?