Why We Feel We’re Alone Or In The Minority
The headline I read today was “Climate concern in Wisconsin is more common than you think”. In it, it says that “up to 90% of Americans underestimate how much people care about climate change”. “While 62% worry about climate change and support policies, they believe they are in the minority, thinking that only 42% share the same concerns.” “Scientists say that when people think others aren’t concerned — or even skeptical — that stops them from talking about their concerns.” “’These perceptions are holding people back in terms of expressing that concern, voicing it to others and perhaps organizing around it.’”
Interesting and important reporting. Unfortunately, the only reason provided for why people feel they are in the minority on this issue is that “people have a hard time gauging what the majority believes because often the minority tends to be visible and loud.”
It sounds to me that the article is referring to MAGA. I’m not giving them a pass, but let me suggest another group that is a distinct minority but has the ability to drown out the opinions of others: the media itself. The media, more than any other entity I’m aware of, has the power to fashion the perceptions of the populace. The media has not merely failed to provide us with the relevant information we need regarding climate change, their lies of omission regarding climate change has many of us believing we are in a minority that worries about climate change. Watch the establishment corporate media, read the corporate news sources, and you will see just how little a priority they place on one of the most vital issues of our day.
You can blame MAGA for this if you like, but keep in mind MAGA was raised by the mainstream media, most likely far more than the rest of us. Travel into the heart of MAGA, visit the most destitute and desperate trailer park where Let’s Go Brandon flags fly at every lot, and despite whatever else the people there lack, I’m guessing they’ll have a satellite dish, antenna, or cable connection. The problem is not that they don’t have access to the kind of culture mass media has to provide, the problem is that they do.
It’s not just climate change, either. The media makes you feel alone on many issues. That is its job. It wants you to feel isolated and powerless, and maybe a little bit crazy. It wants to make you believe they speak for the masses, that they are your friend, that they are looking out for your best interests. And if you don’t agree with them, well you are in a very tiny minority and it’s time for you to get your head straight.
We saw this after the death of Jeffrey Epstein. Immediately after he predictably died under extraordinarily suspect conditions. The media’s response that it was their job to quell any theories that his death was in the least bit suspicious. The problem was not that a blackmailer died in custody and surveillance cameras weren’t working, the problem was that those whacky conspiracy theorists would try to question the official explanation.
Minorities can be treated quite cruelly by those with power. We know this from history and from various examples from the present. The media is fairly good at at least giving lip service to that. But when it comes to people who have a view contrary to the majority, the media affords them little sympathy. If you hold a view that does not jibe with what the majority believe, you are a trouble maker, a problem, a bad person, a threat to the American way. It’s okay to hate that kind of minority. It’s okay to make that sort of minority person feel bad about themselves. It’s okay to make them feel self-conscious, to make them feel that they should keep their inner thoughts and feelings to themselves. There is no dissenter pride month, nor is there a dissenter history month.
The thing is, we dissenters are not in the minority. As is shown in the example of climate change, we are in the majority. It is just that it is the media’s job to make us feel as though we are in the minority. And in terms of those who are suspicious of the official narrative regarding the death of Jeffrey Epstein, I’m guessing we’ve at 95 or so percent. The media will never, EVER, allow us to contemplate that.
The media has its thumb on the scales so that they do not fall from our eyes. Weigh that into every perception you have about whether or not you are in a minority that should be expected to remain silent. Think about that every time you have a thought you feel might separate you from the rest of humanity. It just might be that it is a thought shared by others, a thought they wished someone else might utter so that they would not feel so utterly alone.