A Crisis of American Democracy

A Crisis of American Democracy​

Opportunities for major reform are rare. It requires near-catastrophic events to upset the propaganda machine and create an opportunity to break our chains. The last such opportunity was Occupy Wall Street.

What can we learn from Occupy Wall Street​

The 2011 stock market crash devastated millions of people. President Obama opted to bail out the bankers while people lost their homes. Occupy Wall Street soon formed to protest Wall Street's recklessness and demand accountability. Within days, Occupy Wall Street turned from a broad-based movement about financial reform to a complete mess filled with grifters and fringe social causes. The public soon abandoned their cause; Our once in a lifetime opportunity wasted. The TEA party formed from its ashes much to the detriment of our democratic stability.

Here are things that contributed to its failure.

• Lack of clear objectives
• No actionable proposals
• Lack of accountability
• Extremist Violence

We have another opportunity right now. Hopefully we can learn from the mistakes of our predecessors.

Organization speech versus individual speech​

Our political opponents are strong but they have a fundamental weakness.

A protester standing on a corner holding a sign is authentic. That individual spent an hour of their personal time to stand in the weather and communicate their message to you. It wasn't some paid advertisement through a marketing agency or a talking head. This authenticity establishes integrity that paid media messages can never achieve.

Why do you think people will listen?​

Congressional approval ratings are around 20 percent. Executive approval is 40 percent and dropping. People are ready for change and neither party will deliver.

People are sick of the hate, violence, and rhetoric. People are sick of being lied to by their representatives and news sources. I believe that a message of peace and a plan for meaningful legislation would be welcomed by others.

So how does one individual get heard?​

First is to be your own authentic self. Our world is not the funhouse world of sex-trafficking rings disguised as fashion shows and botox injections. We are the men and women working hard on a daily basis to get stuff done. We don't need to be anything other than that.

Second is to remember that it's much easier to authentically support legitimately good positions than it is to polish turds. This is a huge advantage over entities that must rely on Orwellian double speak.

We make our voices heard through Independent Media on corporate platforms like YouTube. Independent Media is how we challenge the dominance of Corporate Media and the pay-for-play news industry. A corporate platform is not ideal, but it is one of the few ways to reach millions of viewers and this must be protected. The best way to suppress Corporate Media influence is to stop watching your television and get your news online.

Corporate Media must compete with thousands of Independent Creators on these platforms such that their popularity is determined by the quality of their content rather than ownership of an FCC license. As an Independent Creator you will need to deliver a better service for consumers (not advertisers) than your competitors do. In industry jargon: "Get good".

Focus on simple, undisputed facts instead of opinion unless your opinions are great. Your primary focus should be on the integrity and quality of your content if you want my attention. Gimmicks like "top 10", reposts of other content, flamebait, misleading headlines, misleading thumbnails, propaganda, stereotyping, meta-analysis (is. polling by party affiliation) instead of issue analysis, hit pieces, disallowing feedback, and other sloppy content techniques usually results in blocking recommendations from that channel.

Make content that is worth watching.