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Comment by downWidOutaFite | Hacker News Reader

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I think you got your hands reversed - most popular/widespread media platforms, both traditional and social, seems entirely controlled by left-leaning interests.

I think both side are right and wrong. The media simply plays almost all sides while convincing everyone that they are the ones being oppressed.

Saying that corporate media is left leaning is just propaganda that the right uses to play the refs. It's just absolutely not true, downvote all you want. The reason reddi seems shockingly biased to many is because you don't see left leaning media very frequently if at all outside of reddit. Same reason why people search for reddit to try break out of google's seo bubble, it's one of the few outlets for noncorporate grassroots expression left on the internet.

I mean, I'm in Europe. To me, most western media - particularly US - seems to be between left and far left[0], but I'm realizing this may be selection bias, due to several factors:

- I'm thinking mostly about Internet-accessible media. That means social media, Internet-only news/opinion publishing, and legacy news/opinion media that underwent a transformation, from printing papers and running TV channels, to publishing articles on-line and running TV streaming. This is biased against media platforms that are still more focused on TV, radio and/or paper.

- I'm going by my own overall experience and exposure, which is likely biased by my interests and circles - STEM, software industry, higher education, and adjacent.

It feels to me that the "left/right" split in media is ~80/20, but I have no good way to estimate the the actual volume of right-leaning media, as I inhabit a left-leaning filter bubble[1]. That said, the reason I suspect there is some imbalance favoring "left" is because news publishing and advertising both focus mostly on-line these days, are run by well-educated people, and involve a lot of tech - and all those factors tend to lean left, AFAIK.

EDIT: also another factor suggesting an imbalance - there is clear one-sideness in terms of effective cancellation, performative victimhood and outrage activism - if there was no media bias, both extremes would be equally effective (or neither would be). This is not to say only one extreme is trying to manipulate people like this - I just suspect one side does it mostly through the media, and the other mostly through church sermons[2].

[0] - The meaning of "right"/"left" I'm using here is the US one, as much as I internalized it. Over here in Europe, the "middle point" is located somewhere else, making the US "right" and "left" both be mostly on the same side - I just can't ever remember which one.

[1] - I don't seek out news myself, so I ingest mostly whatever happens to cross my way (and half of that is via HN anyway). My main exposure to more right-leaning media is through the government TV station my in-laws watch, and some talking point one of my parents picks up from weird and mostly partisan political YouTube channels.

[2] - The little exposure I had locally with Catholic sermons tells me that priests often push specific political / social views on the parishioners.

Well I would consider far left media to be anti capitalist. Could you name one or more outlets that don't lick corporate boot and have any kind of relevancy outside the internet? The only one I know is Jacobin, which has 3 million views per month on their website and sells 75000 newspapers, which is not a large publication (Those are medium sized youtuber numbers).

I think this disagreement comes from people using vague terms like "leftist". E.g. one person might think it means anti-capitalism, anti-globalism and workers rights, while another might think it means pro-trans, pro-environmentalism and anti-hate speech. And both think the other is using their definition.

> I think this disagreement comes from people using vague terms like "leftist". E.g. one person might think it means...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel

It is bizarre that for so many of the modern day cultural issues we have, there is extensive relevant academic work that we could leverage, but if you look around you at various discussions and goings on, it's as if these resources do not exist. I always wonder the degree to which this is organic.

I'd argue this is because those cultural issues aren't academic. The topics themselves may be studied to smaller or larger degree, and as you note, there's a wealth of relevant, universally applicable knowledge - but this doesn't matter for cultural issues, as the "issues" part here means this is a fight. The people driving the conversation are trying to win something - like political power for their group, or self-esteem for themselves. Being considerate and reasonable in fighting such fight is, unfortunately, a hindrance.

I absolutely agree, my point is I do not know of a single human being on this planet proposing that semiotics and various other academic disciplines within philosophy are relevant and or useful here, I haven't come across anything and I look for these things on the regular. From a systems analysis perspective, it seems to me this is where THE problem is.

If this is actually true, I think it would be absolutely hilarious if this is what took humanity down, I can't think of a more deserving species.

It's as if putting humans into two groups is an entirely stupid idea in the first place

What jazzyjackson below said prompted the realization that the GP is indeed talking about leftism, as opposed to liberalism (conventionally seen as a center-right political philosophy).

Most popular and widespread media companies are bastions of liberal thought, not leftist thought. And can be as intolerant of leftists as they are conservatives.

My comment was flagged for wrongthink. Thank you HN, I have been properly reeducated. Media is leftwing, media is leftwing, media is leftwing...

Unsure if this comment is satire or not?

I think they're serious but they have a particular definition of "left" which includes anti-work and late-stage capitalism. When you think the left isn't left enough, everyone else is to your right.

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