talkRadio & Manufacturing Consent

talkRadio exists to manufacture consent, on behalf of the wishes of its owners, Wireless/News Corp/Murdoch. They try to coerce their audience into advocating certain viewpoints and to behave in ways that will benefit their owners/board members - i.e. voting for a specific party - with the aim of creating the conditions with which to increase the wealth and/or power of the company/stakeholders. They blur the line between news and commentary to avoid certain types of accountability.

Where it is seen that their audience will choose to behave against what will benefit the enrichment and empowerment of their stakeholders, they will use tactics to divide their listeners from their peer groups, present details disproportionately to create doubt and confusion around topics, and use single hot-topic issues to compel allegiance to the narratives they want you to follow, ultimately, again, with the sole mission of steering behaviour.

They present as wanting to hear from a range of their listenership; to give a platform to their voices - but out of a long day’s worth of content (including a lot of advertisements) calls take up a small proportion of the time, in between the presenters rallying a certain viewpoint, using guests only as a proxy to that certain goal.

Agreed Talking Points flow from presenter to presenter, with some nuance to give the illusion of difference and variety. The most passive listener will have casually pick up carefully selected messaging throughout their day, even if they have had the radio on in the background. All ‘questions’ posited to their audience, at the head of segments, are phrased in a way which leads to certain responses which they want.

The presenters will champion the idea that you are part of a community! In truth, the relationship is mostly one directional. Any listening the station does to its audience, is to recognise dynamics it can manipulate to its overall goal. All call-ins are triaged by a researcher/producer, and are selected, or denied, to suit the purpose of the station’s messaging. When a channel such as talkRadio reaches a certain volume of people, the requested feedback will include a range of views for the station to pick from. That caller will then be a ’useful idiot’ for the messaging. Cleverly, they will still present contrary views, to continue the illusion of fairness/balance, but the treatment of each view will be quite different, and dissenters will be debated in bad faith and ridiculed.

As soon as you, as a listener, no longer perform the necessary outcome function for the owner/board members - including voting the way they want you to vote, support the lifestyles they want you to live, to buy the products they want you to buy, to undermine the groups they want you to undermine - then they will ridicule and reject you too. 

 

The music used between segments is repetitive and seeks to instal a mood in the listener. A heavy, minor piece with violin stabs creates a sense of import and drama. Such a piece might be used to soundtrack a crude thriller. The contrived excitement marries extremely repetitive content, seducing the listener to be highly alert but also comfortable with their own repetitive behaviour (in their job, and/or listening to this station) and not taking any local action for themselves. The station just wants you to listen more.

talkRadio endlessly campaigns to damage the BBC because it wants a completely privatised news market, of which it wants the lions share to push messaging that suits its shareholders. There is no circumstance they will support the BBC because they do not really care about integrity - talkRadio just wants power.

In fact, as a major power within the privatised market, New Corp/Murdoch would like as many public services privatised as possible, so they can seek to buy-off or crush competition directly. For this reason, talkRadio shows will regularly disparage the NHS as an institution, as it represents to many a great achievement of the public sector. talkRadio will advocate for the privatisation of the NHS, without highlighting that their model would leave the poorest in society without healthcare.

talkRadio messages that there is 'no opposition' to the ruling political party because they want the ruling political party in charge. Their shareholders benefit from low taxes, and internal division between the lower middle / working classes. It may be true that there is small difference in the idiology of the two main parties, but there is a choice you can make - in the voting system, but more so, in how you choose to live your life and work with people who do inspire you on a local level. The stakeholder's of talkRadio benefit from a population that feels apathetic and despondant.

talkRadio wants its listeners to be angry at migrants because it distracts their attention from seeking to make changes to the tax system, whereby the wealth of the rich of this country could be more evenly distributed, creating fairer conditions for all. talkRadio is concerned with protecting the economic situation of its rich stakeholders - expanding those conditions even.

talkRadio loves talking about 'wokeism' because it likes to aggrevate and upset its listeners because if they are distracted by ‘culture wars’, they will not be organising or channelling their efforts, arguing for material change and gain for the working classes from those in power - more progressive taxation, better services etc.

This station presents as being supportive of the Working Class, but every presenter is paid a large salary to sit in a chair for a few hours, to push messaging that argues against and undermines ideas/changes that would enable greater wages for working people, for better health care for working people, for better housing for working people, for more community between working people.

These presenters, and their teams, might be ignorant of the part they play in the machine they support, or they might be complicit in understanding their role as soldiers for their rich boss’ fortunes, and happy with their cut. Either way, the cause and effect of this station is toxic to the population it claims to advocate for, and its business model means it will always function as such, because to change would mean to advocate for a world where the interests of the rich are curtailed, and those funding talkRadio do not seek to diminish their wealth and power.

- c. h., 17th May 2021

Thoughts Around My Renting

I have a strange identity in terms of conversations I see online in terms of renting/owning property.

Firstly, my belief is that property is theft. This world is all of ours, no part of it should belong to one person. Lives are all a transition. We rent it (Dido was spot on)

From Uni and following for a few years, I rented places, with the security of my parents, that when things went wrong (due to my ignorance, selfishness and mental health issues, at different times & overlapping times) they propped me up.

I was a student and then worked a minimum wage job in different locations at this time. I rented flats in Wakefield, Leeds & Newcastle.

In Wakefield, I lived with 2 friends in a terraced house, the rent was very reasonable. With cars going in one colour, and out another from his property, and our landlord requesting cash payments, I have reason to suspect he was not paying the requested tax.

Of course, my rent contribution then was propping him up, and that potentially hidden capital is another butterfly wing...

When he came around for the rent money, my friends and I would feel obliged to listen to his and his friend's sexual exploits. We did not encourage this, and it was hard to curb his monologues.

He was a cheerful person, and, outside of the behaviour previoiusly referenced, friendly to us.

In Leeds, 2006-2007, there was a culture of pushing 'luxury rents' to students, regardless of the financial capacity of students wanting to come to Leeds Uni to study.

Many of the front-facing offices for the agencies pushing such rentals looked like bullshit spaceage offices...slick, yuppy aspirational...

I believe there was an individual who profited from a number of these subsidiary companies/agencies... He would be taken to court every so often around violations but was so rich he could distance himself from accountability

I came from a background that was not in a place to rent 'luxury properties', but I rented a room in a 7 room house with student friends. It was a lovely structure but a bare and uncared-for house.

It was hard to find a place to move into, and I was grateful that group of people invited me to join. Getting the agency to attend to anything took forever. Once we were all in and paying, that was their concern exhausted.

I then got very lucky in finding a studio flat nearby some friends. It was just over a quarter of my wage, but was one ensuite room in the basement of a terraced property. There was a double-glazed door, and this was the only source of light, at lower than street level.

My mental health was getting worse, and I was exacerbating this with smoking marijuana more regularly. The lack of light, isolation, and unfulfilling work made the larger issues I was struggling with unmanageable.

I developed a psychosis of sorts, hiding from visitations. Remaining still in my room until those knocking on the doors left. I was fearful of conversation. I would unplug the phone.

I turned up to work without fail because I was institionalised not to let down pre-existing arrangements. It was my body in attendance, my mechanics, not me.

That broke eventually. I quit. I was so scared to speak to the reality for which I was really leaving, I lied and said I had another job. This was the only lie I told my boss then. In many ways he had been good to me, and I am ashamed that I lied then.

The next place I rented was a messanine one person flat in Fenham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I was looking for work at the time and my benefits were covering my rent. My dependence on alcohol was at its highest when I started renting here. In retrospect, I was not ready to live alone

I say ready, because I had (and still have) the luxury of parents who love and care for me, and have a home of their own that could/can accommodate me. That summer I had been unbearable to them. I do not know how they managed to be so generous towards me, with the way I behaved

In my delusion, I started up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne having applied for an MSc. but although I completed a successful application, in the midst of my Depression and alcoholism, I was not fit to learn at this level, or any basic level to be honest.

Though I was not suicidal, and I am fortunate enough to have never felt suicidal ideation, I was drinking to slowly destroy my body. I felt worthless, and felt this daily act of destruction a fair response to the things of myself that I hated (Of course, in hindsight, it was not)

Anyhows - in terms of renting - this is how unfair our system is. A distant relative, who I had met twice in my life, died, and surprisingly left me an amount of money that I was not expecting.

This is not my money, I did not deserve this money, why would he leave me this money?

But he did. It was enough to buy a flat in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. My parents suggested I do this, and having gone through the past ten years of instability and being a liability when I could not support myself, I felt this would at least give them respite from my burdening them.

Of course, there were many benefits to me too. No rent, I could look after the property autonomously etc... I could take more pride in its character etc.

All this out of nowhere. I was still working a next-to minimum wage job when I moved into this flat in 2009.

I believe I was on something like 12-13,000 a year, something like that, for full-time, 9-5 office job.

Saving to even establish ownership of such a property would have been impossible for me on the wages I was on. It should not have been mine, and yet, it was.

I hated myself when renting, because I always felt on a tightrope, and that any minute I would fall, it would be me that was the burden to others. I did not feel the critique of the system, I felt personally responsible. This perspective is inaccurate. All people deserve a home.

I then hated myself owning my flat because I hadn't *earned it*. Again, this perspective is a lie. All people deserve a home. It reveals that internalised lie, rampant individualistic capitalist culture- you work + that work means you are entitled to the things you have. Bullshit

So what if I'd worked a job, and the money I had from that lead me to have a house. What the fuck are we doing? Because of the job I'm in, I get to manage to do that, whilst others, who are LIVE LIVING PEOPLE, don't? All people deserve a home.

I now have moved from that property, for work and for wanting to explore living in a different place. I now am renting and property and renting our my flat in Newcastle. I am both a landlord and a tenant. I feel extremely privileged to be able to do this.

Also, I would not be able to live in the place I am living and renting, without the support I get from renting out my Newcastle home.

The rent I pay as a tenant is approx. double what I take as a landlord. I feel guilt and shame at being a landlord taking any money for no labour on my part. I comfort myself knowing I pay someone much more for the same absence on contribution. But 2 wrongs do not make a right

I hope one day to be able to either not rent, or rent in a country that gives proper security to those who rent - and not have to be a landlord. I want no house that is not my home.

- c.h. 11th August 2019

My Generation

What will your generation be remembered for?
We were lost.
Is that something to be remembered for?
I’m not sure.


- c. h. 21st March 2019

Medication & Mental Health (Personal Experiences)

Sertraline has proved very effective at limiting 'the bottom' of my feelings. It's true it has also calmed my manic states too, but my happiness can still exercise itself fairly freely. And without the lows, my engagement with people and activities I want to be part of is a net positive for sure.

Please consult with medical professionals before starting a course of drugs yourself. 

Love to all who find it hard to manage their mental health.


- c. h., 11th November 2018

 

The Eleventh Of September

The eleventh of September, two-thousand and one, was our one-week anniversary.
We nervously touched one another’s bodies, with no televisions around. 
Embarrassed by pre-cum soaking through my beige trousers, I held my jumper over my groin when I met her father.
As we all mingled awkwardly in the kitchen, he indicated at a screen in the corner, and said
‘this is going to be the start of something.’
We went back up to her room. It would be years until I felt it.


- c. h., 11th September 2018

Some Thoughts Of A Recovering Alcoholic

Alcohol is the drug that has caused the most destruction in my life.

Alcohol has corrupted my path more so than any other drugs I have taken. There is no scale for reasonable comparison.

My consumption of alcohol has cost me hundreds of friendships already; many directly, others indirectly.

It has played a part in writing a history that will lose me friends I have yet to make.

I chose sobriety for a approximately four years in my early twenties before relapsing.

I have been sober since the summer of 2014. I cannot remember the precise date I decided to stop, but it was sometime in the month of June, and I celebrate each year from this decision on the 1st July.

There is no urge to drink left in me because I am emotionally connected with the damage it has done.

Though people compliment my abstinence, my continual or ongoing abstinence is not really an evidence of strength for me. Those people resisting a lust to return, those people should be encouraged with such compliments.

However, I feel making the decision in the first instance (though the intention collapsed) and then the second and final instance, was an act of strength, because I faced behaviour, personality, cause and effects, and I used the skills and powers I had, accepted the help from willing friends and family, and took control. I take comfort in that method and decision as I seek to repair my life, and contribute positively to society.



When I think of the act of drinking, I still imagine the pleasure of the taste, and the highs involved in the feelings it can connect you to. That understanding is not depreciated. I recognise that certain times drinking I have been thrown into wonderful and positive situations. The drinking has sometimes informed that positive curve. Of course, holistically, these positives pale against what was sacrificed in ignorance and fear. 

When someone explains to me that they can just have “one or two” drinks, though I can rationalise their decision, I feel no emotional connection with that idea. Drinking was always an ever lengthening river for me. I would travel with it until it washed me up on the shore. I laid back in its arms. It was my guardian and guide.

When someone explains they drink as part of camaraderie, “a session with friends”, again, I can rationalise that idea but it was never that for me. My relationship with alcohol was personal and bilateral, working alongside relationships with people inside I loved and enjoyed spending time with. It did inform my social patterns to a degree, but I never considered it a social event, but something that was added to a social event. Performing in bars informed my decision to drink too. Working in dissatisfactory positions of employment also informed my decision to drink too.

Those that are modest drinkers and do it because they have been brought up in a culture where it is the norm, and want to fit in, present a behaviour which is of no temptation to me. Though their behaviour, for those that are in control of their alcohol consumption, present less danger than those who relinquish themselves to the act, I am still emotionally attracted to the latter behaviour. This is additional evidence for why I must never drink again.

When I think about drinking, I think of drinks that got me high, as well as the ones that got me drunk. Those drinks that hit the front of my brain. Prince Bishops ale. Various other pale ales. Scottish Whiskeys. Rioja. Other beer got me drunk. Cheap American Whiskey got my drunk. Pernot got me high. Some drinks would perform differently dependent on the mood of the occasion, or quantity of intake.

I think of the escape that I begged for, the confusion in my life, a sense of inescapable trauma, that thanks to support from others, and education, and personal processing, as well as counselling, I have managed to replace with a will to confront and a belief in hope.




I think of the acceptance of alcohol, and rituals involving alcohol, defining the possibility of bonding and unity in certain political situations. It is often a shorthand for shared values and trust. Similarly talking about football can serve such a purpose in this country. Though I know there is judgement and disadvantage for not partaking in some situations, ultimately those situations that result in a  disadvantage are often in the company of those with political spirits I do not share, in particular, some conservative values around social equity that do not fit in my ideas.

It remains a hypocrisy that alcohol is legal to purchase in the UK, where as marijuana among others drugs remain illegal. This contradiction exposes its political use. As a depressant it can numb those who might be served best by feeling. By linking certain drinks to certain prices, it can become a code for an opinion on class, import or belonging.

I think of the first time I got drunk on stubbies at a school house-party. I remember the mild haziness, and the feeling that fitted in. In a way, upon reflection, I realised I must have been wishing for that much more than I would have admitted to myself at the time.

Those who are facing great pressures in this life, those who are affected by alcoholism - I have nothing but empathy for you. Those trying to cope and deal with this world, power to you. Keep going. You are deserving of love. If you can, please speak to people you trust about this, and ask for help. There are many charities that could help too.

I think of alcohol as both a cause and a symptom of problems. In my life it has played both roles. I am accountable for myself when I have consumed it. Others can choose whether to accept their accountability for when their drinking has affected me.



This will do for now. To be continued.

23rd February 2018, Chelsea Hare.

Stigma & Mental Health

To successfully remove stigma around Mental Health, those who consider themselves as having a healthy Mental Health also need to be honest about their fears of people with such issues. It is necessary that they too talk openly, and in good faith (kindly) about what they find mysterious and/or concerning.

Of course, all Mental Health is different and descriptions vary, but here, I just want to emphasise that in each case, the investigative work done by those wishing to help others with Mental Health issues must also involve self-reflection/awareness about their own prejudices, fears and judgements. Such unchecked elements could halt any such progress.

For example - in my life I have behaved in some contradictory ways. Some of these contradictions come from hypocrisy (e.g., when I have an unconfirmed stance on a topic) and at other times, from growth and changing my mind on/of something.

But also, crucially at other times, it is my Mental Health that has completely changed my disposition. The way I would behave if I was feeling well is impossible and inconceivable sometimes in the times when I am suffering an altered state because of poor Mental Health.

You may meet me in a confident state, and I might be gregarious and seemingly not bothered by a lively room of people. You may meet me when I find it hard to lift my hand to shake yours, and barely find monosyllabic words. Both behaviours are true. Both behaviours I have to own. I can understand if someone sees these different positions might produce concern in the mind of those I meet, often because it is received personally. However, in fact, my disposition is these cases has exponentially more to do with what is inside my mind. Of course, this behaviour can seem similar to that of chosen dismissal to the other person, and therein lies the root of stigma, and our challenge to overcome. 

[2018.02.01] Chelsea Hare