Perception Vs. Reality

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

If you only get your news from the mainstream media, you would be tempted to believe that global conditions are relatively stable right now. 

Yes, there is a war between Russia and Ukraine, but the mainstream media is assuring us that Ukraine is winning that war. 

Other than that, the mainstream media seems to think that everything is just fine.

Of course the truth is that our planet is facing a whole host of extremely challenging problems at the moment.  The UN has warned that we are entering the worst global food crisis since World War II, inflation has started to spiral out of control all over the world, the war in Ukraine is making our supply chain nightmares even worse and an absolutely horrifying bird flu plague is killing millions upon millions of chickens and turkeys.

But if you flip on one of the corporate news channels tonight, they will be focusing on other things.

And you probably won’t even hear them talk about the food riots that have suddenly begun erupting around the world at all.

For example, a “curfew” has just been imposed on the capital of Peru after a series of extremely passionate protests that were sparked by rapidly rising fuel and food prices…

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo announced a curfew for Tuesday in the capital Lima and neighboring port city Callao, after demonstrations across the country over fuel prices caused roadblocks and “acts of violence”.

Protests had erupted across Peru in recent days due to a hike in fuel prices and tolls, during a time of rising food prices.

Is this the first time that you have heard about this?

For many of you it will be, and that is because the mainstream media in the U.S. is largely ignoring this.

In Sri Lanka, severe shortages of “food, medicine and fuel” have caused a full-blown economic collapse and tremendous chaos in the streets…

In Sri Lanka, where an economic crisis is growing, more than 40 lawmakers walked out of the ruling coalition today. That leaves the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the minority in Parliament. There have been new calls today for both the president and prime minister to step down after the entire Cabinet resigned on Sunday. Shortages of food, medicine and fuel have sparked countrywide protests, and security forces have fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters marching on the president’s home.

Most of you have probably not heard about that either, and that is because our largest news outlets are being really quiet about it.

But USA Today wants to make sure that you know about a new promotion that McDonald’s is running: “McDonald’s brings back Spicy Chicken McNuggets to select restaurants for a limited time”.

More than ever before, our perception of the world around us is shaped by the corporate elite.  Americans get more than 90 percent of the “television news” that they consume from just five giant media corporations, and so that gives those corporations an incredible amount of influence over how our society views reality.

For example, far more Americans are talking about “the slap” at the Academy Awards than about the fact that North Korea just threatened South Korea with nuclear war…

North Korea opposes war but would use nuclear weapons if South Korea attacked, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday, in a warning that analysts said is probably aimed at the South’s incoming conservative president.

Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in the government and ruling party, said it was a “very big mistake” for South Korea’s minister of defence to make recent remarks discussing attacks on the North, state news agency KCNA reported.

The war in Ukraine is not going to be the last war that erupts.  I believe that China is very strongly considering an invasion of Taiwan in the not too distant future, and a major war between Israel and Iran could literally start at any time.

But instead of alarming the American people about such things, CNN wants you to know that Coke has a brand new flavor: “Coke’s latest flavor is here. And it’s a weird one”.

I suppose that we should be thankful to CNN, because I probably never would have heard about that new flavor unless they ran that story.

Meanwhile, the number of poultry flocks in Minnesota that have been hit by the new bird flu pandemic just doubled…

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health on Tuesday reported the latest outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the state is now affecting a total of 15 poultry flocks — up from seven last Friday.

Minnesota is the number one state for turkey production, and so this is a really big deal.

Overall, the national death toll just continues to climb.  The first case at a commercial facility in the United States was confirmed less than two months ago, and now the death toll has risen to nearly 28 million…

The new cases mean that across the nation, farmers have had to kill about 22 million egg-laying chickens, 1.8 million broiler chickens, 1.9 million pullet and other commercial chickens, and 1.9 million turkeys.

Will MSNBC lead with this story tonight?

Of course not.

But I did find the following story on MSNBC’s homepage earlier today: “Garlic cloves up your nose? What to know about the health trends taking TikTok by storm”.

What a bunch of nonsense.

I am so grateful for the alternative media, because they often cover stories that the mainstream media never talks about.

For example, our friends at Zero Hedge have informed us that the price of jet fuel in New York has risen “more than 162% since mid-March”…

Wholesale jet fuel prices in New York have risen more than 162% since mid-March, as buyers at some of the world’s busiest airports, located on the US East Coast, anticipate dwindling supplies as Western sanctions shun Russian energy exports.

On Monday, jet fuel prices jumped 93 cents to $7.61 a gallon, a new record high, according to Bloomberg data going back to 1988.

That is crazy.

We are seeing so much inflation all throughout the system right now.  A few hours ago, I came across a post by a supermarket employee on a very popular Internet forum that really got my attention.  According to this employee, workers at this particular store were given 52 pages of price changes just this week…

Tyson Chicken strip jumped up $3

Eggs went up to $3.50 they were 2.25

32 pack of water went to $5.50 originally 3.75

There was 35 pages of price changes on the dry side and 17 pages in freezer and cooler they are planning to have that many pages or more next week also

A trip to the grocery store is going to become very, very painful in the months ahead.

But just be thankful that you don’t live in one of the poorest countries on the planet.

At this point, even Vladimir Putin is telling us that the food shortages that we are now witnessing are going to get even worse…

Putin said higher energy prices and fertilizer shortages would mean Western nations would have to print more money to buy supplies, which would cause food shortages in poorer countries.

“They will inevitably exacerbate food shortages in the poorest regions of the world, spur new waves of migration, and, in general, drive food prices even higher,” Putin said in a meeting on developing food production, Reuters reported.

A full-blown global meltdown has now begun, and it is going to go to an entirely new level in the months ahead.

But the mainstream media will try to distract you with stories about Will Smith, Kourtney Kardashian and other celebrities for as long as they can.

Personally, I don’t really care that Kourtney Kardashian just married Travis Barker in Las Vegas.  What I do care about is the fact that our society is coming apart at the seams all around us.

The news that you get from the corporate media has been carefully designed to promote certain narratives, and these days much of it is wildly inaccurate.

But most of the population will continue to blindly believe whatever they are told to believe by our “professional journalists”, and that is extremely unfortunate.

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It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.