Silicon Valley’s Censorship by Proxy, State Propaganda, and the Military-Entertainment Complex

On this week’s program, Mickey welcomes back author and media critic Alan MacLeod for the hour. MacLeod describes the close ties between the major Silicon Valley technology companies and the US military/security establishment.

Among the examples he cites lucrative government contracts given to some of Elon Musk’s companies (Starlink); the cooperation of Facebook, Twitter and other web giants in suppressing critical opinions (“censorship by proxy”); and multiple instances of U.S. intelligence officials moving into high-ranking executive positions at the tech companies often to allegedly curate “mis- and disinformation.”

They discuss what’s being called the “military-entertainment complex” and note that some video games, notably Activision’s “Call of Duty,” are designed to inculcate pro-intervention, jingoist attitudes in the young people who play these games, which function as a form of propaganda or mass psy-op in support of US/NATO wars.