Ya, it's complicated. I think definitely improving tho.

It's weird.. like you like to think if you were kidnapped at gunpoint in a crowded shopping mall or something, that you'd have everyone rushing to your help. And you probably would.

So if you're wronged by the system, hopefully the same kind of outpouring would happen.

But it usually doesn't. I don't know how to characterize it. I guess as long as we still have states and a top-down hierarchy to everything, people are necessarily in a frame of mind where it's easy to believe the main storyline and trust the authority.

The alternative/new media is in many ways a reverse reflection of the mainstream/old media. Sort of like the mainstream/old is still driving it, and the alternative gives their alternate view of the same storyline. I'd like to see them be their own drivers more often.

But ya, it keeps chipping away.. the people branching out like you mention, I think, evolves the overall mindset.