The Monthly Review — February 2025
All of New Outlook's topics, stories, and opinions you missed this past month.
For readers who crave short, snappy reads—whether you’re pressed for time, commuting, or just looking for a quick gateway into bigger ideas.
The Monthly Review is a curated preview of the topics, stories, and opinions I explore on New Outlook—from bite-sized insights to deep dives. Let’s jump in!
➊ MANUFACTURING CONSENT IN THE NEW AGE
In July 2024, I wrote a piece titled: The Manufacturing of Public Opinion For and Against the Biden Administration.
The last paragraphs of that article is attached below, in which I question “how the largest news institutions in the country get their marching orders from the top, and how that messaging gets filtered all the way down.”
The recent exposé on USAID and organizations like Internews begins to answer those questions in a way we’ve not had revealed to us before, at least not since Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s thorough analysis on media and propaganda in Manufacturing Consent.
★★★★★
New Outlook Recommends
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Released: 1992
Runtime: 2h 47min
Director: Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick
Manufacturing Consent is a documentary film about the noted American linguist/political dissident and his warning about corporate media’s role in modern propaganda.
➋ THE DOD: WASTE, FRAUD, & ABUSE
This serious and inquisitive version of Jon Stewart—that is unafraid of violently poking at the power centers and unconcerned about partisan framing—has long been missing.
This 2023 exchange (full interview here) is exactly what Musk has been talking about when he says that this is what we, as a country, are dealing with: State Dept. officials who refuse to be accountable.
➌ FROM TWITTER FILES TO USAID: A STORY OF NARRATIVE MANAGEMENT THROUGH MEDIA MANIPULATION
From the Twitter Files to the USAID revelations, the takeaway is simple: governmental agencies control and painstakingly shape the narratives that many believe to be an organic, grassroots phenomenon.
If, at any point in recent years, you sensed something was off—that Big Tech might be orchestrating a deep-rooted censorship program against dissidents, that psychological warfare was being waged against observable truths, biology, and religion, and that an ideological and cultural revolution was spreading like wildfire across society—the revelations from the Department of Government Efficiency about USAID’s true functions make it clear how these events have been unfolding.
The whole system is corrupted all the way to the bone. The pendulum must swing in the other direction if any of this is to be corrected. But this is politics—one bad system will only be replaced with an even more odious one.
➍ THE THING ABOUT PENDULUMS
The harder you swing ‘em in one direction, the harder they swing back the other way.
The reaction is merely a result of the initial action.
Want someone to blame for the force of the swing back you’re witnessing in politics? Start with who first set the pendulum in motion.
➎ A NEW WAY TO SUPPORT THIS PUBLICATION
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➏ THE NUANCED ART OF CRITICAL THINKING
The critical individual can contextualize the fraudulence of public figures like Musk and Trump while also appreciating the truths they’re exposing within the government.
It’s no different than when we were all grateful to Musk for choosing to expose the corruption, the censorship apparatus, and the embedded network of State Dept officials overseeing the entire process inside Big Tech. It was one of the greatest modern attempts to protect free speech. And yet, we understand that Musk is obviously not as committed to free speech as he leads on because he’s only concerned with erecting his own totalizing surveillance and censorship apparatus if he gets to see the “everything app” through.
For many partisan folks, this is a very hard concept to grasp. But I promise, you can do it. I have faith in your ability to think clearly for once, outside of your party lines. Good people often do some bad things. And bad people often do some good things. I don’t mean to boil it down to “good” vs. “bad” because that is obviously the main issue with mainstream news.
But my overarching point is this: when you abandon partisanship and political “sides,” you can finally begin to think clearly and assess stories independently for what they are, not who they’re tied to.
This brilliant excerpt from Gillian Florence Sanger is illuminating:
➐ “ARE WE LIKE-MINDED?”
“Like-minded” individuals are NOT people who share the same opinion or outlook as us. Instead, they are people whose “cognitive processes are similar to our own.”
This is such a critical distinction. There is a reason we are often drawn to people who we may disagree with, and even enter into healthy debates with from time to time, but deeply admire nonetheless. It is their ability to think differently and dynamically, in such a way that unlocks new concepts and revelations in our own minds, that make them intriguing to be around. We don’t have to share the same views. In fact, we may be on opposing ends of a variety of issues. But the critical thought process that goes into arriving at our disparate conclusions is where the good stuff is. It’s what makes us respect each other’s worldview even if we land on different endpoints.
These are our like-minded people.
Thanks to Gillian Florence Sanger for this wonderful insight.
➑ THE THING ABOUT MORAL CONSCIENCE
The person who doubts that a single action can make a difference, yet acts anyway, is often the one who does. Their belief in truth, humanity, and a better future often trumps the doubts and fears that come with standing alone against the madness of crowds.
➒ THE ANTI-WOKE CROWD’S RECKONING
The sensible people within the anti-woke cohort are going to need to start calling out their colleagues who have flown off the handle. The more time passes, the more it becomes clear that the anti-woke crowd are more like the people they detest.
➓ A CULTISH IDEOLOGY
That’s a wrap! Hope you enjoyed this edition of The Monthly Review. If something resonated, drop a like, leave a comment, and let’s discuss further. Share this with a friend. Thank you for reading, subscribing, and supporting this project. Until next month!
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