The 'Police State' Arrives? Corporate Media Has Been Prepping It for Decades
When outlets finally acknowledge the terrifying creep of a police state, it's often framed as a future threat, a looming dystopia. Yet, the seeds were sown and watered by decades of uncritical reporting on the growth of the national security state post-9/11. The Patriot Act sails through, surveillance programs expand, and each new infringement on civil liberties is met with a shrug or a segment on
'national security concerns.' No mention of the role media played in normalizing the very tools now deemed 'police state' apparatus. Where were the hard questions when local police departments, flush with surplus military gear from the 1033 program, began resembling actual armies? Where were the sustained investigations into the revolving door between intelligence agencies and corporate
boardrooms? One might wonder if the 'police state' is less about arriving, and more about finally being too obvious to ignore, even for those who benefited from its slow, steady construction. After all, protecting corporate interests and 'stability' often comes at the cost of civil liberties—a truth often buried under infotainment.