Why is socialism viewed so negatively in politics and media?

[Vix150]

Why do people not like socialism?

To me it doesn't seem disastrous but it's portrayed in the media as a horrific way for a society to run.

Any thoughts?

A handful of right wing billionaires don't seem to control the media very well. A Wiki article for you.

I would add the I to this list which although it is from the same stable as the right wing Mail often has a distinct left wing slant, particularly Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_left-wing_publications_in_the_United_Kingdom

From google : Media control is highly concentrated, with a small number of corporations and billionaires owning most major outlets. In the UK,90% of national newspapers are owned by just three companies (DMG Media, News UK, Reach), while tech companies like Meta, Alphabet, and X Corp dominate digital news. Major figures like Lachlan Murdoch play a massive role, influencing public opinion and political agendas.

Key Entities Controlling the Media:

• Media Moguls and Billionaires: Individuals like Rupert Murdoch (NewsCorp, Fox) have historically held, and transferred to their heirs, vast influence over global news, including The Sun and Sunday Times.
• Big Tech Platforms: Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google/YouTube), and X Corp dominate how content is accessed, with Google handling 93% of UK search usage.
• Corporate Conglomerates: In the U.S. and globally, television and entertainment are dominated by conglomerates like Disney, Comcast (NBCUniversal), Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount.
• Local News Chains: In the UK, firms like Newsquest and National World dominate, often prioritizing profit and cutting local staff.

Impact of Ownership on Content:

• Agenda Setting: Owners often direct editorial stances, creating a right-wing slant in many newspapers that sets the "Overton Window" of acceptable political debate.
• Profit Over Journalism: Many owners treat news as a business aimed at profit rather than public service, often reducing staff to increase margins.
• Self-Censorship: Management directives and owner influence can lead to journalists engaging in self-censorship to align with the company's political agenda.

Even the murdoch papers famously allowed a range of views, even if the editorial maintained Tory support.

I think AI doing your thinking for you is a bigger problem than the billionaires.

its not wrong though ?

Do you want the kind of control NK and Iran has though? State media only, social media shut off, would you even get the AI you looked up?

Sone of it is correct as far as it goes, but its Vague, no sources or evidence and no context. You wouldn't pass an a-level with that argument, never mind impress a university professor

strictly speaking i just asked google who controls the news and thats what it said. and no i prefer university professors style / govt news media combined a whole new package thats not been done anywhere

Do you read the Guardian?

You should try it.

thats a good point

these days i have grok running a min of 30+ sources to fully combine a number of sources, why rely on one data point when that node can be corrupted

If you limit information like this people will use social media, and some socialist countries limit what you can google so you’d not even get the info you just posted.

I didn't suggest reading the Grauniad and nothing else.

I would say the answer is to access more media than to put your focus into receiving news from one media outlet, even the BBC and the Guardian.

We are now a pluralistic people and that is so complex. As PPs have said, university professors are left leaning and agenda setting in their own profession.

So billionaire media control and dominant agenda setting university professors. I would call that balance, already.

Nah, that’s all bollocks, if you don’t mind me saying so! One place to get a landline phone from was just fine you weren’t expected to carry on working when got home, that’s what digitalised capitalism has done for us. If you wanted to phone your mates it cost 2p in the phone box. You could post a letter and it got there next day. Two posts a day and cost 12 and a half p. Take your mum’s benefit book round to post office and cash in a fiver - two week’s pocket money! Get a visitors passport for 15 quid and ferry to France for a tenner. No one in the post office went to prison because of privatised computer systems. It cost about 3 quid to get a return to London and half the time there was no one at the station and you travelled for nothing. You could work within about 10 minutes of your house. You got tea breaks and dinner breaks at work. Five minutes to change your clothes after work and out dead on 5. Cheap beer in the pubs and vista curry after. No 24 hour news and no bloody notifications. TV licence covered your telly , no shelling out for broadband or subscriptions for this that and the other. Pay your bills on a meter, stamps for the TV licence. No credit card, no store card, no mortgage cos you lived in a brilliant council house. No mobile phone contract, no gym membership, just cycled everywhere. You could go to a football match without needing the budget of a small country. Go to the cinema using the change in your back pocket or for nothing at all if you snuck in through fire escape. We owned British Gas, electricity, rail, airway, steel, leyland, North Sea oil and gas. I swam in the river and sea (and occasionally climbed over the fence of the posh school and swam in their pool) and didn’t die of e-coil! Pink Floyd and punk on the turntable and top of the pops on the telly. It was bloody brilliant! Even better when my teachers went on strike. If you bunked school or mucked about no one was any the wiser because there was no email and no digital register. You went to the dentist for a check up and got treatment for free. A pair of NHS glasses and a doctor’s appointment if you needed it. Yet if you see those programmes on the telly with the same bit of footage of a woman pushing a supermarket trolley about with a candle you’d think it was awful. It wasn’t, it was just fine and we didn’t all have anxiety and depression from overworking and worrying about paying for a load of shit we don’t need. That Thatcher came and buggered everything up.

Oh god, someone found a pair of rose tinted specs.
Its a vesta curry by the way. Bet you've never actually had one. They were disgusting, apparently.

@SevenYellowHammers - Thatcher, the milk snatcher and Tony Blair, Thatchers “greatest achievement” - a perfect storm!

If it was all so wonderful I wonder why Thatcher won so many elections 🤔

Nah, that’s all bollocks, if you don’t mind me saying so!

i do mind you saying so. I lived through it.

Your rose tinted specs are a bloody sight more attractive than the free NHS ones were. Do you even remember having to save up to afford the price of a decent pair of specs that you can now buy for £25 online?

I don't share your nostalgia of having to put a coat and shoes on to go and phone a friend from a call box that was broken half the time and stank of piss all the time, either.

And I don't even recognise half the rest of what you're talking about, I've never had less than a half hour commute each way to a job, more often an hour.

I quite liked a Vesta but they were shite food exactly the same way Pot Noodle is today.

Name a succesful socialist country.

That’s all probably because you were posh.

If they dont work hard, why dont you go off and become a billionaire?

We got rid of the old cow in the end though. Even her starting wars for popularity and selling off our assets to claim financial success stopped working at the poll tax riots. And good riddance.

I'm no Thatcher fan (I spent my formative years under her govt) but fair's fair - she didn't start wars for popularity.

She responded to an invasion on British soil, and yes, her popularity did rise as a result of her action. But she didn't start it.

She escalated it by moving UK warships and submarines into Argentinian waters. She certainly did nothing to avoid it.