Bread and Circuses

"Do the mass media deliberately make us dumber and dumber?"

Some conspiracy theorists claim that the global population is being controlled according to the principle of ‘bread and circuses.’ The elites would use their alleged ‘total control’ over the mass media and the entertainment industry to distract from important issues like political corruption or social injustice. By constantly bombarding the public with mindless content (sports, reality shows, celebrity gossip), the population would be infantilized, making it easier to control. However, this theory is nonsense. There is no all-encompassing global ‘media empire,’ but rather a multitude of independent media groups with often very different interests and viewpoints – just look at CNN and Fox News.