...Or maybe social dynamics and global relationships are more complex than that and patterns emerge even without the need for a conspiracy behind them...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_the_United_State...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Informatio...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Information_Agen...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_Secretary_of_State_for_P...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-brown/propaganda-public-...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent
And this doesn't even begin to get into the deep collusion between the government and the media with lobbying, regulatory capture, government appointments, politicians on corporate board seats.
Maybe it's easier to believe in a massively orchestrated conspiracy machine masterminding all of this, but I believe that the world and ongoing international affairs are slightly more nuanced than that.
Perhaps you were simply referring to the normal complexity one would expect out of a diverse crowd of interests from bodies of government and businesses acting in ways that sometimes overlap when you said:
> "deep collusion between the government and the media with lobbying, regulatory capture, government appointments, politicians on corporate board seats"
We have always been at war with Eastasia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_mili...
Sure we have tremendous surveillance capabilities, but we use them to detect criminal and terroristic behavior, not to police thought crime in the same way that China does. Don't be silly.
It's so fashionable for pseudo-intellectuals to adopt a cynicism-all-the-time mentality, especially about America, but it's really just lazy thinking.