I wouldn't say that the efforts of academics to critique the media's messages are "half-hearted." As far as I am aware, the efforts scarcely exist: very few even pay attention to the question.

There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits and consumption is good for the political establishment.

There is a kind of nonlinguistic thought going on which we are trying to represent in language, and we know that sometimes we fail.

Labor has been severely undermined, but that's happened before. In the 1920s, the labor movement was virtually crushed, in large part by Wilson's Red Scare, but it dramatically revived in the 1930s. It spearheaded the social-democratic New-Deal style changes which were beneficial to the country - not sufficient, but beneficial. That could happen again.

The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history.

In our case [the United States] it happens to be basically corporate structure. Much of the population is going to be harmed by that. Those policies are designed to turn state power into an instrument that works for the wealthy. Maybe there are some crumbs for the rest of the population, maybe not. But that's given.

Those of us lucky enough to have a share of privilege in the more free societies should not be asking this question, but doing something to answer it.