Posted by AdamAdamR on Tue, 10/13/2009 – 10:44pm in

• BreakTheMatrix

Break the Matrix has seemingly failed to accomplish its goals. The goals of the website were to establish a social networking community based on free speech, libertarian ideology, and political fundraising.

The site grew out of the momentum and excitement following Ron Paul’s run for the presidency and his fundraising records. It seemed like a new era of internet fundraising was suddenly booming and politicians and media savvy entrepreneurs wanted to master the techniques.

In addition to its intended for-profit fundraising goals, the site aimed to attract tens of thousands of viewers through intelligent, lively discussions and presentations that were outside the realm of mass media.

Many participants in the Paul campaign witnessed the untruthful and distasteful attempts to attack, smear and marginalize Paul for daring to mention the taboo topics of: the Fed, the overseas empire, generational debt and bankruptcy, and ending the wars. Since these are the most relevant topics to the practical life of every American, Paul received an up-swelling of grass roots support. Paul didn’t lose the race due to lack of funds (he retained some unspent millions for future endeavors). He lost, because due to a rigged and fraudulent system, and a massively traumatized, brainwashed and uniformed public, he barely had a chance.

The goal of Break the Matrix was to establish a profitable counterbalance to the trance inducing corporate media. Ironically, the original logo of the site consisted of a visual mockery of Fox news!
The site failed to generate significant funds for upstart politicos. None of the “money bombs” raised amounts that would’ve allowed the website to hire employees or develop programming. Nonetheless, a number of volunteers generated content for the site, and a few dozen interested parties kept the conversation flowing. For several months there were regular television shows broadcast live from across the country.

The censorship started early on and was welcomed by most. Many of the most offensive participants were barred from the site. There was a great deal of concern over growing the site and reaching a larger audience. Comments that were racist, derogatory, or simply offensive were deleted from the site and the posters banned. The membership numbers skyrocketed but the amount of active participants stayed the same or slowly dwindled. The television broadcasters received technical support and remained in communication with the owners of the site. However, due to lack of funding and or internal bickering (I’m speculating) the owners walked away from the site while leaving it open for continued posting. The broadcasters, left in a wilderness of indifference and silence fizzled out.

The written conversation continued for some time but due to lack of momentum resulting from Paul’s defeat, the depressing political situation, the slackening economy, and “corporate oversight” the site decayed into a bulletin board hijacked by spammers. There was a short-lived attempt to defeat the spammers with new software and a public effort by one of the founders. Now the site is about equal parts spam, cheap advertisements, and content.

The aforementioned reason of corporate oversight may not seem as clear as the other reasons so I’ll discuss it. By corporate oversight I mean the overhanging spectre of Fox News. After the website’s logo was changed from one mocking Fox news as an outlet for government propaganda the administrator of the website was hired by Fox news to read “tweets” during their made for internet program “Judge Talk for Freedom”.

This was a very cheap and effective way of silencing whatever intelligent opposition remained at the site. By promoting the visible leader of the site to a position within the corrupt news organization the news organization achieved a quick and easy coup de etat. Perhaps the website was already finished, but the notion that free speech was a likelihood after that move is a silly notion. The reason isn’t because Fox had sudden jurisdiction over the site. The reason is because half of the contributors succumbed to the cheap bait that they might too develop a career as government TV commentators if they played their cards right. Even if there was only an outside chance of landing a gig as a libertarian, media-savvy commentator on Rupert’s stage why ruin it by biting the hand that might potentially feed you?
Well Shelley sold out, but this was perhaps a smart and normal move in a generation where you go to college to study “marketing.” But before she sold out Rick sold out too. It turns out he had a bad midlife crisis and decided he needed to surround himself – via the site – with cute girls whether or not they had valuable content to contribute. This strategy, possibly intended to gain ratings, had to be a turn off to the principled, intelligent people that visited this site and comprised the “liberty” movement.

I’m not being judgmental because I think securing fame and fortune, and or surrounding oneself (virtually) with attractive women are not necessarily despicable goals. I’m just happy that Ron Paul didn’t sell himself so cheaply or else none of this might’ve happened in the fist place. At least Fox got another blonde to add to its roster (I think Shelley is intelligent enough to acknowledge that no matter how intelligent or tech savvy she may be, Rupert hired her for her cheerleader looks).

Maybe the libertarian ideals of individual responsibility and privacy don’t correspond well with social networking websites.
Anyway, the few authors who currently post on this site are reposting articles that they’ve posted elsewhere. They seldom participate in discussions regarding their essays – and almost never say anything controversial (that might shine a harsh light into a background check conducted by a media lackey if and when they do apply for that job or run for office.)
If you want to know why mainstream media is so boring, corrupt, and full of sycophants who would roll over and bark for their paycheck, grammy invitation, inside scoop, social adoration, whatever, you just have to study the trajectory of BTM. Maybe it has something to do with human nature. Maybe the experts at manipulating humans with sounds and lights are just too well funded and too well entrenched to combat.
Maybe the answer is just to walk away from it all. That seems to be the latest trend when it comes to television and government news outlets. That trend might be the best news yet.