Paulo Coutinho
The world is becoming a stranger to us.
At a pace only machines find natural, we are sliding into an ecosystem where outrage is monetised, hatred is engagement, and speech is no longer debated but moderated into submission. What used to be editorial judgment is now platform hygiene. What used to be public interest is now “risk management.”
I was trained on a simple premise – there is no good or bad news. There is only news. Facts are not moral actors. They do not comfort, reassure, or destabilise society. They simply describe it. Another lesson followed naturally: when there is no news, someone is working very hard to keep it that way.
That logic has been quietly reversed. We are now told that certain facts are “harmful,” certain stories “unhelpful,” and certain questions “irresponsible.” News that exposes structural failure, inequality, abuse of power, or social decay is rebranded as negativity. The cure, apparently, is silence dressed up as care.
This is not about optimism. It is about control.
We live in a paradoxical media moment. On one hand, we are flooded with alerts, banners, and sensational fragments – violence without context, fear without explanation. On the other, the moment a journalist attempts to slow down, connect the dots, or dig beneath the surface, the accusation appears: divisive, alarmist, tone-deaf.
The world may burn in real time, but explaining why is considered impolite.
The result is an inversion of responsibility. The problem is no longer the event, the policy, or the decision that caused harm. The problem is the person pointing at it. Blame shifts from power to the messenger. Reality is tolerated only if it arrives pre-softened.
Social media has accelerated this collapse. Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame now last 15 seconds – often less. If a story does not fit a headline, a thumbnail, or a slogan, it vanishes. Complexity has no market value. Nuance does not travel well. And depth is algorithmically suspicious.
Meanwhile, the instruction to be “content” has taken on a double meaning. Content as material, yes – but also content as compliant. Calm. Agreeable. Untroubling. A public trained not to look too closely, not to ask follow-up questions, not to insist.
This is not censorship in its classical form. There are no blunt bans, no book burnings, no outright prohibitions. It is something far more efficient – self-regulation through social pressure, reputational threat, and moral shaming. Silence becomes a virtue. Discomfort becomes a flaw.
The cost is paid by those already invisible. When suffering must be discreet to be acceptable, it might as well not exist. When injustice must be framed gently to avoid offence, it rarely survives framing at all. The public is not protected – it is anesthetized.
If we accept this new order, we do not become kinder. We become accomplices – participants in a system that prefers reassurance to truth, optics to reality, and quiet to justice.
Orwell’s mistake was expecting oppression to look hostile. It doesn’t. It smiles. It reassures. It tells you this is for your own good – and asks you, politely, to look away.
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