Liberals and censorship

Libs love to talk about how freedom of press is a big differentiating factor in the west compare to say China where media is more actively state controlled. However, these same people will dismiss any source that falls out of state approved mainstream.

When alternative media exists, but it's dismissed, then the end result is no different from having explicit state censorship. The only difference is that people do the work of the censors themselves.

This is a really clever aspect of the western propaganda model in my opinion where just enough dissent is allowed to act as a pressure release valve, and to provide the veneer of freedom of expression.

As long as mainstream opinion is managed, it doesn't really matter that there are contrary ideas at the fringes. Most people will do self censorship and avoid examining these ideas because they're primed to see them as absurd.