We'll Never Take It.

So in the course of this last few weeks, a new album came out! A twenty one pilots album to clarify. If you haven't listened to it already, go ahead and give it a shot. It might not be every-bodies style, but I don't think you'll be disappointed either.

Anyway, so one of the songs on said album was kinda interesting and I thought I'd go over a lyric or two or three to relay the message to you in case you didn't already look into it. The italicized writing is select parts of the song.

Now that they know information (Information)

Is just a currency and nothing more

Keep the truth in quotations (In quotations)

'Cause they keep lying through their fake teeth

Why cure disease of confusion (Confusion)

When you're the treatment facility?

How can we seek restitution (Restitution)

When they keep lying through their fake teeth?

The summer I watched the tube, I saw enough

Taught myself to play guitar, tearing it up

And my advice on those two things that I picked up

You better educate yourself, but never too much

Mainly, he's talking about the media, in case you didn't piece that together.

Line by line this is my analysis:

They've figured out that knowledge is power, and information, false or otherwise, is nothing more than a bargaining chip at this point.

Putting something in quotations keeps the statement in anything but a verified state.

Imagine somebody says Abraham Lincoln was our 16th President, but they put the little air quotes with their fingers around his name. Like, it's true, but now you're a little less sure, right?

There's a lot going on in the world right now. That's no lie. A lot of people are confused about a lot of things. And where do they go for information? The news. Sure, the news could clear things up, leave people a little less confused. Will they? Nah. As long as they can keep this disease of confusion up and running, they'll have people coming back for more information, and so on and so forth.

The last little part about seeking restitution is important as well. How can we seek restitution when they keep lying to us? Nobody knows how to handle it and make it all work out the way it's supposed to if nobody knows what's real, what's false, what's accurate, etc.

Hopping away from the lyrics for a moment, we're going to look at another quote.

The truth is that there is something terribly wrong with this country isn't there? If you look about, you witness cruelty, injustice and despotism. But what do you do about it? What can you do? You are but a single individual. How can you possible make any difference? Individuals have no power in this modern world. That is what you've been taught because that is what they need you to believe.

Granted that's from V for Vendetta, so his handling of the situation could've been a little better, but his point stands. People shouldn't be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of their people. That being said, the government has a lot tighter of a hold, and a considerably larger amount of power when the people are divided. When they're confused. Which is where the media comes into play from earlier.

Side note: You know how some stations are considerably more conservative or more liberal or whatever? It's a big thing. You can claim there's no difference, but a glance at Fox News and at CNN will prove me right every time. Anyway, imagine if news just told us what happened. If it was OBjective instead of SUBjective. Look up the difference.

Back to the lyrics.

The last little part about educating yourself but never too much. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense on the first listen, but think about it. Take in what everybody is saying, but don't take in all of what everybody is saying, cause they're probably embellishing it to fit their own narrative.

Basically, I just don't pay attention to basically anything but the nouns used in headings. You can look at a heading pretty quick and see "Supreme Court", "Vote", "Term Limits", "Friday", and know everything you need to know.

VS

Rep. Controlled Supreme Court to vote on term limits Friday, in last ditch effort to maintain conservative Trump-era control

OR

Marxist BLM rioters and police on streets, lines drawn, can San Diego rebuild?

Obviously both are very biased.

While we're here, I'd like to throw in the whole Church and State thing. Church and State should absolutely be separate things. For everyone's sake. But separate from both parties. All parties. I know that at least in my church, it's more "Separation of Church and The Democratic Party" than it is "Separation of Church and State".

*sips tea*

I will not be addressing political topics further at this point.

The Summary:

So basically, this was Tyler Josephs stance on the media. Their job is to lie to us, keep us in the dark, tell us partial truths, etc. It is also my stance. There are most certainly things wrong with this country, and the only way that any of us are ever going to be remotely near the same page is by paying attention to the truth, and nothing more. Objective vs Subjective. People have power, and we can use it. This is a Democracy, and as such, the people have control, and/or should.

I hope that all of this has been a cohesive blog-post. I really do. You get the point though.

-Dominic Romeo

5/22/2021

9:13 PM EST