doomer

The hysteria over masks and vaccines are entirely fabricated. And they are the result of increased faith in institutions - particularly, popular faith in right wing media outlets

The growing faith in those new alternative institutions didn’t spring out of nothing, it came from the erosion of purportedly legitimate institutions. It came from the FCC revoking the Fairness Doctrine, for instance. FOX news previously wasn’t even possible to create. It came from neoliberalism stripping away the New Deal’s working class gains. It came from jobs being offshored, the Rust Belt being just one result. It came from pensions becoming a thing of the past, or at best replaced with the finance industry’s predatory 401(k)s. From crumbling infrastructure, and not things like bridges but also public education.

When these institutions are all being fed the same slop by a handful of coordinated news power brokers

Again you’re describing the erosion of liberal institutions. The labor press is long gone, and even the labor section of corporate newspapers is dead. Late stage capitalism’s continued media consolidation is an erosion.

Similarly, Fauci's CDC was telling people that masks were unnecessary

Another institutional failure among many in this pandemic. The institutions don’t even seem to care about the social reproduction of the proletariat anymore, only the short-term profits of the bourgeoisie, even at the expense of long-term ones. The capitalist class is a parasite that is killing its host, the working class.

Even liberal Chris Hedges has long perceived this: his book Death of the Liberal Class came out 14 years old.

Edit to add: Liberalism is in decay, which is why we’re lurching toward fascism. When you scratch liberalism, fascism bleeds. It’s capitalism’s last stand.