# Are we living in the matrix In the world today, there is a lot of questionable shit going on. [Disinformation](*Misinformation vs. Disinformation*), [misinformation](*Misinformation vs. Disinformation*), opinions and feelings being used to argue against facts. Blatant manipulation from government and mass media, fearmongering to control people, and everybody shouting about things they don't understand on the internet. It is difficult for a rational human being who cares about the truth to actually find it in the world today, and I am concerned about the future of our civilization. In the fantastically dystopian, yet seemingly more and more prophetic Matrix movie - [which I will link out to here instead of giving a synopsis]([The Matrix - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix)) - humanity has been brainwashed. We're plugged in. Today's world is eerily similar. We are plugged into our phones, televisions, and/or computers, [[Phone addiction|doom scrolling]] for hours every day on social media or consuming content from mass media outlets who do not appear to have our best interests in mind. We have leaders of government routinely lying to us with no repercussion. In my hometown of New Orleans, literally the [murder capital of America]([New Orleans the murder capital of the United States (wdsu.com)](https://www.wdsu.com/article/new-orleans-national-headlines-being-the-murder-capital-united-states/41285005#)), it is starting to feel unsafe to even go out of the house. According to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, homicides are up by 46% from 2021 to 2022 and up 141% since 2019. Mass shootings are on a significant rise all across the US too. It feels like we're living in an actual dystopian sci-fi novel. I've always been hesitant to believe in ideas like widespread corruption and fraud, using mass media to control the population, and other "conspiracy theories" - but I'm actually becoming more and more jaded by what I'm seeing out in the world today. Of course, I have an extremely limited ability to see what's actually happening in the world around me without the use of these things I'm criticizing, so I'm not even sure how I can be 100% sure anymore. Who do you trust? Who CAN you trust? I've always been of the mind to understand both / all sides of an argument, then using logic and reason come to my own independent conclusion. Will that still work in an era where the bias is so heavy on either side they are just spewing blatantly untrue nonsense? Or even when people with an agenda clip things people say out of context and use it against them? Where is the fact checking? The journalistic integrity? Are we plagued by corruption or ineptitude or both? Perhaps only time will tell.