By Rachel Stewart

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

And, at risk of being just another talking head, how did I get here? I’m guessing via a very similar path to you.

Anyway, I’m excited to be here on RCR. I’m Rachel Stewart and this is Riding Shotgun. Thank you for joining me.

What’s the difference between a conspiracy theory and a fact? Currently it’s around 3 – 6 months, give or take.

So, no wonder we’re all cutting and running from the legacy media faster than Zelensky from the White House.

The latest polling shows trust in NZ’s mainstream media tanked to a new low of 27%. Now is a good time to revisit the reason why. Yes, ‘reason’. Singular.

I’m not one of those commentators who likes to appear deeper than I am by hedging my bets on a multitude of causes. To my eye, it’s as plain as the nose on Pinnochio’s face.

Lying to the public on the regular, while straight-faced pretending you’re not doing exactly that, tends to repel even the most hardened news junkie.

In fact, I’m convinced that OF the remaining 27%, there’s a high proportion of people who – like me -access the mainstream media on the daily just to see what faux journalism they’re churning out today.

The bias towards the LEFT is well-documented and undeniable.

In the US, Trump’s resounding win was hugely helped by the voters’ lack of trust in what the media was not only saying, but what they were outright ignoring.

The attempt on President Trump’s life, anyone?

I mean, as if Government-paid slash USAID media would lie to us. Or even just the government? Heaven forbid.

Ron Funches/TikTok

But it was during the Covid years that the dry rot really started showing through the glossy media paint.

Anything outside of the narrative was simply framed as ‘disinformation’ or a ‘conspiracy theory’. I’d call that a stone-cold psyop.

And it wasn’t enough for the media to openly vilify anybody who pushed back. Even those platforming dissenting voices were lined up, and earnest attempts were made to reputationally crucify them.

Woody Harrelson with Joe Rogan.

Globally, we’ve endured, and seen exposed, some incredible, industrial-grade deceit.

I mean, nothing to see on Hunter Biden’s laptop, and the complete fabrication that was ‘RussiaGate’, and now, of course, we have an upgraded 2.0 version doing the rounds again since Trump’s re-emergence.

It was the devil media who straight-faced told us Joe Biden was cognitively tickety boo. Until he wasn’t, and the whole world saw with their own eyes a perplexed Presidential possum caught in the headlights of a fast-approaching Polaris.

And if you had a visceral reaction to the rape gangs’ scandal in Britain you’re just a “racist, right-wing, Islamophobe” who will no doubt be anticipating the coppers’ knock and the real possibility of some serious lag time.

Maybe Keir Starmer could muster up some troops for such a just cause at home, rather than sending them to Ukraine for a lost one.

Back home they’re still trying to tell us that the Reserve Bank’s digital currency proposal is only believed by the “looney tunes” among us, and that Drag QST is an innocent and fun celebration of diversity and inclusion and not the flagship of child grooming that it really is.

I blame mainstream media squarely for the unrelenting breakdown in civility around the world.

Many of you will know that only a handful of years ago, I was a NZ Herald columnist who sharply self-corrected a gradual centre-line drift towards a head-on woke car crash.

When that side of the ledger declared that men were women if they simply said they were, I decided a 50-foot bargepole wasn’t long enough to keep the blue-haired wackjobs away from me. I was done.

Because here's the thing. I’m blessed with that classic bigot trait of being able to determine delusion from actuality.

And in a world chock-full of chaos and spin, illusion and fantasy, we need – now more than ever – strong societal scaffolding and some serious critical thinking.

And, look, choosing uncomfortable truths over comfortable lies, and trading cosy delusions for stark realism, is quite the ride.

Call it red pilled or awake. Based or unplugged. However you define it, it’s a journey many of us are on. It’s kind of unstoppable.

And as I rattle down this dusty road, I hope you’ll come along for the ride. There’s so much to talk about, so far to go, and a heck of a lot of it will be butt-achingly bumpy.

But they’ll be laughs too. So, buckle up. And I’ll see you next week.