I think this is an intellectual rabbit hole from which there is no tractable escape. When people pose this as a problem, they are usually starting from the in-built assumption that they have libertarian free will (in the philosophical sense, not political sense) and that ethically, ensuring that actuality of ones own choices over what to pay attention to, are not intruded on.

The problem is, is no matter what, the information coming to you is being curated. Even your senses are curating information to you, based on what your biology thinks is important for you to pay attention to, based on things that have been selective for survival. But that’s getting a little too abstract.

As it pertains to knowledge of by the outside world, and in the domain of human affairs, there is no such thing as objective facts. There just isn’t. You are 100% reliant on the testimony of others to obtain information about human affairs beyond your immediate cone of experience. Whether it’s a journalist working for a left-leaning rag, or some anonymous person her on Nostr recounting some information about what’s going on in some random corner of the world, the information coming to you is being curated. Said anonymous person is deciding to share specific information based on their preferences.

A lot of people in these parts have come to believe that anonymous person is as good, if not better, source of truth and un-curated information, than a news organization, given the letter’s interests and agenda. There is this bias, stemming from this demand to protect the idea of the libertarian free experience, that makes one come to the conclusion that a more anarchic process for obtaining information about the world is a better way to uncover truth. This is actually completely wrong, and I think, provably so.

Everyone is being manipulated by the people they consume information from. I’m manipulating you right now. That’s the nature of human communication and dialogue. A parent is manipulating their children, and trying to communicate values to them, based on their curation of what they think is important. A leader in an organization is doing the same thing to the people they lead. The people who post on social media are doing the same.

The belief that the truth of the world is easier to see once you completely reject professional journalism is really a false hope. You’ve just chosen different curators.