Media and news outlets have been taken over by the same power accumulating forces that control the government. Pravda was an easy target of ridicule during the Cold War. Today, we don't even see the strings above the puppet show on our own TVs. Education, now more than ever is simple indoctrination. Higher education is limited to the elite and their offspring.
Critical thought is discouraged and punished.
Elections are openly rigged and courts unabashedly do the bidding of corporate political masters. Employment has become more and more a trickle-down gift from the gods for which laborers are to be thankful and silent. Prisons are full to the bursting point. The majority of prisoners have violated political taboos and are technically prisoners of war. The War on Drugs.