The Pirate Bay have been promoting unknown content on their front page as have other file sharing sites. There's music blogs and youtube channels that promote unknown artists.
Not to mention file sharing technologies such as direct connect and soulseek that lets you browse everything a user shares which is another way of discovering new content. You can search for something that you like and hopefully discover people with similar taste and find new stuff in their collections.
In the US anonymous individuals, groups or corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising. Super PACs and (c)4's makes the current US political system more like the political system the founding fathers created. A system where only wealthy white men could vote.
So yeah, the US is a _real_ democracy _if_ you happen to be a rich white man. Not unlike Russia.
US politicians are passing voter repression laws in states with the specific aim of making it harder for voters to vote. Not to mention the gerrymandering of districts.
In the US people are assassinated and jailed for being against the government. Anwar Al-Awlaki and Tarek Mehanna.
If a group advocates more self-reliance and less organised help for the less fortunate then it's not unreasonable to accuse them of having less empathy.