From nutty defamation verdicts to federal warnings about "misinformation," from French efforts to criminalize vaccine criticism to Germany's political crackdown, democracies no longer want debate.
I think Mike Benz identified the "most important thing" to our official and shadow rulers in that interview with Tucker Carlson. The Powers that Be had to take total control of all social media companies to block influential speakers who could scuttle all of their agendas. Yes, they wanted to fight "vaccine hesitancy" but they also wanted to prevent anyone from challenging them on election fraud, central bank digital currencies, the Green New Deal, etc.
The Great Threat to their unfinished agendas was the Internet. What's amazing is how eager the social media companies were to help them kill free speech.
Alex can speak to what happened when they put their Censorship Program into action ... but so can I.
Our rulers basically concluded they could not allow any of their false narratives to be exposed or debunked as false. The reason they can't allow this to happen is they want to remain in control and expand their control. The reason they want to protect and expand their control is they are not finished rolling out the rest of their unfinished agendas! That's the terrifying conclusion: They are not done with us!
A silver lining! Still, the "resistance" somehow has to break through to the "mainstream." It would take just one seismic "truth bomb" detonating. So far, they've kept that thermo-nuclear blast from draining the swamp of our dangerous leaders and "experts."
Even if the "seismic truth bomb" detonated, I'm not sure it would wake people up. It already kind of happened with the russiagate nonsense. Once people accept something as truth, it's hard to change their minds. A retraction of propaganda 6 months later on page 37 doesn't change anyone's mind. I have family members who still believe russian collusion was at least partly true. The truth is - we can't know what's true at this point in history. Sorry to be such a depressive. Thanks for the silver lining nonetheless.
It seems like about half or less of the American public know what they have done and are doing. The other half remains clueless and blind to it all. That's depressing.
My very leftie brother saw Tucker's interview because I sent it to him. He was gobsmacked to say the least. He said he watched every second of it. Victory of sorts! Now if everyone could see it!
I agree. It changed the way I think about the last four years. I used to think the "most important thing" to our rulers was simply getting those mRNA vaccines approved and mandated. That was important, but the most important thing was expanding the Censorship Industrial Complex. Covid was the pretense that allowed that to happen.The Censorship Industrial Complex allows our rulers to get ALL of their agendas across the finish line.
I've been thinking along these lines for a long time. It makes a certain kind of sense. It seems obvious that they've been ball-parking this sort of response for longer than we realize.
Recall back in Jan 2021 when the left was shutting down Trump's ability to take payments? Stripe, PayPal et all? Talking about shutting down free speech, which is the heart of the fascist movement yet duping people by saying "antifa". Alex may have addressed it, but I don't recall that.
I'll add that this is another reason why Bitcoin is important: a censorship resistant form of payment is critical when people are debanked and censored. Without payments, people like Alex couldn't survive to write here.
I'm a full-time Substack author who mixes op-ed commentary with original investigative journalism. Substack is my only source of income. I'm on pace to gross $14,000 this year from paid subscribers (and that's after 18 months of spending at least 8 hours every day researching, writing and "marketing" my freelance journalism business). I appreciate the support that got me to $14,000 in income, but that level of income is, ah, not sustainable. I think the Powers that Be who don't like Substack are banking on the fact most of the gung-ho contrarian journalists will raise the white flag at some point.
I'd be in Heaven on earth if I earned the income of, say, the average Gannett salaried journalist (although I know those employees are rapidly becoming extinct).
My colleagues in the mainstream press get the "big bucks" ($55,000/year?) for simply being stenographers of the Fauci narratives. Meanwhile, here in my home office in the hinterlands, I'm slaving away trying to debunk their work product.
Question: Who's doing the most important work?
(I'd apply for one of those jobs, but somehow I don't think any editor is going to hire someone with my archive of stories. For me, it's Substack or bust.).
Bill, I'm imagining a scenario where you (or I) could be to print journalism what Rush was to AM radio. There is a perfect opportunity on the horizon (or maybe it's here and now) to make this happen.
Let the 'elites' have the Internet. We can go back and rescue the medium they abandoned.
I used to fight with Liberal editors to get my letters published in local newspapers. Even when they did publish them, their typists would make 'mistakes' that altered my meaning. That or they would edit it down to fit space limitations.
I have a small business and require a source for local advertising. I gave up on trying to get effective advertising in newspapers distributed to my local customers. My customers have told me that they won't even open the free weekly papers because there's no content. So why should I advertise there?
So I've started a free advertising co-op for all my like-minded local business owners to take part in. I've laid out a right-hand column for business card size ads for each participant and fill the rest of the pages with timely Conservative content.
At this early stage I would call it a flier. We share it via email. Print them on our printers and leave them on our sales counters for customers to take home and read.
The flier on my sales counter advertises for the gun shop, deli, florist et al, and they in turn advertise for me. It ties us all together nicely and we stymie the elites' plans to rob us on rates while gaslighting us .
Room 1,000,000,001 ...2 ...3 for you and me and Alex, since all the others are presently occupied by conspiracy theorists and O'Brian clones (think of the "Smiths" from the Matrix).
When push comes to shove, brave men will fight and die for freedom. In this case the enemy of freedom has no core philosophy. Who will fight and die for 'globalism'?
For the left & the elites it all in the name of saving Democracy! It's getting old and boring at this point. How about Musk being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his defense of freedom of speech? Love to hear your thoughts on that Alex.
What about someone in the Kennedy family nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr for one of those "Profile in Courage" Awards named for his late uncle?
No Kennedy - perhaps no American - has shown more courage than RFK, Jr. in the last decade. The irony is he's the last person on the planet that would get nominated for that award.
This puts a new light on those who have been programmed to tow the narrative line, with "programmed" taking on a deeper and fuller meaning. They seem more and more like Manchurian candidates who can be called out of their passive and thought-free existence with a single word (often "Trump") and then sputter and rage until momentarily spent. The elites have put a lot of time and effort into cultivating their "army", but now they're seeing we don't really care what people think of us, not even if it means losing friends and family. Freedom and truth are more important to us.
The elites are getting terrified of a public that has now had their eyes opened and is saying “no”. No more vaccines, no more lockdowns, no more intimidation, no more illegal immigration, no more high gas prices, no more…well, the list goes on. The anti globalist movement is gaining momentum and more followers. And the tactics employed by the government, MSM and 3 letter agencies are reaching a crescendo that only further shows their lack of concern for the public but only a concern for their gain in power and finances.
Government, academia and the main stream media have let down the average American family and now have no idea how to connect with them and seemingly have very little interest in trying to understand why the public does not merely, not believe them but actually believes that these institutions are acting in ways that are contrary to the good of the average American family. Are theses elites really that blind to how the average American feels about inflation, crime and illegal immigration or the destruction of the family or the destruction/loss of childhood learning due to Covid lockdown? Are elites evil or simply pathologically clueless to how everyday American feel about their country.
As much as I truly admire Alex for his courage and exemplary writing skill, I don’t agree that he has joined our side. I believe he has learned to value and respect our opinions.
they have built a winning coalition of the wealthy and those who are dependent on them. they do not have to care about anyone else. and since those people vote against them, they actually hate them. especially the middle and working class who abandoned them. hell hath no fury.........
They follow the pack and want to remain in the "club." It's probably a very small cabal that sets the agenda and the authorized narratives. But all the colonels and captains in the important organizations intuitively understand the "Current thing" they have to support. The sergeants and privates also fall in line.
It's the freelancers outside of these organizations who are the freedom fighters and independent thinkers.
The final line about Substack rang true (as a fellow Substacker). Since Substack is still a private company and hasn't (yet) been gobbled up by Meta and Zucked (or worse), we have no idea how many 'stacks have been dropped or restricted...nor do we know their algorithms for subjects and comments.
The company's founders have made very brave statements about free speech--but the real crunch will come when the defamation lawsuits start to fly...or when Trump is elected and the national security state creates a false-flag that will make Jan 6 look like a teaparty and "democracy is saved."
And lots more people will go to jail. Or "disappear."
There was a time when the above sentence would have been far, far beyond the Overton Window...not so much in 2024. I know it; you know it, too.
For those on Substack writing non-controversial stuff...fine. But for those of us in active opposition to the "elites" (a gross misnomer), this is the gremlin sitting on our shoulder as we type words that might...worse-case...get us deplatformed, investigated, indicted, tried by the Judge Engorons out there.
Republics are, historically, very fragile political institutions. Ours is old, tired, decadent, corrupt.
I would highly, highly encourage everybody to watch this recent Tucker Carlson interview with Mike Benz about how the U.S. Deep State/Industrialized Military Complex has been in mass censorship mode against our people since 2016 and it's getting worse. I don't usually post links, but this will be one of the most important 1-hour interviews you will watch in your lifetime.
I watched it (before reading your comment) and I totally agree. Now I've just watched Tucker's discussion with Russell Brand (You Tube) and having finished it think it is utterly brilliant too. Tucker is doing some amazing stuff. Thank heavens he got fired from Fox...
I watched the Russell Brand interview. It amazes me the lengths government organizations will go to in order to destroy someone who exposes their lies.
Russell Brand himself seemed surprised. The 'lengths government organizations will go to destroy someone who exposes their lies' seems to be an enormous confirmation that we are on the right track being concerned about censorship/loss of free speech....
He did. I never thought a celebrity sharing his views on social media would be the target of his own government. The world is getting to be a scary place.
Alex, Kudos to choosing this direction for your research! I hope that one of the places it takes you is the suppression of Ivermectin, so you will finally understand the real reasons it was attacked (which is NOT because it's either unsafe or ineffective).
As far as substack is concerned, I’m pretty sure every single one of its subscribers is extremely sensitive to any form of censorship on the platform. It simply won’t be tolerated. Try it once, and I am GONE. And I suspect I speak for most everyone here.
As far as some Stackers noticing their subscribers decreasing, I would not attribute that to a sign that the platform itself is failing or being suppressed. However "important" an author may consider themselves; some of us subscribe for a time and then drop it when we find it unsatisfying for any number of reasons. It's a choice about what you want to spend your time on. That's part of the beauty of Substack; we have choice.
I naively thought the news was worth something and felt so betrayed after Covid. I was shocked that no one in the media was asking about lockdown harms, demanding vax studies, pushing back on vax mandates. I wrote two letters to the editor of our local paper (they did get published!) decrying the media's lack of responsible reporting. One woman from the former Czechoslovakia found my phone number, called me up and thanked me for being so brave. Pushing back publicly on radical restrictions was now considered an act of bravery similar to dissident behaviour behind the Iron Curtain. I was suspended from Twitter for 9 months (likely for asking inconvenient questions about the vaccine) and then reinstated post Elon. I discovered that most people aren't willing to speak up. They are totally oblivious to the power and responsibility inherent in the right to speak freely.
I will give you an example My Governor Hitler Healy wants everyone to think that the LGBTQP community is real. I can think that but in reality, it is not. Pharmaceutical companies have been paying legacy media for advertising revenue and their silence on the truth. Our president should fix this so that they have to work for us as a reader and the legacy media is supposed to be for us the people. We need a shift in truth-telling to protect the people's customers of these big companies. America is so divided prices for everyone are out of control and things are far worse today than when Uncle Joe became president. I believe that we may go into civil war here in America regardless of who our next president might be things are horrible here in Massachusetts our governor is paying with taxpayer's money $2000.00 per person for 31 days just to cater for 3 meals a day plus 5-star hotels they are living in and American citizens drug addicted homeless people are in the gutter of every street in Massachusetts. I am not making this up or just thinking about it either. My eyes don't play tricks and my name is not Uncle Joe Robinhood Biden
As a Republican still neutral on the GOP nomination for President (I vote March 5th), I strongly advise that people remember something journalist Salena Zito (Washington Examiner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, etc.) observed about Trump supporters in 2016. They take him seriously, but not literally. That's outstanding advice. That's why I never hyperventilate over his "outside the Overton window" statements. It's wise to actually figure out what he's saying in such instances (with NATO, pay your fair share. Looking at you, Canada).
The media takes snippets of Trump speeches and twists them into something abhorrent. The most recent one being about NATO protection. The day after that speech MSM published their outrage in articles on every news website declaring that Trump would let Putin commit unspeakable acts against Ukrainians and then progress into European countries and do the same. Network "news" hosts joined in. As you said, he told NATO countries if you want us to protect you, you have to contribute. Past presidents have let them get away without paying for years. Here in SC we understand what he said.
Free speech is a luxury an empire in decline cannot afford, since protecting the privilege of its ruling class when it can no longer afford enough bread and circuses to keep the proletariat (the word does originate that far back) from discovering that they can either walk away from the ruling class, or decapitate it. Of course, the decline, of America as much as Rome, is ineluctable, but the reaction of the ruling class often seems t make it much steeper and more destructive than it would need to be, if they were able and willing to moderate, in some degree, their class selfishness and arrogance. But I guess that's human nature.
'...Roosevelt listed the “Four Freedoms” vital to life - and offered “freedom of speech” as the first freedom, even before “freedom of fear.”'
Alex, a quick correction: FDR said "freedom FROM fear," not "freedom of fear." Although that last one would be an interesting concept in and of itself. Presumably, we all remain free to fear whatever we view as scary. The problem, of course, comes when some people try to impose their fears (like Covid) on everybody else.
Thanks Alex, another great read from you. Appreciate you using your analytical skills plus articulate communication skills to provide so much insight. Your truth telling is a huge challenge and literal sacrifice in this totalitarian climate, but without brave folks like you, we are all screwed. THANK YOU!!
Global elites haven’t won hearts & minds of the majority. Totalitarianism ensues.
I think Mike Benz identified the "most important thing" to our official and shadow rulers in that interview with Tucker Carlson. The Powers that Be had to take total control of all social media companies to block influential speakers who could scuttle all of their agendas. Yes, they wanted to fight "vaccine hesitancy" but they also wanted to prevent anyone from challenging them on election fraud, central bank digital currencies, the Green New Deal, etc.
The Great Threat to their unfinished agendas was the Internet. What's amazing is how eager the social media companies were to help them kill free speech.
Alex can speak to what happened when they put their Censorship Program into action ... but so can I.
https://billricejr.substack.com/p/whats-the-key-to-our-side-winning?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Our rulers basically concluded they could not allow any of their false narratives to be exposed or debunked as false. The reason they can't allow this to happen is they want to remain in control and expand their control. The reason they want to protect and expand their control is they are not finished rolling out the rest of their unfinished agendas! That's the terrifying conclusion: They are not done with us!
But it seems more and more of us are done with them.
A silver lining! Still, the "resistance" somehow has to break through to the "mainstream." It would take just one seismic "truth bomb" detonating. So far, they've kept that thermo-nuclear blast from draining the swamp of our dangerous leaders and "experts."
Even if the "seismic truth bomb" detonated, I'm not sure it would wake people up. It already kind of happened with the russiagate nonsense. Once people accept something as truth, it's hard to change their minds. A retraction of propaganda 6 months later on page 37 doesn't change anyone's mind. I have family members who still believe russian collusion was at least partly true. The truth is - we can't know what's true at this point in history. Sorry to be such a depressive. Thanks for the silver lining nonetheless.
My next article is going to be on the RussiaGate scam.
It seems like about half or less of the American public know what they have done and are doing. The other half remains clueless and blind to it all. That's depressing.
Glad to see your mention of the Tucker Carlson interview of Mike Benz. Incredibly important. Everyone needs to see it!
My very leftie brother saw Tucker's interview because I sent it to him. He was gobsmacked to say the least. He said he watched every second of it. Victory of sorts! Now if everyone could see it!
I agree. It changed the way I think about the last four years. I used to think the "most important thing" to our rulers was simply getting those mRNA vaccines approved and mandated. That was important, but the most important thing was expanding the Censorship Industrial Complex. Covid was the pretense that allowed that to happen.The Censorship Industrial Complex allows our rulers to get ALL of their agendas across the finish line.
It's just a theory - but it's a new one.
I've been thinking along these lines for a long time. It makes a certain kind of sense. It seems obvious that they've been ball-parking this sort of response for longer than we realize.
Recall back in Jan 2021 when the left was shutting down Trump's ability to take payments? Stripe, PayPal et all? Talking about shutting down free speech, which is the heart of the fascist movement yet duping people by saying "antifa". Alex may have addressed it, but I don't recall that.
I'll add that this is another reason why Bitcoin is important: a censorship resistant form of payment is critical when people are debanked and censored. Without payments, people like Alex couldn't survive to write here.
I'm a full-time Substack author who mixes op-ed commentary with original investigative journalism. Substack is my only source of income. I'm on pace to gross $14,000 this year from paid subscribers (and that's after 18 months of spending at least 8 hours every day researching, writing and "marketing" my freelance journalism business). I appreciate the support that got me to $14,000 in income, but that level of income is, ah, not sustainable. I think the Powers that Be who don't like Substack are banking on the fact most of the gung-ho contrarian journalists will raise the white flag at some point.
I'd be in Heaven on earth if I earned the income of, say, the average Gannett salaried journalist (although I know those employees are rapidly becoming extinct).
My colleagues in the mainstream press get the "big bucks" ($55,000/year?) for simply being stenographers of the Fauci narratives. Meanwhile, here in my home office in the hinterlands, I'm slaving away trying to debunk their work product.
Question: Who's doing the most important work?
(I'd apply for one of those jobs, but somehow I don't think any editor is going to hire someone with my archive of stories. For me, it's Substack or bust.).
Bill, I'm imagining a scenario where you (or I) could be to print journalism what Rush was to AM radio. There is a perfect opportunity on the horizon (or maybe it's here and now) to make this happen.
Let the 'elites' have the Internet. We can go back and rescue the medium they abandoned.
I used to fight with Liberal editors to get my letters published in local newspapers. Even when they did publish them, their typists would make 'mistakes' that altered my meaning. That or they would edit it down to fit space limitations.
I have a small business and require a source for local advertising. I gave up on trying to get effective advertising in newspapers distributed to my local customers. My customers have told me that they won't even open the free weekly papers because there's no content. So why should I advertise there?
So I've started a free advertising co-op for all my like-minded local business owners to take part in. I've laid out a right-hand column for business card size ads for each participant and fill the rest of the pages with timely Conservative content.
At this early stage I would call it a flier. We share it via email. Print them on our printers and leave them on our sales counters for customers to take home and read.
The flier on my sales counter advertises for the gun shop, deli, florist et al, and they in turn advertise for me. It ties us all together nicely and we stymie the elites' plans to rob us on rates while gaslighting us .
I love it, David. Shoot me an email so I can learn more.
wjricejunior@gmail.com
Room 1,000,000,001 ...2 ...3 for you and me and Alex, since all the others are presently occupied by conspiracy theorists and O'Brian clones (think of the "Smiths" from the Matrix).
When push comes to shove, brave men will fight and die for freedom. In this case the enemy of freedom has no core philosophy. Who will fight and die for 'globalism'?
For the left & the elites it all in the name of saving Democracy! It's getting old and boring at this point. How about Musk being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his defense of freedom of speech? Love to hear your thoughts on that Alex.
What about someone in the Kennedy family nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr for one of those "Profile in Courage" Awards named for his late uncle?
No Kennedy - perhaps no American - has shown more courage than RFK, Jr. in the last decade. The irony is he's the last person on the planet that would get nominated for that award.
The prize is just an award they like to throw around as they please. Least we forget Hitler was also a nominee as well.
Fauci won some humanitarian award where they gave him 1 million smackers ... Like he even needed another 1 million smackers.
... But he's getting ready to get 10 million more for rights to his coming memoirs.
People wouldn't commit big crimes .... if the pay wasn't so big.
(As noted elsewhere, I netted $12K last year doing my work - fighting crime).
This puts a new light on those who have been programmed to tow the narrative line, with "programmed" taking on a deeper and fuller meaning. They seem more and more like Manchurian candidates who can be called out of their passive and thought-free existence with a single word (often "Trump") and then sputter and rage until momentarily spent. The elites have put a lot of time and effort into cultivating their "army", but now they're seeing we don't really care what people think of us, not even if it means losing friends and family. Freedom and truth are more important to us.
The elites are getting terrified of a public that has now had their eyes opened and is saying “no”. No more vaccines, no more lockdowns, no more intimidation, no more illegal immigration, no more high gas prices, no more…well, the list goes on. The anti globalist movement is gaining momentum and more followers. And the tactics employed by the government, MSM and 3 letter agencies are reaching a crescendo that only further shows their lack of concern for the public but only a concern for their gain in power and finances.
There is a REASON why Trump is the most feared man of the DEEP state
Government, academia and the main stream media have let down the average American family and now have no idea how to connect with them and seemingly have very little interest in trying to understand why the public does not merely, not believe them but actually believes that these institutions are acting in ways that are contrary to the good of the average American family. Are theses elites really that blind to how the average American feels about inflation, crime and illegal immigration or the destruction of the family or the destruction/loss of childhood learning due to Covid lockdown? Are elites evil or simply pathologically clueless to how everyday American feel about their country.
The elites in government, academia and the MSM hate you and me. It’s that simple
100% accurate!
The beauty of Alex's essay is that he IS a member of the elite MSM, and he's joined our side.
As much as I truly admire Alex for his courage and exemplary writing skill, I don’t agree that he has joined our side. I believe he has learned to value and respect our opinions.
they have built a winning coalition of the wealthy and those who are dependent on them. they do not have to care about anyone else. and since those people vote against them, they actually hate them. especially the middle and working class who abandoned them. hell hath no fury.........
They follow the pack and want to remain in the "club." It's probably a very small cabal that sets the agenda and the authorized narratives. But all the colonels and captains in the important organizations intuitively understand the "Current thing" they have to support. The sergeants and privates also fall in line.
It's the freelancers outside of these organizations who are the freedom fighters and independent thinkers.
They don’t care.
The final line about Substack rang true (as a fellow Substacker). Since Substack is still a private company and hasn't (yet) been gobbled up by Meta and Zucked (or worse), we have no idea how many 'stacks have been dropped or restricted...nor do we know their algorithms for subjects and comments.
The company's founders have made very brave statements about free speech--but the real crunch will come when the defamation lawsuits start to fly...or when Trump is elected and the national security state creates a false-flag that will make Jan 6 look like a teaparty and "democracy is saved."
And lots more people will go to jail. Or "disappear."
There was a time when the above sentence would have been far, far beyond the Overton Window...not so much in 2024. I know it; you know it, too.
For those on Substack writing non-controversial stuff...fine. But for those of us in active opposition to the "elites" (a gross misnomer), this is the gremlin sitting on our shoulder as we type words that might...worse-case...get us deplatformed, investigated, indicted, tried by the Judge Engorons out there.
Republics are, historically, very fragile political institutions. Ours is old, tired, decadent, corrupt.
It will not end well. And yet--write we must.
I would highly, highly encourage everybody to watch this recent Tucker Carlson interview with Mike Benz about how the U.S. Deep State/Industrialized Military Complex has been in mass censorship mode against our people since 2016 and it's getting worse. I don't usually post links, but this will be one of the most important 1-hour interviews you will watch in your lifetime.
https://tuckercarlson.com/uncensored-the-national-security-state-the-inversion-of-democracy/
I watched it (before reading your comment) and I totally agree. Now I've just watched Tucker's discussion with Russell Brand (You Tube) and having finished it think it is utterly brilliant too. Tucker is doing some amazing stuff. Thank heavens he got fired from Fox...
I watched the Russell Brand interview. It amazes me the lengths government organizations will go to in order to destroy someone who exposes their lies.
Russell Brand himself seemed surprised. The 'lengths government organizations will go to destroy someone who exposes their lies' seems to be an enormous confirmation that we are on the right track being concerned about censorship/loss of free speech....
He did. I never thought a celebrity sharing his views on social media would be the target of his own government. The world is getting to be a scary place.
Yes, it is, Anthony! Please SHARE!🙏🇺🇸
Alex, Kudos to choosing this direction for your research! I hope that one of the places it takes you is the suppression of Ivermectin, so you will finally understand the real reasons it was attacked (which is NOT because it's either unsafe or ineffective).
May God protect you and bless you for your
willingness to stand, taking the slings and arrows.
As far as substack is concerned, I’m pretty sure every single one of its subscribers is extremely sensitive to any form of censorship on the platform. It simply won’t be tolerated. Try it once, and I am GONE. And I suspect I speak for most everyone here.
I just commented on this, but there has been some attacks on Substack: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/the-subtle-yet-coordinated-attack
I hope everyone reads this. (Lots already are aware of Platformer’s sophomoric shenanigans…. What a putz).
As far as some Stackers noticing their subscribers decreasing, I would not attribute that to a sign that the platform itself is failing or being suppressed. However "important" an author may consider themselves; some of us subscribe for a time and then drop it when we find it unsatisfying for any number of reasons. It's a choice about what you want to spend your time on. That's part of the beauty of Substack; we have choice.
I naively thought the news was worth something and felt so betrayed after Covid. I was shocked that no one in the media was asking about lockdown harms, demanding vax studies, pushing back on vax mandates. I wrote two letters to the editor of our local paper (they did get published!) decrying the media's lack of responsible reporting. One woman from the former Czechoslovakia found my phone number, called me up and thanked me for being so brave. Pushing back publicly on radical restrictions was now considered an act of bravery similar to dissident behaviour behind the Iron Curtain. I was suspended from Twitter for 9 months (likely for asking inconvenient questions about the vaccine) and then reinstated post Elon. I discovered that most people aren't willing to speak up. They are totally oblivious to the power and responsibility inherent in the right to speak freely.
Very cool that lady took the time to call you. I love it.
I will give you an example My Governor Hitler Healy wants everyone to think that the LGBTQP community is real. I can think that but in reality, it is not. Pharmaceutical companies have been paying legacy media for advertising revenue and their silence on the truth. Our president should fix this so that they have to work for us as a reader and the legacy media is supposed to be for us the people. We need a shift in truth-telling to protect the people's customers of these big companies. America is so divided prices for everyone are out of control and things are far worse today than when Uncle Joe became president. I believe that we may go into civil war here in America regardless of who our next president might be things are horrible here in Massachusetts our governor is paying with taxpayer's money $2000.00 per person for 31 days just to cater for 3 meals a day plus 5-star hotels they are living in and American citizens drug addicted homeless people are in the gutter of every street in Massachusetts. I am not making this up or just thinking about it either. My eyes don't play tricks and my name is not Uncle Joe Robinhood Biden
As a Republican still neutral on the GOP nomination for President (I vote March 5th), I strongly advise that people remember something journalist Salena Zito (Washington Examiner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, etc.) observed about Trump supporters in 2016. They take him seriously, but not literally. That's outstanding advice. That's why I never hyperventilate over his "outside the Overton window" statements. It's wise to actually figure out what he's saying in such instances (with NATO, pay your fair share. Looking at you, Canada).
The media takes snippets of Trump speeches and twists them into something abhorrent. The most recent one being about NATO protection. The day after that speech MSM published their outrage in articles on every news website declaring that Trump would let Putin commit unspeakable acts against Ukrainians and then progress into European countries and do the same. Network "news" hosts joined in. As you said, he told NATO countries if you want us to protect you, you have to contribute. Past presidents have let them get away without paying for years. Here in SC we understand what he said.
Free speech is a luxury an empire in decline cannot afford, since protecting the privilege of its ruling class when it can no longer afford enough bread and circuses to keep the proletariat (the word does originate that far back) from discovering that they can either walk away from the ruling class, or decapitate it. Of course, the decline, of America as much as Rome, is ineluctable, but the reaction of the ruling class often seems t make it much steeper and more destructive than it would need to be, if they were able and willing to moderate, in some degree, their class selfishness and arrogance. But I guess that's human nature.
'...Roosevelt listed the “Four Freedoms” vital to life - and offered “freedom of speech” as the first freedom, even before “freedom of fear.”'
Alex, a quick correction: FDR said "freedom FROM fear," not "freedom of fear." Although that last one would be an interesting concept in and of itself. Presumably, we all remain free to fear whatever we view as scary. The problem, of course, comes when some people try to impose their fears (like Covid) on everybody else.
Thanks Alex, another great read from you. Appreciate you using your analytical skills plus articulate communication skills to provide so much insight. Your truth telling is a huge challenge and literal sacrifice in this totalitarian climate, but without brave folks like you, we are all screwed. THANK YOU!!