I’m a big fan of RESIST BOT, which is a legitimate free service that will send a letter (you may edit) to your corresponding Senators or Congressional Representative on key issues/bills.
For this issue:
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And who will report it?
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In 1990 I attended a conference at Stanford on the impending struggles of publishing, particularly books and magazines, in a less literate world. And this was 5 years before the web took hold. Today I look at children walking alone or in loose groups staring at their phones, absorbed in synthetic interactions with far-away machines. Much of the information is one-way, visual with sound track.
Silent reading was suspect in old times. For example, when Alexader the Great read a letter silently in front of 5,000 soldiers, the troops were shocked as he didn’t even move his lips. Amazing, but also scary. Silent reading meant enemies could noiselessly pass information to potential traitors. It was dangerous. With the printing press, literacy became critical to many aspects of society. By the 19th century in the US, children were widely and publicly being taught to read silently. You even had to be quiet at the library. Horrendously bad for religions that suggested that there were only 1 or 2 books worth reading, and even provided people to read and explain the words in those books. No, children were developing a silent private reading voice in their head that read to them, identifying letters, assembling letters into syllables and words and words into phrases and phrases into sentences and ideas and vistas and other worlds and even concepts of plans.
Now that power is being lost, sapped away by machine-crutches that promise 100 billion times more information, but make people stupid. The little reading voice in children’s heads is being silenced. It’s not quite how Orwell or Bradbury predicted, but the effect is real. And frankly, I don’t see any effort to save the reading voice. All the money is on replacing it. Covid was only an accelerant in exposing societal changes, not a cause.
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Now that power is being lost, sapped away by machine-crutches that promise 100 billion times more information, but make people stupid. The little reading voice in children’s heads is being silenced
Kinda creepy when you think it through, our imaginations competing with algorithms that keep the dopamine coming - like mash potatoes with gravy on a chilly Thanksgiving afternoon.
Commenting b/c just yesterday I caught myself (again) addicted to all the sounds, colors and visuals bouncing around in my neural pathways generated by my phone, smart watch, gadgets and (bowing) almighty TV. All together sometimes! Where’s the remote! It comes and goes, and I catch myself in this comfortable stimulating space that delivers most of my needs. Then I wonder how long it’s been going on.
Today, the imagination cannot compete. As a kid I was always out playing on the street (and interacting) or in the woods with Mother Nature. It’s still with me, thankfully.
And the truth is, I’m not missing anything, anything too important. If Trump strokes out I’m sure I’ll hear about it.
ETA: Thanks for the stimulating post.
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The what??
This applies more to Trump’s political and judicial ‘enemies,’ but…
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Seriously, how can President Biden “pardon” Nancy Pelosi, Jack Smith, etc etc when they have not been charged with anything, much less a crime? That just doesn’t make any sense to me.
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Just one of the problems with billionaires. Imagine if Musk decided to devote the next year to getting rid of every single outlet that is critical of him through lawfare. The only reason TPM would survive is because it is too small to catch the predator’s eye - yet.
When McConnell and Leonard Leo devoted their entire careers to stacking the judiciary, they were aiming for exactly what they have gotten - a friendly and activist ear for all of their anti-regulation and (for Leo) religiously based deconstruction of the separation of Church and State. Getting rid of the free press has become a very appealing side piece along the way.
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Great. Even with President Vance, we have to endure at least 4 years of more Media Whore martyrdom and their self-pitying schtick as guilty-minded liberals renew their subscriptions based on that alone.
What a farce.
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Like the sentiments here but I would have thought things would have already gone that way by now…no…there are no principled GOP Senators and if there were,they clearly have a yellow streak a mile wide.The courts,Senate and HOR have all had opportunities to preserve the Republic from the facist oligarchy about to usurp our lives.Perhaps our friends in the MSM will reurn to their role as the 4th estate and quit normalizing the madness…I also believe Santa will visit my home Christmas eve…
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Speaking of the press, the LA Times, owned by a billionaire, just hired a Trump supporter to its editorial board.
Tim Snyder calls this “complying in advance”.
In 1933, it took Hitler about 6 months to cut German newspapers from 4700 to about 1100.
Entities loyal to Hitler owned the 1100.
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Silent reading: Awesome post. Thanks. Try to get it published as a letter in, say, NYT.
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Imagine if Musk decided to devote the next year to getting rid of every single outlet that is critical of him through lawfare.
In 1933, it took Hitler about 6 months to cut German newspapers from 4700 to about 1100.
Entities loyal to Hitler owned the 1100.
Scott Jennings. He has been on the op-ed section a year or so, maybe longer. I do not read what he writes.
Has anyone here read “Erasing History?” by Jason Stanley. Saw it at the library and it was calling my name.
IANAL, but I think he can issue a pre-emptive pardon.
Just put every damn roadblock possible in the next 2 months to short out Trump’s grab for dictatorship. Don’t worry about being nice or following the constitution, just do it. They can spend the next two years going to court trying to undo it.
To be honest, when it comes to “press freedoms,” I honestly don’t anymore. This is what the MSM chose. Because competent governance was boring and Trump World was exciting and would bring in lots of clicks. There is nothing bad that could happen to the “journalists” at the NYT, the Post, or CNN that would offend me at this point. The media as an institution has exposed itself as a fascist propaganda organization, and I don’t give a shit what happens to them.
Sorry, but you know what, let journalist protect themselves.
Journalist.