Look at how much NYT reporters hate and resent Substack, because it provides the ability of writers and journalists to be heard and to reach an audience without having to submit to their monopolistic structures and discourse controls.
This is the same reason they hate @JoeRogan. They think it's a grave injustice that millions want to listen to to him -- are willing to pay -- but not to them, and that he's free to say what he wants and they're not.
The more free discourse emerges, the more they'll malign it.
As for money: NYT makes enormous profit. They make it by keeping fear levels high and trying to deceive people into believing that only they speak Truth and provide reliable commentary (despite their, you know, history).
They hate anything that threatens that hegemonic control.
Exactly. Journalists at NYT and NBC and CNN who make enormous salaries but know nobody would read them if they left -- because they do nothing unique: just spout corporate scripts -- are most threatened by independent journalists who don't need them.
The largest corporate media outlets (NBC/NYT/WPost/CNN) know they're hatred & distrusted, and that this hatred/distrust is deserved (look at what they've done).
They will try to malign, then destroy, anything that thrives outside of their control.
Here's an email exchange I had with someone yesterday about that @CJR article that maligned Substack as nothing more than a place of unearned privilege and entitlement. As Substack (and other independent-voice-supporting platforms like Patreon) thrive, these attacks will grow.
When I did the Snowden reporting, there were many causes (the right of privacy, abuse of government secrecy, etc), but the overarching one was internet freedom.
That's the same key fight emerging now: will media corps, Dems and the national security state censor the internet?
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The US has only been shooting Afghan farmers and bombing villages for a mere 19 years. Thank you, @SenDuckworth, for demanding there be no premature withdrawal. Afghanistan belongs to the US and 19 years of occupation and bombing is far too little for a colony to improve:
And here's @AmbassadorRice, @RepDanCrenshaw and some NBC News analyst all agreeing that it's way too early to leave Afghanistan, and that Trump's plan is precipitous -- in case anyone still believes the bullshit myth about how there's no more bipartisanship in DC.
And just so you know what the sides are, here's neocon warmonger & MSNBC favorite @BillKristol condemning the current effort to withdraw troops from around the world, including Afghanistan, as his liberal fans swoon and sprain their fingers re-tweeting:
This is amazing, but not really. There is no more authoritarian species in the wild than US liberals. In every controversy, they side with institutions of authority: they love the large corporate press, the FBI, CIA, workplace managers, editors - they worship & revere authority:
Nobody — absolutely nobody — has done more to spread disinformation and deceive the public than large corporate media outlets. That’s their function. This never used to be controversial on the left.
Now they have liberal convinced they’re the warriors against disinformation.
They beg Facebook and Google and other tech giants to regulate our discourse. They think NBC News & CNN are devoted to combatting disinformation and keeping us safe from propaganda. They beg for “gatekeepers” and discourse regulators. They are institutionalists & authoritarians.
There is no question that Democrats are gearing up to use their new power to apply far more pressure than ever on Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. to censor any views they deem "threatening." Obama could not be clearer about this:
The extraordinary joke of all of this is Obama -- to warn of the dangers of disinformation -- chose to give a key interview to ***Jeffrey Goldberg***, author of the most destructive disinformation of the last 20 years. Those warning about "disinformation" are its worst purveyors.
Please look at what is going here. Democrats are defining whoever opposes them not as adversaries but as national security threats, fascist terrorists, etc. -- all to justify blocking them from the internet using their influence with Silicon Valley.
Very disappointed to see @cliomiso is angered by LGBT journalists having a platform on which to be heard and write independently. Homophobia still strong.
It was only a matter of time before people started demanding Substack be censored: hate nothing more than free expression.
That @Yascha_Mounk -- who supported the coup in Bolivia -- and I are "like minded" is one of the funniest fucking things I've ever read. But that's what happens to your brain when you try to flatten everyone into stunted groups, ignoring their diversity and differences.
I have to say it's so infuriating when you go through life confronting prejudices, legal barriers barring you from living with your husband in your own country, various traumas and other forms of prejudice to be flattened into "another white guy" but cheap identitarians.
Yesterday, Brazil -- the world's sixth most-populous country -- held nationwide municipal elections, with the pandemic raging like in many other countries. But look at how many votes are counted hours after polls closed when you have a functional vote-counting system:🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
It's just astonishing to compare the US -- where only 70% of votes in numerous NY districts are counted more than *two weeks* after the election -- to Brazil, a much poorer country of comparable size, where you wake up the next day and all votes are counted & all races decided.
3 points about the race:
1) Those endorsed by Bolsonaro were complete failures - his support seemed to either have no effect or worse.
2) The socialist candidate, @GuilhermeBoulos, whose story is amazing, is in the run-off to be Mayor of São Paulo, the continent's largest city.
This is for you, @MiekeEoyang - people have the right to criticize Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Michele Flournoy or whatever other militarist and imperialist Biden/Harris rolls out without being slimed with your cynical, deceitful accusations of misogyny and racism.
This is their tactic: they think if they drape a rainbow flag over Raytheon, or celebrate LGBT Day at CIA, or herald the first woman of color on the Citibank board, you’re barred from criticizing them. That’s their scam. It deserves nothing but contempt.