Good @benyt look at the amazing success on Substack of Heather Cox Richardson, a History Professor who has attracted a massive audience with restrained, daily anti-Trump columns. Even I'm tired of reading about Substack but it has some good/happy points:
First, Ben says his "conservative" estimate is her Substack is generating "more than a million dollars a year."
I'll guarantee it's *way* more: for sure closer to $1.5m & probably closer to $2m. This is good news for independent journalism: this success proves this model works:
Consider: people despise the mainstream corporate media so much (validly) that they're willing to pay to support anything that diverges from it, journalism that offers anything unique. Rogan proves this, too. That's why there are so many media attacks on Substack (and Rogan).
Second: Richardson's success came from a drumbeat of anti-Trump writing. We'll see if it continues when he's gone (she probably can given her massive FB following).
But this is the challenge all media outlets are facing who profited by becoming anti-Trump party organs. What now?
Anyway, for a long time, the question was how would media sustain itself in the digital age? The NYT is becoming the Amazon of media: a huge giant gobbling up others. Only other giants are thriving.
Anything that empowers people to be heard without submitting to them is good.👍
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The smug football-spiking glee over Luke Letlow's death at 41 is one of the most repulsive things I've seen on this site.
Celebrating death is repugnant in all cases but he wasn't a COVID denier. Urging that the costs of isolation & economic ruin be considered isn't denialism:
Many deaths are caused by careless choices: people don't eat well; they don't exercise; they smoke, drink or take drugs; they don't have safe sex; they drive when tired.
But we still mourn their deaths as tragic, not giggle that they got what they deserved -- except sociopaths.
A top Biden WH aide, Rep. Cedric Richmond, just tested positive for COVID after he traveled to an Atlanta political rally for Ossoff and Warnock, rather than staying isolated at home. Do you think that's karmic justice, that if he dies it's just deserts?
For media outlets whose profit model depended on scaring people daily about Trump and are now petrified about how they'll keep people hooked - and they're are worried - this is what they're going to do: elevate the threat of right-wing domestic terrorism to keep fear levels high:
Defining everyone engaged in activism against Biden/Harris or who otherwise remains loyal to Trump as a "domestic terrorist" won't only be a desperate ploy to keep people scared and thus watching/reading, but will also be the pretext for FBI aggression, online censorship, etc.
Just as in Bush/Obama years - when FBI would coerce people to be informants and infiltrate mosques to induce some desperate/unstable Muslim kid to agree to a plot FBI created, then arrest them & praise themselves - they'll target white meth heads in Idaho & inflate that threat.
"The number of self-declared vegetarians in Brazil has nearly doubled over a six-year period, according to a poll by the research firm Ibope; 30 million people, or 14 percent of Brazilians, reported being vegetarian or vegan in 2018." 🇧🇷🇧🇷♥️♥️
"The shift away from animal-based protein is mainly being driven by health concerns, experts say. Obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease increased in Brazil in recent years as people adopted more sedentary lifestyles and junk food became increasingly cheap and accessible."
When I first started living in Brazil in 2005, obesity was rare. When my Brazilian husband first visited the US, his first reaction was shock over the prevalence of obesity.
Then McDonald's & KFC invaded Brazil and targeted the poor, and now obesity-related disease is rising.
If you can, please listen to this amazing Red Scare interview with NYU Professor @mcrispinmiller, now being formally investigated by NYU with threats of firing because -- in a class on **propaganda**! -- he encouraged students to review the conflicting messaging on mask-wearing:
I hope this will be made available to non-subscribers. The story is amazing. *One student* in the class whined on Twitter that she was upset by his teachings on COVID propaganda, and so the University apologized to her & assured her he'd be investigated:
You'll be unsurprised to learn that the @ACLU hasn't weighed in despite its being at NYU, but the always-principled and apolitical @TheFIREorg has, warning that these formal investigations pose a grave threat to academic freedom:
This viral tweet shows how easily social media is used to deceive:
A much higher-ranking Facebook executive, its second-highest ranking boss, Sheryl Sandberg, has donated sums vastly in excess of this to Democratic candidates and Democratic PACs, with none going to Republicans:
Indeed, "Sandberg, who worked for the Department of Treasury under President Clinton, has been a reliable Democratic donor for years. In 2016, she put more than $416,000 into the Hillary Victory Fund."
Is that influencing Facebook's role in elections???
Over the years, Sandberg -- obviously a more powerful Facebook executive than Kaplan -- has maxed out her donations to countless Dems, including Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Steny Hoyer, numerous Dem PACs & multiple Dem state parties:
How come the people who always talk about the sanctity of "norms" are always the ones most eager to abolish the longest-standing and most fundamental norms?
Also, I don't think one can say that it's just one party who has abused the pardon power for corrupt ends:
The presidential pardon is a vital tool for correcting grave injustices perpetrated by a mix of Congress and prosecutors. Without it, Alice Johnson & scores of other non-violent offenders would still be in prison. So would this great Louisville activist:
Like every government power, it's subject to abuse. Among the worst recent pardons: Bush 41's of his Iran-contra aides to protect himself; Clinton's of Marc Rich & his own half-brother (but not other drug offenders); Trump's of Blackwater killers & random corrupt GOP politicians.