I disagree. Bezos totally gets this and so do journalists who write for WAPO. Bezos CHOOSES to ignore it. The journalists who work for him may feel their hands are tied.
We all have hands tied, Joanna, if we use forms of English based on labeling.
To say "freedom is this," or "freedom is that" ties us up in the copulative verb, where nothing happens, and only more labeling ensues.
We'd do much better to base ourselves in actions personally alive, individually specific. With examples from what's happening on the ground, in real life, with analogies from wise artists and their arts.
My fear is that the Post under Bezos will be too ideologically opposed, and too ethically obtuse, to comprehend the distinctions offered in the pitch letter.
Meanwhile, I’m am communicating with every Democratic elected official I can reach to ask that the People’s Cabinet be created and start holding official press conferences.
Several editors from WaPo left after Bezos bent the knee and gave so many millions of dollars to Trump to save his empire. One of them is Jen Rubin who along with others founded The Contrarian platform. I encourage people to do the same. I had cancelled my subscription long ago to the only newspaper I was reading when I noticed the sane washing they were doing each time Trump said one horrible thing after the other. It was non stop during the elections and they almost never called him out. Now they can join NYT’s and the many far-right news outlets.
Heck, even the NYT now runs some headlines that are really disrespectful to the oligarchs, and the text is no milder. Meanwhile, there was a moment recently when I was tempted to reopen my Wapost subscription, but that passed quickly.
I'm glad to hear that you are pitching the shadow./people's cabinet idea to democratic office holders . I am doing the same and I wonder how much of a noisy groundswell it will take to get results.
By all means. Bernie is getting out there blazing the trail for any and all who are willing to follow and spread out to listen to those who are frustrated by what they now see happening.
But remember, when money rules, we've already sunk.
U.S. universities for decades now have let schools of business rule -- more than three times the numbers of majors than the second-highest sets of majors, all the health professions combined.
Languages, history, and the arts? Totally dwarfed by those for grubbing money.
When life gets turned into units, numbers, commodities only, the vulgar have already taken charge. Ethics? Gone. Ethics pertains only to the human, to the personal, to places and ways we can see human pain and human gladness.
Yes! I have begun using the term "Collective Freedom" -- the acceptance of shared responsibility rather than unfettered personal gain. Thanks for your voice in this madness!
Democrats introduced many amendments to stop tax cuts:
• First, stop tax cuts for those making over $10 million a year—Republicans voted no.
• Second, they tried to set the cutoff at $100 million—Republicans still said no.
• Third, they tried to set the cutoff at $500 million—Republicans still said no.
• Fourth, they tried to set the cutoff at $1 billion— Republicans said they were for giving billionaires a tax break on the backs of the poor and the elderly.
1) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, won’t even block tax cuts for people making $1 billion in a single year.
2) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, are more than happy to slash funding for kids with disabilities and seniors in nursing homes to give billionaires a financial break.
If you voted for one of these Republicans you are complicit in their actions.
All Republican candidates are presumed to have sworn the Grover Norquist pledge to shrink the US federal government until it “can be drowned in a bathtub.” Candidates who refuse can’t run as GOP. The few who try have heart attacks, car accidents, that sort of thing.
Dear Dr. Snyder. Nicely worded. The AP has been banned from White House briefings, I am told, though it is being contested. The Washington Post, which has been my newspaper of choice for over forty years, has officially gone over to the dark side. If the independent Fourth Estate is not dead, it is most likely on life support. These times call for courage and solid discernment. Struggle.
Humans who suffered under unfreedom know exactly what true freedom means: not to be afraid to have a voice, not afraid to voice your thoughts and feelings, your opinions, your needs and wishes, your truth. The freedom to have and make choices and changes. And it is this precious and true meaning of freedom that besos is abolishing at the post. Good bye, amazon.
I don't understand why people are dumping FB. My major professional networks have been on it for well over a decade, and they're too big to be migrated elsewhere. Yes, FB can be annoying and Zuck has always been a creep, but if you use F.B. Purity or Social Fixer for Facebook, you never see ads and can do a fair amount of customizing. (Unfortunately, they aren't available for phones -- which is why I do nearly all my Facebooking on my laptop.)
I use Ad Block Plus, Privacy Badger, and Ghostery and don't see a single ads on FB. Privacy Badger and Ghostery stop tracking and other nefarious things.
I hate to bring it up but after Musk and his merry band of hackers have invaded some of our most sensitive agencies, does anyone still think our data is safe? I learned the hard way not to respond directly to FB ads but to go directly to the business site instead.
Anyone who wants your data has got it. Do you shop at Amazon or any other big online retailer? They've got your data. If you use credit cards, they've got your data. Etc.
I could so easily claim moral high ground by saying I won't use Facebook, X or Tesla, but truth is that I never did. Saying goodbye to Amazon and WaPo would each be a major pain.
I respectfully disagree with most of the comments. It's essential that Prof. Snyder get this wise and well written piece in the Post. The idea of freedom appeals to people. Defining it more clearly is essential and effective. I am not willing to assume that most readers of the Post won't understand Tim Snyder's prose--which is eminently clear.
Patricia, I agree with your comment. Dr Snyder & We The People are responsible for speaking up, no matter what. How the message is received is not the messengers’ responsibility, imo.
As freedom becomes more and more for the elite 1% who need not worry about basic needs or outlandish wants, the rest of us are pushed more and more into fear, poverty and slavery. At 82, I have trouble sleeping at night as I contemplate Social Security and Medicare cuts, losses in my wife’s and my meager investments, and, worst of all, fascist governmental and non-governmental thugs taking to the streets with weapons like those that left my father, an immigrant who escaped from Eastern Europe with physical and psychological wounds that caused him to have trouble sleeping at night. Like my father and me, in more subtle ways at least for now, my children and grandchildren are developing scars from living the edge of the cliff life that has become America. Sometimes my night thoughts turn to the 1940s when fascism rose and fell in the world and Benito Mussolini was not only assassinated but also hung upside down for all to see. History rhymes.
Timothy Snyder and others have called for a Shadow Cabinet to monitor and publicize the actions of the Trump administration. I propose that we include the Cabinet in a larger Government in Waiting. This team of people have the expertise that comes from experience in government as elected officials and senior officials in the departments. It will provide a real time and specific critique of the damage Trump / Musk are doing to Americans: crippling the Veterans' Administration, closing rural hospitals, destroying the scientific institutions that have made this country healthier and more prosperous, and on.
They will also present plans for restoring what Trump / Musk are trying to destroy and improving those institutions so they do their jobs better and faster.
These people will need to be superb communicators, both natural and trained. They will bring this case to neutral and hostile territory, like Fox News, Newsmax,
I've stopped my donations to the DNC, but would willingly support the Shadow Cabinet.
This collective body should have Secretaries that report on and debate all the various essential components of our collective lives that the 'actual' cabinet used to do-- health, education, welfare, defense, accountability . . .
I am curious about your reasons for discontinuing DNC support. Was there a particular policy or statement that changed your mind? FWIW, I think that some Dem supporters feel that the DNC's election strategy cost way too much and focussed on the wrong issues.
I stopped sending checks to the DNC for two reasons--
1, because the requests were literally 50 a day (still are), and with no specificity on how the money would be spent.
and 2, because I think the escalation of money into party politics is a huge part of our national problem.
I'm donating now to specific causes-- local animal welfare, some international aid, and subscriptions to Substacks like this one, which fosters real dialogue. I'm realizing that in forums like these, innovative solutions will come up that would never arise in business-as-usual party politics. The Shadow Cabinet, for example . . .
Thanks, Jill. I, too, am tired of getting e-bombed with many emails asking for donations, so I can readily identify with your #1. I am also trying to be selective in giving -- supporting specific candidates, for example Eugene Vindman because he and his brother exemplify to me the idea of service to country over party, even though he is not representing my own state.
(Rant alert!) I don't like the idea of my $$ buying more trite, irritating and totally unconvincing ads for generic politicians, and still less to buy the dubious services of campaign consultants.
There are many, many very worthwhile organizations which do wonderful work. I am so sad that our government (under Trump and his wrecking crew) is pulling the rug out from under so many good programs. The pittance I can give is a tiny droplet compared to the Niagara of federal dollars for medical treatments, education, etc. which Trump, Musk and their evil elves are busy shutting down.
I have been a practitioner of tolerance since my rebellious teenaged years -- at least as a principle, though oftentimes hard to put into practice -- but I have to say that the behavior shown by Trump and JD Vance in Friday's ambush of President Zelenskyy should not be tolerated by anyone. I was very disappointed (though not surprised) that one after another of Republican bigwigs strutted and tut-tutted about how Zelenskyy was rude and disrespectful, yadda-yadda, but if any R's were critical of Donnie and his boy JD, I haven't yet seen it in print.
So much for tolerance I guess; at this point I want to yell "Throw da bums out!"
Prof. Snyder, I agree with the comments here that your understanding of freedom would go over the heads of most Americans. Long before I started reading (mostly) CEE history, I was unhappy with America's understanding of freedom, but didn't know how to articulate this unhappiness except that it seemed shallow to me. It wasn't until I started reading history about 5 years ago--much of it 20th-c.--and became familiar with people like Václav Havel, Adam Michnik, etc. plus reading your writings--that I could finally *say* what is wrong with that understanding. The freedom to speak/write in a totalitarian society "as if" one were free to speak/write whatever one wants is not something most Americans would understand. It took me years to internalize eastern European history because it's so complex and unfamiliar to a Westerner. And I'm the type who is open to learning about unfamiliar subjects.
On the other hand, you've written long opinion pieces, for example, the one in the NYT in 2021 on the memory laws that were passed in Republican states. I'd say give it a go, if for no other reason than it would empower those who do understand this concept of freedom; it would give them the strength to keep fighting.
This might work if these awful, dreadful people knew how to read but their ignorance and callous disregard of their fellow Americans indicate that they are illiterate (certainly The Bloated Yam is when it comes to reading anything) and are determined to maintain their ignorance.
You can correct your typos and otherwise edit your posts. See the three dots (ellipsis) to the far right of your name? Click on it. One of the options is Edit. The other one is Delete.
Three dot edits only work in the web version of Substack. It doesn't work on the mobile app (Apple) versions. I don't know if there is an Android Substack app.
I love your sentence, "Freedom is the value of values..." It is the very essence of what really matters. I read recently that being human beings doesn't mean that we are human. The lack of compassion of both President Musk and his orange lap dog is both stunning and angering. It is proof that dictators are not leaders.
Bezos and Lewis (cf Hitler and Goebbels in their Editor Law, sect 14) are shutting the Post off from significant expressions of thought and speech. As Bezos dismissively says - we can take our diverse opinions elsewhere. But they've repurposed venerable newspaper as a mouthpiece for those repurposing our secular democratic republic as a christian nationalist state.
An 'editorial law' enabling Nazi censorship (1933)
14
b. tends to weaken the strength of the German Reich, in foreign relations or domestically; the sense of community of the German people; German defense capability, culture, or the economy; or offends the religious sentiments of others;
c. offends the honour and dignity of Germany;
d. illegally offends the honour or the well-being of another, hurts his reputation, or ridicules or disparages him;
Section Thirty-Five
The Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda may decree the removal of an editor from the professional list independent of the proceedings of the Professional Court if he deems it necessary for pressing reasons of public welfare…
Yes, freedom isn’t just about opposition or resistance—it is also about actively creating and nurturing the conditions in which people can thrive.
Forget news media. It’s always been flawed. I worked at NBC and CBS in the early days when it was more “fact-driven” and, making money by circulating information, has always been a compromising enterprise, no matter which way you look at it. Someone is deciding what is important and what is not. They also must decide what sells.
We're never going to overcome this situation by the usual protest and screams to the larger public. That didn't work. It's a democracy and we lost. We need to be smart. We need to focus more on the laws of attraction to have ANY chance of getting our country back.
We can't forget the fundamentals! Find and help anyone and anything in the local community who is bringing people together —especially people you wouldn't otherwise hang out with. Maybe their goal is education, or maybe it's service, or maybe it's just in the name of having a wonderful time. Work together on the small things, shared humanity and all that. Run for office!
Actions. Even in a bad mood, try to at least pick up some little piece of trash or let someone go ahead of you in line. Maybe it's just a smile one day. Make some wee part of the world a tiny bit better. Doing it that way, bit by bit, not looking at the top of the mountain, is the only thing keeping me sane and productive.
Well said, but probably way too far above the heads of those in charge of the editorial policy of the Washington Post these days.
I just opened comments to say exactly the same thing! They will never get it.
I might add that at this stage they don’t WANT to get it. It’s no longer in anyone left’s best interest.
Ditto. Pam’s comment is clearly visible as one taps the comment box.
Totally agree!
I disagree. Bezos totally gets this and so do journalists who write for WAPO. Bezos CHOOSES to ignore it. The journalists who work for him may feel their hands are tied.
We all have hands tied, Joanna, if we use forms of English based on labeling.
To say "freedom is this," or "freedom is that" ties us up in the copulative verb, where nothing happens, and only more labeling ensues.
We'd do much better to base ourselves in actions personally alive, individually specific. With examples from what's happening on the ground, in real life, with analogies from wise artists and their arts.
And those journalists are quitting in protest .
Except regulation of women’s choices and matters of faith in the schools, then they are all for regulation.
On the right freedom often means less government. Fewer regulations. Lower taxes. Less money on the needy. It’s not really what we think of.
My fear is that the Post under Bezos will be too ideologically opposed, and too ethically obtuse, to comprehend the distinctions offered in the pitch letter.
Meanwhile, I’m am communicating with every Democratic elected official I can reach to ask that the People’s Cabinet be created and start holding official press conferences.
Several editors from WaPo left after Bezos bent the knee and gave so many millions of dollars to Trump to save his empire. One of them is Jen Rubin who along with others founded The Contrarian platform. I encourage people to do the same. I had cancelled my subscription long ago to the only newspaper I was reading when I noticed the sane washing they were doing each time Trump said one horrible thing after the other. It was non stop during the elections and they almost never called him out. Now they can join NYT’s and the many far-right news outlets.
Heck, even the NYT now runs some headlines that are really disrespectful to the oligarchs, and the text is no milder. Meanwhile, there was a moment recently when I was tempted to reopen my Wapost subscription, but that passed quickly.
Democratic Leadership
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer
(202) 224-6542
https://www.schumer.senate.gov/contact
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
(202) 225-5936
.https://jeffries.house.gov/contact/.
Democratic National Committee
(202) 863-8000
.https://democrats.org/contact-us/
Senate Democratic Caucus
.https://www.democrats.senate.gov/about-senate-dems/our-caucus.
House Democratic Caucus
.https://www.dems.gov/who-we-are/our-members.
Progressive Caucus
Congressional Progressive Caucus
.https://progressives.house.gov/caucus-members.
Republican Conferences
Senate Republican Conference
.https://www.republican.senate.gov/.Senate
House Republican Conference .https://www.gop.gov/about/members.htm.
THANKS for posting these…. You made action easy! Will also pass this on to my Indivisible group.
Jared,
I'm glad to hear that you are pitching the shadow./people's cabinet idea to democratic office holders . I am doing the same and I wonder how much of a noisy groundswell it will take to get results.
By all means. Bernie is getting out there blazing the trail for any and all who are willing to follow and spread out to listen to those who are frustrated by what they now see happening.
Yes, Jared, "ethically obtuse."
But remember, when money rules, we've already sunk.
U.S. universities for decades now have let schools of business rule -- more than three times the numbers of majors than the second-highest sets of majors, all the health professions combined.
Languages, history, and the arts? Totally dwarfed by those for grubbing money.
When life gets turned into units, numbers, commodities only, the vulgar have already taken charge. Ethics? Gone. Ethics pertains only to the human, to the personal, to places and ways we can see human pain and human gladness.
Yes! I have begun using the term "Collective Freedom" -- the acceptance of shared responsibility rather than unfettered personal gain. Thanks for your voice in this madness!
I have begun to call ultra-libertarianism freedom infantilism.
Sorta like collective security.
..General Welfare...
Excellent!
That’s not what Bezos means, trust me.
Democrats introduced many amendments to stop tax cuts:
• First, stop tax cuts for those making over $10 million a year—Republicans voted no.
• Second, they tried to set the cutoff at $100 million—Republicans still said no.
• Third, they tried to set the cutoff at $500 million—Republicans still said no.
• Fourth, they tried to set the cutoff at $1 billion— Republicans said they were for giving billionaires a tax break on the backs of the poor and the elderly.
1) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, won’t even block tax cuts for people making $1 billion in a single year.
2) Republicans, 217 of them in the House, are more than happy to slash funding for kids with disabilities and seniors in nursing homes to give billionaires a financial break.
If you voted for one of these Republicans you are complicit in their actions.
https://bit.ly/4hUbbWU
Sickening! Every single one of them should be recalled by their voters.
All Republican candidates are presumed to have sworn the Grover Norquist pledge to shrink the US federal government until it “can be drowned in a bathtub.” Candidates who refuse can’t run as GOP. The few who try have heart attacks, car accidents, that sort of thing.
Tax cuts for billionaires—Trump’s #1 priority.
Dear Dr. Snyder. Nicely worded. The AP has been banned from White House briefings, I am told, though it is being contested. The Washington Post, which has been my newspaper of choice for over forty years, has officially gone over to the dark side. If the independent Fourth Estate is not dead, it is most likely on life support. These times call for courage and solid discernment. Struggle.
Maybe they could sneak if they changed their name to "America First Press Association"
Humans who suffered under unfreedom know exactly what true freedom means: not to be afraid to have a voice, not afraid to voice your thoughts and feelings, your opinions, your needs and wishes, your truth. The freedom to have and make choices and changes. And it is this precious and true meaning of freedom that besos is abolishing at the post. Good bye, amazon.
Good bye Amazon, Home Depot, Facebook (sob) and certainly X and Tesla!
I don't understand why people are dumping FB. My major professional networks have been on it for well over a decade, and they're too big to be migrated elsewhere. Yes, FB can be annoying and Zuck has always been a creep, but if you use F.B. Purity or Social Fixer for Facebook, you never see ads and can do a fair amount of customizing. (Unfortunately, they aren't available for phones -- which is why I do nearly all my Facebooking on my laptop.)
Does Fixer or Purity stop them from getting your data? That's my concern. Track us and sell our info to others.
I use Ad Block Plus, Privacy Badger, and Ghostery and don't see a single ads on FB. Privacy Badger and Ghostery stop tracking and other nefarious things.
https://adblockplus.org/
https://privacybadger.org/
https://www.ghostery.com/
Thank you! Great to know.
I hate to bring it up but after Musk and his merry band of hackers have invaded some of our most sensitive agencies, does anyone still think our data is safe? I learned the hard way not to respond directly to FB ads but to go directly to the business site instead.
Anyone who wants your data has got it. Do you shop at Amazon or any other big online retailer? They've got your data. If you use credit cards, they've got your data. Etc.
I could so easily claim moral high ground by saying I won't use Facebook, X or Tesla, but truth is that I never did. Saying goodbye to Amazon and WaPo would each be a major pain.
FB is the best way for me to keep with my kids and grandkids.
I respectfully disagree with most of the comments. It's essential that Prof. Snyder get this wise and well written piece in the Post. The idea of freedom appeals to people. Defining it more clearly is essential and effective. I am not willing to assume that most readers of the Post won't understand Tim Snyder's prose--which is eminently clear.
Patricia, I agree with your comment. Dr Snyder & We The People are responsible for speaking up, no matter what. How the message is received is not the messengers’ responsibility, imo.
As freedom becomes more and more for the elite 1% who need not worry about basic needs or outlandish wants, the rest of us are pushed more and more into fear, poverty and slavery. At 82, I have trouble sleeping at night as I contemplate Social Security and Medicare cuts, losses in my wife’s and my meager investments, and, worst of all, fascist governmental and non-governmental thugs taking to the streets with weapons like those that left my father, an immigrant who escaped from Eastern Europe with physical and psychological wounds that caused him to have trouble sleeping at night. Like my father and me, in more subtle ways at least for now, my children and grandchildren are developing scars from living the edge of the cliff life that has become America. Sometimes my night thoughts turn to the 1940s when fascism rose and fell in the world and Benito Mussolini was not only assassinated but also hung upside down for all to see. History rhymes.
A SHADOW CABINET AND A GOVERNMENT IN WAITING
Timothy Snyder and others have called for a Shadow Cabinet to monitor and publicize the actions of the Trump administration. I propose that we include the Cabinet in a larger Government in Waiting. This team of people have the expertise that comes from experience in government as elected officials and senior officials in the departments. It will provide a real time and specific critique of the damage Trump / Musk are doing to Americans: crippling the Veterans' Administration, closing rural hospitals, destroying the scientific institutions that have made this country healthier and more prosperous, and on.
They will also present plans for restoring what Trump / Musk are trying to destroy and improving those institutions so they do their jobs better and faster.
These people will need to be superb communicators, both natural and trained. They will bring this case to neutral and hostile territory, like Fox News, Newsmax,
Can they operate without money?
I've stopped my donations to the DNC, but would willingly support the Shadow Cabinet.
This collective body should have Secretaries that report on and debate all the various essential components of our collective lives that the 'actual' cabinet used to do-- health, education, welfare, defense, accountability . . .
I am curious about your reasons for discontinuing DNC support. Was there a particular policy or statement that changed your mind? FWIW, I think that some Dem supporters feel that the DNC's election strategy cost way too much and focussed on the wrong issues.
Hello R,
I stopped sending checks to the DNC for two reasons--
1, because the requests were literally 50 a day (still are), and with no specificity on how the money would be spent.
and 2, because I think the escalation of money into party politics is a huge part of our national problem.
I'm donating now to specific causes-- local animal welfare, some international aid, and subscriptions to Substacks like this one, which fosters real dialogue. I'm realizing that in forums like these, innovative solutions will come up that would never arise in business-as-usual party politics. The Shadow Cabinet, for example . . .
Thanks, Jill. I, too, am tired of getting e-bombed with many emails asking for donations, so I can readily identify with your #1. I am also trying to be selective in giving -- supporting specific candidates, for example Eugene Vindman because he and his brother exemplify to me the idea of service to country over party, even though he is not representing my own state.
(Rant alert!) I don't like the idea of my $$ buying more trite, irritating and totally unconvincing ads for generic politicians, and still less to buy the dubious services of campaign consultants.
There are many, many very worthwhile organizations which do wonderful work. I am so sad that our government (under Trump and his wrecking crew) is pulling the rug out from under so many good programs. The pittance I can give is a tiny droplet compared to the Niagara of federal dollars for medical treatments, education, etc. which Trump, Musk and their evil elves are busy shutting down.
In a civil, democratic society, personal freedom must be tempered by tolerance.
The partisan rift in the US around "freedom to" and "freedom from" is all about the lack of tolerance for divergent opinions.
I have been a practitioner of tolerance since my rebellious teenaged years -- at least as a principle, though oftentimes hard to put into practice -- but I have to say that the behavior shown by Trump and JD Vance in Friday's ambush of President Zelenskyy should not be tolerated by anyone. I was very disappointed (though not surprised) that one after another of Republican bigwigs strutted and tut-tutted about how Zelenskyy was rude and disrespectful, yadda-yadda, but if any R's were critical of Donnie and his boy JD, I haven't yet seen it in print.
So much for tolerance I guess; at this point I want to yell "Throw da bums out!"
The Republicans are all about freedom from taxes, from regulations, etc.
Freedom to circumvent the law and the constitution.
Prof. Snyder, I agree with the comments here that your understanding of freedom would go over the heads of most Americans. Long before I started reading (mostly) CEE history, I was unhappy with America's understanding of freedom, but didn't know how to articulate this unhappiness except that it seemed shallow to me. It wasn't until I started reading history about 5 years ago--much of it 20th-c.--and became familiar with people like Václav Havel, Adam Michnik, etc. plus reading your writings--that I could finally *say* what is wrong with that understanding. The freedom to speak/write in a totalitarian society "as if" one were free to speak/write whatever one wants is not something most Americans would understand. It took me years to internalize eastern European history because it's so complex and unfamiliar to a Westerner. And I'm the type who is open to learning about unfamiliar subjects.
On the other hand, you've written long opinion pieces, for example, the one in the NYT in 2021 on the memory laws that were passed in Republican states. I'd say give it a go, if for no other reason than it would empower those who do understand this concept of freedom; it would give them the strength to keep fighting.
Thank you Timothy Snyder for your relentless fight for truth, freedom and a humane world.
As for the WP, democracy doesn't die in darkness, but with all the stage spotlights on.
This might work if these awful, dreadful people knew how to read but their ignorance and callous disregard of their fellow Americans indicate that they are illiterate (certainly The Bloated Yam is when it comes to reading anything) and are determined to maintain their ignorance.
Obviously I meant "work."
You can correct your typos and otherwise edit your posts. See the three dots (ellipsis) to the far right of your name? Click on it. One of the options is Edit. The other one is Delete.
Three dot edits only work in the web version of Substack. It doesn't work on the mobile app (Apple) versions. I don't know if there is an Android Substack app.
I hate apps! Even though I’m using an iPhone.
There is Android version, and it does not have "Edit" as one of thec3 dots.
Oops. Tried to edit that extra "c" away...
Just did — thanks
I love your sentence, "Freedom is the value of values..." It is the very essence of what really matters. I read recently that being human beings doesn't mean that we are human. The lack of compassion of both President Musk and his orange lap dog is both stunning and angering. It is proof that dictators are not leaders.
Bezos and Lewis (cf Hitler and Goebbels in their Editor Law, sect 14) are shutting the Post off from significant expressions of thought and speech. As Bezos dismissively says - we can take our diverse opinions elsewhere. But they've repurposed venerable newspaper as a mouthpiece for those repurposing our secular democratic republic as a christian nationalist state.
An 'editorial law' enabling Nazi censorship (1933)
14
b. tends to weaken the strength of the German Reich, in foreign relations or domestically; the sense of community of the German people; German defense capability, culture, or the economy; or offends the religious sentiments of others;
c. offends the honour and dignity of Germany;
d. illegally offends the honour or the well-being of another, hurts his reputation, or ridicules or disparages him;
Section Thirty-Five
The Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda may decree the removal of an editor from the professional list independent of the proceedings of the Professional Court if he deems it necessary for pressing reasons of public welfare…
Berlin, 4 October 1933
Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler
Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels
https://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/editorial-law-nazi-censorship-1933/
Yes, freedom isn’t just about opposition or resistance—it is also about actively creating and nurturing the conditions in which people can thrive.
Forget news media. It’s always been flawed. I worked at NBC and CBS in the early days when it was more “fact-driven” and, making money by circulating information, has always been a compromising enterprise, no matter which way you look at it. Someone is deciding what is important and what is not. They also must decide what sells.
We're never going to overcome this situation by the usual protest and screams to the larger public. That didn't work. It's a democracy and we lost. We need to be smart. We need to focus more on the laws of attraction to have ANY chance of getting our country back.
We can't forget the fundamentals! Find and help anyone and anything in the local community who is bringing people together —especially people you wouldn't otherwise hang out with. Maybe their goal is education, or maybe it's service, or maybe it's just in the name of having a wonderful time. Work together on the small things, shared humanity and all that. Run for office!
Actions. Even in a bad mood, try to at least pick up some little piece of trash or let someone go ahead of you in line. Maybe it's just a smile one day. Make some wee part of the world a tiny bit better. Doing it that way, bit by bit, not looking at the top of the mountain, is the only thing keeping me sane and productive.