Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny and most recently Freedom, offers a Substack message about the moguls and news agencies “Obeying in Advance” – in anticipation of a dictator coming to power.
See this video about the first step in the rise of tyranny.
It is the lowest form of behavior, to cower in the belief that a dictator will reek havoc on you and your business interests for your political position. That has made our nation smell very bad. Our body politic reeks of cowardice and self aggrandizement today as we witness the cowering of our news agencies and people with too much money and power, kneel to the dictator. We have not learned from the 20th Century which documents how Hilter and the Nazi movement came to power.
Jeff Bezos (billionaire owner of Amazon and The Washington Post) decided the paper will not endorse Kamala Harris as promised. In that, he has lent his endorsement to a dictator promising retribution, destruction of our democratic government, promises to support the rich and powerful, and head honcho for a right-wing, Christian nationalism movement building over the last decade with the emergence of a man not fit to be our President.
The Washington Post not endorsing Harris and Walz to remain neutral right when the nation teeters on the knife edge of tyranny is a massive error of judgement. Anticipation of retribution: what a cowardly lot you all are.
Americans, drink your coffee and stand in front of a mirror. Do you want to be ruled by powerful megawealthy and people who purport to care about you but don’t give a damn in reality?
Let them eat cake! Echoes from history are not whispering today, they are shouting! The news agencies turning their backs on you and your family to be “neutral” or to endorse a vindictive man with no regard for the American Republic, let alone understanding of what it is, will regret their action. History will record it. But there will be decades of suffering before it ends.
Adding this message from the Editor of the Guardian today, 10-26-24:
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief |
| What does the richest man on the planet really want from a Donald Trump victory?That is a question our reporters and columnists have been answering this week as Elon Musk ramps up his involvement in the US presidential election. Musk has been giving away millions of dollars to voters in swing states who sign a petition tied to his political action committee (Pac). Oliver Laughland watched the potentially illegal spectacle play out in Pittsburgh on Sunday.The most obvious answer to what Musk wants, wrote Blake Montgomery, tech editor for Guardian US (and the new author of our TechScape newsletter), is a dramatic burst of deregulation in the US and beyond. That point was made clear in this analysis by Nick Robins-Early and Rachel Leingang, two Guardian US reporters who specialise in the threat of mis- and disinformation. The pair looked at how Musk has ploughed millions into Republican campaigns and used his 202m-follower X account as a megaphone to promote Trump. On Politics Weekly America, Rachel and host Jonathan Freedland considered how culture wars play into why Elon Musk needs Trump to win, and Adam Gabbatt and Lucy Hough discussed Musk’s millions on our must-listen daily Election Extra podcast too.Blake revealed this week how Musk’s pro-Trump Pac is pouring millions into Facebook ads, while Hugo Lowell exposed some potentially bad news for Trump’s campaign, revealing claims that canvassers working for Musk’s America Pac may not have knocked on the doors they claimed to.None of this is what those of us who believe in democracy, equality and a fairer distribution of wealth would want, and it’s our journalistic challenge to hold the world’s richest man to account. As Marina Hyde put it: “There have been vested interests as long as there has been US politics, of course. But no robber baron of the Gilded Age was ever this relatively rich, or as artlessly open about what – and whom – a relatively tiny amount of money can buy.”This week Tesla’s profits jumped again, making Musk even richer and even more powerful. Our scrutiny of Musk over the past few years has certainly caught his attention (he has called the Guardian “insufferable” alongside other much ruder messages) – and our editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris this week won’t have helped on that front. But while the former president has a man worth $250bn in his corner, we have readers like you. If you can afford to support the Guardian today, please do. |
Susan Feathers 