It’s on my ‘to read but probably never get around to it’ list but I’ve seen so many people recommend it I guess I should.

Bit wordy, but ill make an effort

What are your thoughts on the Russian government?

Interesting piece - I agree to some, not all, and think there is more nuances for a century wrap up. But power-banger sentences no doubt !

We are more connected with each other today than ever before - we progressed from smoke signals to radios, TVs, mainstream newspapers, satellites, internet to social social media - this is the closest to real democracy we have ever had in the 2000 years of the establishment of democracy because of the close interactions of the people. So expect different types of power play to kick with diff era

Interesting bit on espionage act - Washington post when it disclosed the watergate scandal, would have been busted if not for every media sharing that story out (I watched this on Netflix called “the Post” ) - and so if other media’s did not follow suit, corruption would have won.

But having said that a lot of Ppl think Assange should be in prison because he exposed spies on wiki leaks. They completely miss the war crimes Assange exposed. All these spies names were already listed on Ny times according to Pamela Anderson. I would have liked to know the authors thoughts (and yours!) on this.

On Yoel Ruth

- we do not talk enough about how many times he has stood up fighting the establishment. Or how many times Twitter has fought autocratic governments globally. It is too hard for a company to do this. Which is exactly why Nostr matters

“conflating the anti-establishment politics of domestic populists with acts of war by foreign enemies”

- probably, easier to be united when you have common enemies

“It turned the public arenas where social and political life take place into surveillance traps and targets for mass psychological operations”

- hmmm, probably but also who is demanding for these surveillance ? Snowden has his life long story explaining this

“The crime is the routine violation of Americans’ rights by unelected officials who secretly control what individuals can think and say.”

- This should not be the responsibility of “elected officials” only on controlling medium of speech - which is why Nostr matters

“The United States is still in the earliest stages of a mass mobilization that aims to harness every sector of society under a singular technocratic rule”

- hmmm, I’m sure most governments are hoping for this or has successfully done this in some ways or another

“The mobilization, which began as a response to the supposedly urgent menace of Russian interference, now evolves into a regime of total information control that has arrogated to itself the mission of eradicating abstract dangers such as error, injustice, and harm—a goal worthy only of leaders who believe themselves to be infallible, or comic-book supervillains”

- the fight against Russia goes way way back since early 1900 as Russia embraced communism. Same as China

“Something monstrous is taking shape in America. Formally, it exhibits the synergy of state and corporate power in service of a tribal zeal that is the hallmark of fascism. Yet anyone who spends time in America and is not a brainwashed zealot can tell that it is not a fascist country”

- Dramatic but fair. But one also have to understand that US is far more kind, fair and liberal compared to an autocratic psycho country or fascist so the comparison is not apple to apple

“digital leviathan that wields power through opaque algorithms and the manipulation of digital swarms”

- Probably, and we are at the early stages of machine consciousness with AI

“covering up any trace of it with automated deletions from the top-secret data centers of Amazon Web Services, “the trusted cloud for government.””

- interesting - did not know that

“You cannot be trusted with your own mind.”

- read! There’s a reason why books are banned

Thanks for sharing 🙏