Good things are happening! A supermarket merger gets called off, a federal watchdog clamps down on major junk fees, the Supreme Court dismisses a crypto fraud plea and turns away a bunch more cases that would not have ended well.
The Lever is one of my favorite small news organizations, run by excellent journalists who take an activist approach to their work and punch way above their weight. (I'm a paid subscriber/donor and urge you to join me.) I frequently point to their articles. One of my favorite regular Lever features shows up in my email semi-regularly – "You Love to See It" – and offers some all-too-rare good news in our world of rising fascism and corporatism. Here's a recent sample for your enjoyment.
Some political observers have drawn a simplistic conclusion about the tech figures backing Trump. They see these billionaires as motivated by a basic desire for lower taxes and fewer regulations. But that’s only part of the story. While taxes and regulations may be important issues, they do not fully explain the MAGA-tech alliance. In reality, this alliance is about power and about reshaping the world in the 21st century and beyond. A new ideological faction is emerging from Silicon Valley: tech authoritarianism. It overlaps significantly with Trump’s MAGA party and thus has resulted in a (temporary) alliance.
This FrameLab newsletter post is an excellent outline of how the malevolent MAGA-tech partnership came to be, how destructive it already is, and how dangerous it is going to be going forward. It is based on a simple world view, which "concentrates power in the hands of wealthy and predominantly white men [whose] job is to impose a strict social order based on their continuing supremacy." They hold the power of the federal government – including the military, federal law enforcement, taxation authorities, and so much more – and with the super-detailed information tech giants have assembled as we act like sheep in their pens. This is unprecedented power. And it's held by people who should not be running anything that's central to our lives, much less what they now control and intend to deploy with such malice.
You are the victim of a con — one so pernicious that you’ve likely tuned it out despite the fact it’s part of almost every part of your life. It hurts everybody you know in different ways, and it hurts people more based on their socioeconomic status. It pokes and prods and twists millions of little parts of your life, and it’s everywhere, so you have to ignore it, because complaining about it feels futile, like complaining about the weather. It isn’t. You’re battered by the Rot Economy, and a tech industry that has become so obsessed with growth that you, the paying customer, are a nuisance to be mitigated far more than a participant in an exchange of value. A death cult has taken over the markets, using software as a mechanism to extract value at scale in the pursuit of growth at the cost of user happiness.
This appropriately incendiary "What's Your Ed At" newsletter post reminds us that we are all the test subjects in an experiment we didn't know we were signing up for – and we certainly never understood, until it was too late, how harmful the effects could be on our lives. I'm not anti-tech. I use it and rely on it, and I believe the benefits are enormous. But I've also come to understand that it didn't have to be deployed in ways that turned out to be so contemptuous of human rights, human dignity, and ultimately human lives. We could still take back our rights, dignity, and lives – and those of us working for a decentralized tech ecosystem are trying. The forces arrayed against us have essentially all the money, and enormous power. Meanwhile, so many of the most prominent "anti-tech" activists and politicians are clueless and/or hypocritical, pushing so-called remedies that would make things much worse. It is more than worth shedding some convenience to reduce your mostly involuntary compliance with the monopolists. But unless we have laws that reduce their power to force our compliance, we aren't going to fix this.
The terms of Ossietzky’s punishment for publishing military secrets jarred his friends and admirers. People convicted of high-profile political crimes in Germany were often given festungshaft (fortress confinement), a more comfortable form of imprisonment. Such was the case for Adolf Hitler following the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch; while incarcerated, he had permission to receive visitors, and it was during that period that he wrote Mein Kampf. Yet the court ordered Ossietzky to serve his time in a common prison alongside thieves and murderers. Justice, many on Germany’s left grumbled, was only blind in the right eye. Ossietzky insisted that his sentence was in keeping with the principles of his profession. “They may condemn us, today, tomorrow, the day after, [and] we will accept it,” he once wrote. “But our pride will be in … becoming more energetic, sharper, denser and tougher. That’s why we are journalists.” His stance inspired fellow members of the press.
This long read from the Atavist magazine – detailed, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring – is an important historical reminder of how bravery can surface in even the harshest regimes. In 1930s Germany, journalist Carl von Ossietzk was imprisoned "for publishing an article about the German Air Force’s rearmament efforts, which were in violation of the Treaty of Versailles." He was the kind of "good traitor" whom regimes punish and history reveres. His Nobel Peace Prize, awarded after a long campaign by his wife and countless admirers, almost certainly prevented the Nazis from murdering him outright, but his health had already been ruined in prisons and concentration camps, and he died at age 48. The article also makes clear the essentially political nature of the Peace Prize; when you read about each year's awardee(s), understand that they have been selected to send a message to humanity, and to the world's dictators and democracies. The selection committee doesn't always make the best choice, but it does so often that the Nobel Peace Prize matters a great deal, as it did for this brave man and the people who believed, and still believe, in the still elusive goals of peace and human rights.
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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Sam Pollak
Gil Duran
Edward Zitron
Kate McQueen
