Jeff Bezos’s decision to pull a Washington Post endorsement of Harris is foreboding. But not necessarily for the reasons you think.
  • Optional
    48•29 days ago

    These guys can hear the music. They’ve seen the sides being chosen: Elon Musk and Peter Theil assembling with Trump’s gangster government in waiting. They see Mark Zuckerberg praising Trump as a “badass.” And now they see Bezos getting in line, too.

    What’s remarkable is that Trump didn’t have to arrest Bezos to secure his compliance. Trump didn’t even have to win the election. Just the fact that he has an even-money chance to become president was threat enough.

    Or maybe that’s not remarkable. One of Timothy Snyder’s rules for resisting authoritarians is that “most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.” People surrender preemptively much more often than you might expect.

    Two weeks ago, Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter wrote what might be the most prophetic essay of the year. They warned about “anticipatory obedience” in the media.

    Seventeen days later, Bezos made his demonstration.

    To think most of this power is largely based on everyone not deleting an app.

  • rhythmisaprancer
    47•29 days ago

    While I have no answers, this is exactly what we should expect when business owners control media.

    • @[email protected]
      17•29 days ago

      Everyone should read the story of how the Spanish American War started. Newspapers need reform.

      • rhythmisaprancer
        11•29 days ago

        Well I just spent 30 minutes or so reading about this (on Wikipedia) and am not surprised to see names like Hearst involved. I will admit that I was skeptical about your statement, but it is clear that journalism in the US has a long history of problems and big money ownership. We do need reform, and perhaps that is even more evident in the internet and big money era. Thanks for posting that statement!

  • @[email protected]
    16•29 days ago

    This is the best post on the issue. We must all offer our teen girls up for a good grope to diaper don, before election, less he declare us “the enemy within”. If Bezos is afraid, what chance do we have?

    • @scarabineEnglish
      7•29 days ago

      Bezos is rich and we enshrine that in a lot of ways in the US, but it’s irrelevant to someone like Putin, who’s demonstrated time and time again his willingness to kill billionaires. The reality here is that Bezos is just a person and he can be a coward, and still command media empire. And right now there’s a lot for him to be afraid of.

      • @[email protected]
        3•28 days ago

        The reality is precisely the opposite.

        The weird thing about Putin’s Russia is that it has no oligarchs, really. Specifically, the idea is that an oligarch is someone who’s wealth allows them access to political power, while in Russia, it’s the other way around - political position allows people access to wealth. Conversely, when they fall out of favour, their money doesn’t protect them - it simply goes away.

        The USA, on the other hand, has plenty of oligarchs, and thinking they’re taking sides in politics because they fear Trump is idiocy. These are the people buying islands and building doomsday bunkers in New Zealand. These are the people who shoot themselves to space and copy haircuts of Roman emperors. They’re picking sides because Matt Christmann was right.

    • @[email protected]
      6•29 days ago

      Well I’m not a punk ass bitch like Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, etc. I am the mother fucking enemy within though. Trump can have my allegiance when I’m dead.