While most news media keeps on endlessly reporting on what politicians say, tech and law commentators by definition focus on what is being done. In a world where what is being said is not only irrelevant, but flat-out weaponized, this is the only kind of reporting that matters.
So, here’s the bottom line: when WaPo’s opinion pages are being gutted and tech CEOs are seeking pre-approval from authoritarians, the line between “tech coverage” and “saving democracy” has basically disappeared. It’s all the same thing.
That’s the thing I’ve been most worried about. The media have largely capitulated out of (justifiable) fear of reprisal and violence. The fear is legit, but we depend on the media to speak truth to power especially when democracy is on the line.
This is why I no longer believe this will end without violence.
I have been finding myself suddenly saving techdirt articles for my reading list day after day, and I guess now I know why. Not to say I wasn’t interested before, but they’ve been providing analysis and commentary lately that has just hit different/ has been scratching a particular itch. Please, keep that train rolling.
techdirt has been gold across multiple decades now. I’m really glad more people are starting to become aware of it!
Yeah honestly after the first couple I was like, crap I’ve been missing out. You can tell they’re legit because the website looks like forum websites I used to frequent in the early 00s (sounds like a dig, but I swear it’s not, the modern web is damn awful to read most of the time).
Hey OP, can you edit the link to remove the
#commentsfragment at the end? The way you submitted it, clicking skips over the article and brings us to the comments section instead.Mike Masnick is a good egg, which makes him valuable in times like these… Just like good eggs.
I’ve worked and lived in a lot of developing countries. I can’t shout into the void any more then I already do, that I’ve seen this a dozen times.
Colleagues of mine that lived under corrupt kleptocracies with things like massive state surveillance of average people for simply being in the wrong political party tell me how great it is that the US has finally caught up with them.
The commonality is that we have already, in 6 weeks, hit a point of it taking a generation to undo what’s been done.
The people who aren’t freaked out are either normal people that don’t have a sense of what’s coming and can’t comprehend life outside the status quo, and those that think they’ll directly benefit from it all.
Most of tech media are not journalists, they sell gadgets and stocks. Most of American tech media were a Democratic Party blogs during US presidential election cycle already. Brace yourselves for even more low quality partisan poo-slinging.
