A Thought To Cheer You Up!

Notes on a revolution

Begging your pardon for the recurring theme, but the emotional balance we seek to provide at The Tell requires reiteration of cheerful thoughts. After all, our entire information infrastructure is designed to instill fear, and then to turn that fear into purchases. So there’s a lot to push against.

I was listening to another podcaster interviewing some expert about the hopelessness of democracy in 2023. One, two, maybe three or more countries are in death throes with fascism according to the esteemed guest. Doubtless she is a bright professor - and this is not a passive/aggressive way to insult her - who has done insane amounts of research and footnoting on examples of how this is true. You can hear it by listening to her.

There’s only one problem.

This analysis ignores the powerful social movements of the last few years. That’s our inoculation against fascism and tyranny. You can trust the American penchant for breaking windows and …