I hope substack links work. I can copy it if not.
For us older folks, this is the same as the old TV system, but much worse. Networks openly censored their programming. They had internal departments for it, but they did it for fear of FCC action. Those fears may not have been real. Now they are.
The threats though are the opposite of 50 years ago, instead of not allowing black people on TV, now it’s too many black people. Instead of not allowing gay kissing, it’s allowing it. At Columbia U, instead of counting race for equity, it’s counting race to check if their favoring minorities.
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… Note that this method of Trump control is indirect but powerful. The regime doesn’t have to assert control over CBS; it just retains the power to do so. And it’s up to Trump to determine what CBS will have to do to avoid being found to be “biased” or avoid any “other concern.”
This mechanism of control is similar at Columbia University, whose new agreement with the Trump regime stipulates a mutually agreed-upon “monitor” who will, like CBS’s ombudsman, respond to complaints about “bias.” …
… Just like the CBS agreement, the Columbia agreement gives final power to the Trump regime. It allows the regime to maintain control over Columbia by holding a cudgel over the university. As Linda McMahon, Trump’s secretary of education, told Fox Business, “This is a monumental victory for conservatives who wanted to do things on these elite campuses for a long time because we had such far-left-leaning professors.”
Or consider the Trump regime’s agreement allowing Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel. …
… They’re all mechanisms for giving the Trump regime power to prevent these institutions — a television network, university, or corporation — from doing something that the Trump regime doesn’t want it to do. But because that power is held in reserve, Trump doesn’t have to display it. The heads of these institutions will do all the work for him; they’re likely to go out of their way to avoid offending the regime. The potential chilling effect is enormous. …
“But this control is not exercised publicly. It’s behind the scenes. It’s found in the fine print. And it is personal. It depends on Trump’s whims.
This is what fascist control looks like, people.”
And so on and so forth, as America is transformed into Amerika, the nation sleeps a fitful sleep.