Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
So buying a major newspaper and firing (or putting pressure on) anybody who doesn’t agree with the new owner’s “pillars” is not coercion? Did Bezos get this buff from the mental gymnastics?
PS: surprised nobody mentioned Manufacturing Consent yet, which describes exactly what is happening here, and remains valid in the age of Internet
…in Stunning Statement
Ah yes, the “personal liberty” to just accumulate wealth without limits or taxation because that is a “free market”. Never mind Amazon drives on roads built with federal dollars—they are a job creator and everyone should lick their boots for that.
what’s “stunning” about the statement?
All I saw was:
- Opinion Editor did not want to continue to be a meat puppet for this propaganda outlet
- Bezos accepted resignation
- Bezos to look for new meat puppet
I assumed the stunning part was this:
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
It’s just pretty blatant.
How is this any different from their prior propaganda? Just the overt declaration?
free markets
This one is especially hilarious in the Trump Tariffs era.
It’s possible you’ll read articles critical of those decisions written by the WSJ. They’re likely to be written in such a way as to not criticize Trump directly, but the message will likely be clear: government and taxes=bad.
Bezos accepted resignation
Bezos constructed resignation, which is legally termination, not resignation at all.
Buy your axe grinding wheels now before it’s hard to keep them in stock.
Wow, you mean he was an enormous sack of shit the whole time??
Sounds like he wants more direct control.
Jeff Bezos Announces Resignation
They had us in the first half, not gonna lie
Instead, he asked Freedom Of the Press to step down.
What position would Bezos resign from, out of curiosity?
Being alive, ideally
returning his to his form as alien scout for invasion.
Bezos can get fucked.
Zuck’s taking care of that with Jeff’s wife
And not in the good way.
I propose a backwards pineapple
I’ve got a rusty pitchfork. Will that work?
I wrote a haiku for this sort of thing!
Anal pineapples
Should be administered
Sideways forever
Interestingly, the Post and the NYT both lean heavily on their Opinion sections to pretend they’re not licking boots. Now the Post won’t have that option.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.
Democracy dies in the free market.
Capitalism
Who wants democracy, when we can have an anarcho-capitalist libertarian utopia?
People voted for the leopards, you can’t say it’s not democracy.
In a more democratic system there wouldn’t be president Trump because there would be no presidents. So I disagree with the premise.
The presidency is fundamentally undemocratic, regardless of the quasi-performative democratic ritual by which he is selected.
A real democracy wouldn’t allow a fascist to even run for office. Advocating for fascism and authoritarianism in a republic isn’t a valid political stance. It’s sedition.
Well, if over 50% of votes agree, is it sedition? The American people wanted the treasonous, corrupt, criminal, draft dodger sexual predator as president. We might not like it, but it’s what the majority wanted.
*Plurality and it’s still sedition on the part of the leaders. If you advocate for authoritarianism in a republic then you are inherently advocating for overthrowing the republic. You are advocating for some people to have rights, while others don’t.
It doesn’t matter if a majority of voters want that, they don’t have the right to strip the minority of their right to representation.
All authoritarian ideologies are inherently incompatible with the concept of natural rights
Those who don’t vote make an explicit choice, so it is a majority.
And the fascist, dictatorial intentions were known from the beginning so kind of hard to argue with the result.
People voted to convert the republic to an empire.
I see this comment a lot, and I legit don’t think we did. I think it’s weird how Elon had this team of hackers ready to go for Doge. The weird, “they’ll never know what we did” comment out of his kid who seemed to be imitating Elon in the Tucker Carlson interview, and Trump’s odd vote counting computers comment has me seriously thinking they hacked it. I think they both had their backs against the wall. Trump with his criminal prosecution, and musk with the starlink investigation.
With Elon, let’s start at the smallest issue. Recently Musk has talked about how he’s like the greatest gamer ever and is ranked super high in a bunch of games. Turns out he’s just paying people to grind those games and boost his ranking. He’s so concerned about being on top that he’s willing to hire people to get a top the leader board and lie about how good he is to stroke his own ego. It’s a very small thing, but points to a larger pattern of behavior for Musk.
Now, onto the Ukraine thing. If anyone remembers, he wouldn’t let Ukraine use starlink for an attack because he was “worried it’d start a nuclear war.” Whether it would or wouldn’t was not up to him as the guy selling Internet satellites to the government. He had provided all the starlink kits to Ukraine during a war to help them, and the US was paying it. He was not supposed to be the arbiter of what they could/ couldn’t be used for. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were going to come after him for treason as he actively aided a (then) adversary through this action.
https://apnews.com/article/spacex-ukraine-starlink-russia-air-force-fde93d9a69d7dbd1326022ecfdbc53c2
Trump and Musk had to win, or they were fucked. The guy that worked for Doge happened to make a sketchy ballot counting app which you can read about below that could have been used to disqualify dem ballots.
https://bsky.app/profile/denisedwheeler.bsky.social/post/3lhowh3ijgs2f
Elon has always found ways around the rules. When his company needed money all of the sudden magically the value exploded. I think he was involved in squeezing the stock price up through the use of call options, and once that happened, they were able to raise money in the form of multiple stock sales. You can read this now 5 year old thread that proves itself time and time again. Do I have any proof Elon was behind this? No, but who has enough money to do something like this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/hk7nqe/tesla_infinity_call_gamma_squeeze/
When the election came in 2024, Elon gave away (illegally I might add) $100 to anyone who registered Republican. There had to be something nefarious going on there too. I would not be surprised if they thought anyone who took them up on that was only doing it for the free money and wasn’t actually going to vote so they cast ballots in their names. Again, I have no proof, but if anyone would have the will to do something so shitty to win, it’d be him.
As for Trump, Jack Smith said they had enough evidence to convict Trump, and only couldn’t because of arbitrary sitting president rules. They have like a 99% conviction rate for a reason.
Trump and Musk are absolutely petty enough to bend / break rules and laws to get what they want, and are going to go all out to avoid prison. I strongly believe that this is not what we voted for, and we are going to be stuck with this the rest of our lives because what is happening cannot be undone, and they will cling to power as long as possible to avoid facing any consequences. They will break everything and fire anyone who was involved in any way shape or form in any of the investigations and will break the system beyond repair to ensure that they remain in power. Elections are still going to happen, but they will never be voted out.
That’s a very well written comment, and Elon and trump certainly have committed more crimes than we can count, but the polls before the election were all pointing to the same result, so trumps victory wasn’t a major upset. I don’t think they hacked the election, I think the people are that dumb.
At least guns and ammo will be plentiful because the market will soon demand more.
Ammoseek is pretty good for ammo. Just be careful around the low rated vendors
Thank you. What about good gun deals?
anarcho-capitalist libertarian utopia?
I hate that edgelord libertarians are trying to rebrand themselves as “anarcho-capatalist”. Anarchy and capitalism are antithetical to one another. It doesn’t have anything to do with anarchy if you aren’t evaluating hierarchy, and capitalism is literally one of the most hierarchical organizational structures possible.
It’s anarchy for the hierarchies, not for the components of the hierarchies
edgelord libertarians are trying to rebrand themselves as "anarcho-capatalist
Actually, American style " libertarianism" IS anarcho-capitalism. They’ve just been trying to keep that a secret until recently.
Anarchy and capitalism are antithetical to one another.
Yes, and no. Anarcho-capitalism is anarchic in the colloquial “no rules, no order” sense, whereas political anarchy very much isn’t.
The stupidity of the term is what makes it apt, though: the people politically illiterate enough to think that a total lack of regulations and worker’s rights would lead to anything resembling freedom also think that the colloquial definition of anarchy is the politically accurate one.
Fun fact: Conservatism was literally invented by a monarchist in the aftermath of the French revolution trying to find a way for an aristocracy to exist within democracy.
I would like to read more about this shitstain, and why I should throw axes at a printed out image of his face. Name and source?
Except England wasn’t a democracy at the time, it was a heavily rigged parliamentary system with a limited franchise, and it could be overridden by the Lords. But yeah, conservatism represented the interests of the aristocrats, in opposition to Englightenment notions like equality, accountability, rule of law and meritocracy.
I at least was talking about Burke, whose most influential work was talking about the French revolution, not the English revolution(s). That one was, at least in the start, a proper democracy.
anarcho-capitalist
So, sociopath.
libertarian
That’s like a narcissist hat on top of a sociopath hat. It’s a hat on a hat.
There is no such thing as a free market.
“free” “market”
There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views.
That’s exactly what a journalistic organisation is meant to do Jeff, especially now when the world is increasingly being filled with mouthpieces that regurgitate what their owners want them to.
An organisation that puts out only one opinion, or is only allowed to put out one opinion, is nothing more than a mouthpiece.
Its a shame to see the Post becoming just another mouthpiece.
Among many reasons, I’ll never subscribe to WP again. I used to.
I used to as well. And I’m Canadian.
Never again as long as that asshole owns the paper.
The gall of these billionaires to just buy a news organization and then blatantly state “we’re not going to do news anymore” is just incredible.
Even Rupert Murdock had the courtesy to come up with the Fox News “Fair and Balanced” slogan (even though it was completely full of shit).
Bezos is just like “yeah we’re going full on propaganda, go fuck yourself.”
TBH the honesty is refreshing compared to the historical bullshit.
True, but it was just an internal memo. I’m sure the public-facade won’t be as honest.
On the other end, you’ve got billionaire Jeff Lawson rescuing The Onion from private equity hell. I count their revived print subscription as one of the best things I’ve spent money on recently, considering it used to be free.
All of these capitalist propaganda outlets pump out the same imperial message. The firing of this one guy won’t change that at all.
Bezos’s exercise of greater control over the Post‘s journalism in recent months has raised eyebrows.
Raised eyebrows? Is mild-washing a word? It should be.
You misspelled propaganda.
Historically, journalism was about sifting through the different things that multiple people say are true, in order to figure out what actually is true.
But now it can just be about what one person says is true, and the internet can figure out what’s actually true!
I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.
I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no.” After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.
I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.
Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion
So employees coerced into working shit jobs or overtime aren’t free, thanks for clearing that up.
No, no. Those workers are entering into a contract with just as much power as the asshole billionaire owner has. But demanding that asshole billionaire to pay a fair rate of tax-- that’s coercion.
There, did I do the libertarian doublethink dance right?
I am really lost here. Is the idea to attract the exact same (super niche) readership as the wall street journal? We know from this election that there are very few voters in this domain, since this is exactly the type of voter Harris tried (and failed to) attract.
Somewhat ironically we have gone from the very bad outcome of for-profit media, to the even worse outcome of newspapers as personal vanity projects for out of touch billionaires.
The idea is to stifle another well-established (though pro-establishment) voice of independent journalism.
Hell, yes.
Can’t wait for trans right and abortion opinion piece. No freedom gets more personal.
Is he trying to “get out in front of this story” like he did with the photos of him having an affair? Has anyone heard from David Shipley what happened?
What a pompous cunt.
Washington Post was one of the few marginally respectable journalist organizations remaining. It’s a sad day for the freedom of the press.
Washington Post was one of the few marginally respectable journalist organizations remaining.
lol
marginally
Maybe try looking up this word in a dictionary, it seems like you don’t understand what it means.
What contemporary paragon of journalistic integrity do you subscribe to, if I may ask? Which organization is more respectable than WP?
