The bloodiest period of Soviet totalitarianism ended in the fifties, but the habits remained long after, including the advanced system of alternative media that ultimately broke the state: samizdat.
Tonight, along with Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and New York Post reporter Miranda Devine, I’ll be accepting the inaugural Samizdat Prize, given by the RealClear Media Fund. Samizdat is a bit of a play on words, since like a lot of politically oppressive groups the Soviets had a mania for reducing beautiful language to state-acceptable ugly compound words (GosPlan, GULAG, etc.), so in place of GosIzdat (State-Publish, the official publisher) dissidents created Sam- or “Self” Izdat: “Self-Publish.”
Ten years ago PBS did a feature that quoted a Russian radio personality calling Samizdat the “precursor to the Internet.” Sadly this is no longer accurate….
On the emergence of gatekeepers.
Racket News
Matt Taibbi
2 comments:
The digital infrastructure can be controlled. So it is back to paper and ink if the "authorities" decide to filter all network traffic.
Interview with George Galloway — Glenn Greenwald, System Update #240
https://rumble.com/v4hueq6-system-update-240.html
Interview begins at 39:31
'Magic money tree' gets a mention.
Post a Comment