Hopefully, this newsletter will help you get the most out of Substack as it is now. We still have work-arounds for most of this garbage, but we can't use work-arounds if we don't know about the garbage.
Billionaires have long understood that they must control information to control people. We the People MUST find a way to build our own sphere of information independent of these billionaires. There's lots of chatter about this. Don't despair.
Still reading the article but I noticed the part, “Because of this, I have trained myself to ALWAYS toggle Paid replies only before posting notes. During June/July 2026, Substack reset my permissions to Anyone can reply more than once. I had to fire up my laptop to reset them back to paid.”
I noticed that in the past two-three months, Substack has removed my changed positions about “background” color when people land on my page and who I received emails from - all without notification or asking me. For example, I’d set my color schemed to be green; it got changed back to Substack’s default color - a color more resembling my Alma mater’s UT orange, which is waaaay too reminiscent of the Orange inhabitant that skulks around the White House these days. I haven’t customized a lot of things (I don’t have a paywall) but I, too, notice the throttling of any comments about sexual abuse, rape and the politicians, billionaires & Regular Joe abusers that indulge - topics about which I have commented and authored Notes (which is almost all I use, not long-form, much to my regret at not being better able to compose thoughts into longer, coherent writing.)
As a former software developer and manager at Apple, Dell, Cisco and a few other companies that have run on tech for the past 30 years (I’m an old dinosaur) I would guess that Substack has pushed out a major re-write of their algorithm and part of that is resetting “certain” accounts to default settings. Now whose account is chosen to be treated like like is almost surely political, and based on “left” leaning or, heaven-forbid! Progressive ideas. Why the push’s to “default” settings? I suspect because the default settings aren’t going to immediately lead to readership growth. “Default settings” may also be periodically checked to see if there’s been customization to indicate the level of author involvement in using the platform.
Of course, all of this is probably driven by AI - so nobody on the dev team may even know what in the hell is going on. They may have already had their jobs replaced by bots.
But yes, overall, I completely agree with you - Substack has changed its algorithm significantly in the past two years and now it is much more like Twitter used to be in mid-2010s and Facebook was ten-twenty years ago. With billionaires like Marc Andressen on Substack’s board (and there are other odious ones, too, whose names I don’t recall at the moment) there is no doubt that Andressen and the Substack board can literally NOT AFFORD to have anyone other than Trump in power. They’d all go to jail for election interference as well as poisoning the public discourse with promotion of fake news and promotion of demagoguery.
I'm so glad you brought up "default settings." THIS IS SO IMPORTANT.
I periodically go through my devices and make sure my settings haven't been reset to "default." Meta is notorious for pushing updates to "fix bugs" and the "bug" is "user has turned off location/microphone/camera/tracking" and the "bug fix" is "resetting to default." Once I noticed this, I made a point to schedule periodic device hygiene to make sure my settings were what I CHOSE. This is a very common tactic. I wouldn't be surprised if Substack is tinkering with this, though I haven't noticed it on mine.
As a personal note, I wish you'd write more on the long-form system. Another thing I've noticed and didn't note here is that Substack has started to limit how far back I can go in my Newsfeed to search for things. (Facebook did this around 2016, too.) If I want to be able to preserve and find something I wrote, I always put it in a newsletter. I can search those. It preserves my work. (I also offload my Substack and back it up somewhere else.)
Your voice is important. You have a lot to say about surviving sexual assault and the deeply engrained mechanisms that enable sexual assault in the US.
I got a renewal notice for your newsletter last week and let it renew. So that part is working. I still use Gmail (I did set up a Proton account but transferring over there is a hassle so I've been dragging my feet). But I turned off all the Gmail AI sorting garbage, so although that took away some features that existed before the AI garbage was pushed, I think at least I'm not getting as much interference in my inbox. I just checked my spam folder and didn't find any Substacks there. So, that's not to say this crap isn't happening, just that it's not a big problem for me - yet. Thanks for all that you do.
I tend to listen to articles while I drive. Stk recently made the Listen button larger, which I appreciate, but it also came with serious download delays on *some* articles. I have to give up listening to many articles due to lag times. I’ll move to another article, and that one works right away. I have wondered if it is tied to certain writers. Curious if anyone else has noticed this?
Emmitt, are you using Substack's AI-generated voice reading, or are you using mine? I always record my newsletters and include them at the end of every post. I'd be interested to know whether it's their AI system or mine.
I'm not too tech savvy, but I may try setting an RSS feed. I don't believe I have had any problems with not getting newsletters and post and I try to check my spam folder regularly. Here is something I want to share. I am on Instagram and I read this article on Wired magazine a couple of weeks ago:
Wired will let people who are not subscribers read a number of free articles, so some here may be able to read it. I was able to go to my settings on Instagram and turn off the post picture sharing with AI. INSTAGRAM WAS NOT GOING TO TELL EVERYONE THIS!!!!
I have no personal pictures on there, but I do have pictures I don't want used for AI training. Thank you, Andra.
Thanks for posting this here, because many IG users in the US may still not know. I’m no longer on Instagram, but I knew about this because Meta has to inform users in other countries with privacy laws. So SOME users know about it if Meta is forced to inform them due to privacy laws.
I swear, I need to make sure PRIVACY LAWS AND RIGHTS TO OUR DATA is listed in our Constitutional update as a basic human right.
What I'm seeing is more bots posing as leftist accounts and behaving outrageously obnoxiously toward earnest people like myself. I suspect this is aimed at turning people away from the left.
Well, the enemy knows how much the left loves circular firing squads. It is designed to wear earnest people out well before the midterms. The best tactic with abusers, at least once it becomes clear that’s what they are, is don’t engage. Save energy for the fight that matters.
This is devastating to year and very disturbing as Substack has been a kind of refuge for many of us from the authoritarian intake over of legacy media. Thank you for calling attention to this.
It's always wise to be aware of what these platforms are doing. So many people still use Meta products with zero awareness of how much censorship is there.
so far I’ve not experienced. any of these occurrences. Recently I have stopped subscribing to some. I just had to many to read/watch and decided to decrease the load. Thank you Andra, I’ll be looking out forbtgeee examples
So here's my (more than) 2 cents. I exclusively joined Substack to read. I am not a writer. I comment and "like". I pay for several Substack subscriptions because you authors should be paid for your work. I have a manageable list of subscriptions. I use the app as I didn't like getting the articles in my email. I listen to the articles either with the AI voice or the author (I prefer the author's reading). Because I get my articles through the app, I don't believe I've missed anything. I do get email reminders for paid renewals about a week prior and on the renewal date.
Maybe the algorithm leaves me alone because I never post anything on my own account. I have restocked a few things but those are rare. I occasionally will see that someone has followed me. So I check their Substack when this happens and block them if they don't show any content on their Substack. My bio states that I don't write and there is no reason to follow me. They are probably bots anyway.
"Our unwillingness to participate in our own information hygiene allows tech companies to get away with so much fuckery."
I got in the habit years ago of taking care of password hygiene during the end-of-year holiday week. The days are short, there's usually good food, and it's nice and warm inside. Great time to find an hour or so and go through the password manager, making sure all of my passwords are strong, none are used more than once, and none have shown up on lists of exposed passwords. I check that I've used some random bumblefuzz as my username whenever I can instead of a password - the password manager stores it so I don't have to remember.
Funnily enough I performed Substack hygiene earlier today, mainly because I wanted to double-check all subscription renewal dates and cancel the paid subscriptions that I wasn't reading/using/enjoying as much as I thought I would when I signed up for them. I'm going add that to my holiday hygiene ritual.
Andra,I thought you might like this post by Greg Olear on Madrid,The Black Paintings and the lesson from Spain that it’s possible to survive/thrive after an “empire” falls…
It’s always lost on them that they’re demanding that I give them some piece of my work for free, and when I give them a way to have it, they’re like “How dare you ask ME to work for YOU for free?”
Andrea, it sounds like the contains complainers just want to give you shit. The entitlement is bonkers! You are absolutely right to protect yourself from what is probably abuse. Fuck ‘em. Also, good to know information about Substack. I have got to get off Gmail. Thanks for reminding me!
I think a lot of these complainers don't realize Substack wasn't originally designed to be a social media platform; it was solely a space for writers to general newsletter subscriptions for their long-form work.
The newsfeed is an addition. Algorithms are an addition. Following users is an addition. Chat. Video. LIVEs. All additions that have dragged Substack from its original mission.
Of course, it is in pursuit of profit. These platforms ALWAYS sacrifice the creators who built them and the users who grew them for more profit.
Thank you for the tireless work you do every day to so meticulously keep tabs on everything the fascists are doing. Truthful information is the most valuable commodity in these times.
I haven't experienced any of these issues yet, but I mostly stick to reading the writers I subscribe to and when I open the feed I don't scroll past the first couple of posted notes. I may not be giving them as much opportunity to demonstrate algorithmic fuckery?
My thought - and to be clear this is just my own possibly too hopeful thought - is that the wealthiest of the wealthy almost always care more about money than any ideology. If I can attribute a behavior to trying to make an extra buck, rather than some deeper nefarious intent, I do, because I think greed outweighs any other of their values by a lot. And there's just not enough money to be made (for them) in treating people well.
That said it's the effect of their actions, not their intent, that matters. And the effect is very political.
I agree that the farther you go down the food chain, the more the other hateful values come into play. Although even then a lot of them are greedy little bastards. For example I always try to remember how much worse the effects of the massive quantities of money they are putting into ice contractors and 'crisis pregnancy' centers would be if it were all going directly to those depraved missions rather than being siphoned off to pad their pockets.
Not sure how much any of this matters but we're all always trying to look for where their weak points might be or what strategies they could be vulnerable to. And I could be wrong about it all anyway. 🤷
(Also fwiw I'm about a month behind on most of my reads but I try :)
I know you've had a lot going on in your life, Zach. (Which is why I bother you privately sometimes to hear what's up.)
I believe the billionaires at the top of this are completely nefarious, psychotic, greedy bastards, truly some of the worst people who have ever lived. And I believe they love to pay those who think they can someday be them to peddle their garbage.
I suppose if the world swings hard toward socialist equality and away from late-stage capitalism, we might see some of these assholes pivot. But I doubt it. This is who they've always been.
I think it's 100% about money for those who take billionaire dirty money to spread fascism. And the left doesn't spend nearly enough on that.
We've created an economic system that can only elevate the very worst people to the top. The current mafia boss president is just one highly visible example of how things 'work'. The challenge is how do we change a system while we're all trapped under it and subject to it. I suppose the first step is we need widespread agreement on what the problem is, and I'm not so sure about that. Way too many Americans still hold high opinions of wealth and the wealthy; it's in our corrupted value system. It might hopefully be better in other countries idk. Could hardly be any worse for sure. The problem is we (the U.S.) are a threat to drag everybody else down. We are the #1 global predator now.
"How do we change a system we're all trapped under and subject to?" STOP PARTICIPATING IN THAT SYSTEM. A coordinated general strike - no spending; no work; no school; as long as it takes - is the only way to stop these people. We cannot do that effectively until we have established community support structures that exist outside of the current system. Which is why I talk about that so fucking much.
Too many Americans are still just keeping their head down and grinding it out to the next election, where they think we'll vote all this out and everything will change. IT WILL NOT. THIS THINKING IS INSANITY.
The Epstein Class has shown us that we are ruled by a corrupt uni-party. Both parties are complicit in this system. We are not going to change the system by continuing to do the same thing. We the People MUST reject this system entirely. The only peaceful way to do it is with a coordinated General Strike. Nobody will ever see me calling for anything else, because violence in these situations almost never leads to freedom.
Correct. The (relatively independent) community support structures are critical. The wealthy don't want us doing anything outside their system; they want our every last penny. (I just realized those don't exist anymore but you get the phrase).
And making these structures means sacrifice. It means going without. It means inconvenience. So Americans go back to "I'll grit my teeth to the next election, and we'll vote them out, and everything will change."
In the end, Americans are going to be forced into going without in a much bigger, more horrifying way because they didn't want to go without a little less to avoid that fate.
This article breaks my heart. As I moved away from mainstream news I have depended on Substack authors. 😕
Hopefully, this newsletter will help you get the most out of Substack as it is now. We still have work-arounds for most of this garbage, but we can't use work-arounds if we don't know about the garbage.
Billionaires have long understood that they must control information to control people. We the People MUST find a way to build our own sphere of information independent of these billionaires. There's lots of chatter about this. Don't despair.
Still reading the article but I noticed the part, “Because of this, I have trained myself to ALWAYS toggle Paid replies only before posting notes. During June/July 2026, Substack reset my permissions to Anyone can reply more than once. I had to fire up my laptop to reset them back to paid.”
I noticed that in the past two-three months, Substack has removed my changed positions about “background” color when people land on my page and who I received emails from - all without notification or asking me. For example, I’d set my color schemed to be green; it got changed back to Substack’s default color - a color more resembling my Alma mater’s UT orange, which is waaaay too reminiscent of the Orange inhabitant that skulks around the White House these days. I haven’t customized a lot of things (I don’t have a paywall) but I, too, notice the throttling of any comments about sexual abuse, rape and the politicians, billionaires & Regular Joe abusers that indulge - topics about which I have commented and authored Notes (which is almost all I use, not long-form, much to my regret at not being better able to compose thoughts into longer, coherent writing.)
As a former software developer and manager at Apple, Dell, Cisco and a few other companies that have run on tech for the past 30 years (I’m an old dinosaur) I would guess that Substack has pushed out a major re-write of their algorithm and part of that is resetting “certain” accounts to default settings. Now whose account is chosen to be treated like like is almost surely political, and based on “left” leaning or, heaven-forbid! Progressive ideas. Why the push’s to “default” settings? I suspect because the default settings aren’t going to immediately lead to readership growth. “Default settings” may also be periodically checked to see if there’s been customization to indicate the level of author involvement in using the platform.
Of course, all of this is probably driven by AI - so nobody on the dev team may even know what in the hell is going on. They may have already had their jobs replaced by bots.
But yes, overall, I completely agree with you - Substack has changed its algorithm significantly in the past two years and now it is much more like Twitter used to be in mid-2010s and Facebook was ten-twenty years ago. With billionaires like Marc Andressen on Substack’s board (and there are other odious ones, too, whose names I don’t recall at the moment) there is no doubt that Andressen and the Substack board can literally NOT AFFORD to have anyone other than Trump in power. They’d all go to jail for election interference as well as poisoning the public discourse with promotion of fake news and promotion of demagoguery.
I'm so glad you brought up "default settings." THIS IS SO IMPORTANT.
I periodically go through my devices and make sure my settings haven't been reset to "default." Meta is notorious for pushing updates to "fix bugs" and the "bug" is "user has turned off location/microphone/camera/tracking" and the "bug fix" is "resetting to default." Once I noticed this, I made a point to schedule periodic device hygiene to make sure my settings were what I CHOSE. This is a very common tactic. I wouldn't be surprised if Substack is tinkering with this, though I haven't noticed it on mine.
As a personal note, I wish you'd write more on the long-form system. Another thing I've noticed and didn't note here is that Substack has started to limit how far back I can go in my Newsfeed to search for things. (Facebook did this around 2016, too.) If I want to be able to preserve and find something I wrote, I always put it in a newsletter. I can search those. It preserves my work. (I also offload my Substack and back it up somewhere else.)
Your voice is important. You have a lot to say about surviving sexual assault and the deeply engrained mechanisms that enable sexual assault in the US.
Awhhh thanks for the encouragement Andra. And thanks for the reminders about “social media hygiene” and checking for changes to default settings.
I wish I'd thought to include this in the main newsletter, but lots of people read the comments here.
I got a renewal notice for your newsletter last week and let it renew. So that part is working. I still use Gmail (I did set up a Proton account but transferring over there is a hassle so I've been dragging my feet). But I turned off all the Gmail AI sorting garbage, so although that took away some features that existed before the AI garbage was pushed, I think at least I'm not getting as much interference in my inbox. I just checked my spam folder and didn't find any Substacks there. So, that's not to say this crap isn't happening, just that it's not a big problem for me - yet. Thanks for all that you do.
I'm delighted to hear Substack is working as it should for some users.
Good advice on AI sorting. I don't use it in my inbox, either.
I tend to listen to articles while I drive. Stk recently made the Listen button larger, which I appreciate, but it also came with serious download delays on *some* articles. I have to give up listening to many articles due to lag times. I’ll move to another article, and that one works right away. I have wondered if it is tied to certain writers. Curious if anyone else has noticed this?
Emmitt, are you using Substack's AI-generated voice reading, or are you using mine? I always record my newsletters and include them at the end of every post. I'd be interested to know whether it's their AI system or mine.
Both
Good to know. Thank you. Some of us are talking about expanding audio and video stuff to other platforms. Which might fix this issue.
I'm not too tech savvy, but I may try setting an RSS feed. I don't believe I have had any problems with not getting newsletters and post and I try to check my spam folder regularly. Here is something I want to share. I am on Instagram and I read this article on Wired magazine a couple of weeks ago:
https://www.wired.com/story/meta-now-lets-anyone-use-your-instagram-photos-in-ai-images-unless-you-opt-out/?_sp=caae9e62-1348-4c61-b9c7-53748ef832f6.1783707316574
Wired will let people who are not subscribers read a number of free articles, so some here may be able to read it. I was able to go to my settings on Instagram and turn off the post picture sharing with AI. INSTAGRAM WAS NOT GOING TO TELL EVERYONE THIS!!!!
I have no personal pictures on there, but I do have pictures I don't want used for AI training. Thank you, Andra.
Thanks for posting this here, because many IG users in the US may still not know. I’m no longer on Instagram, but I knew about this because Meta has to inform users in other countries with privacy laws. So SOME users know about it if Meta is forced to inform them due to privacy laws.
I swear, I need to make sure PRIVACY LAWS AND RIGHTS TO OUR DATA is listed in our Constitutional update as a basic human right.
Thank you for the information.
You're welcome. Knowledge is power.
news and information are one of the 7 mountains WCNs are trying to have dominion over. Thanks for this Andra
As well as entertainment. They want to control it all.
What I'm seeing is more bots posing as leftist accounts and behaving outrageously obnoxiously toward earnest people like myself. I suspect this is aimed at turning people away from the left.
Well, the enemy knows how much the left loves circular firing squads. It is designed to wear earnest people out well before the midterms. The best tactic with abusers, at least once it becomes clear that’s what they are, is don’t engage. Save energy for the fight that matters.
Thank you for these observations and tips! I will be reading that Proton RSS article to see if I might find it useful. 😎✌️
Knowledge may not defeat algorithmic censorship, but we can't try without it.
💯
This is devastating to year and very disturbing as Substack has been a kind of refuge for many of us from the authoritarian intake over of legacy media. Thank you for calling attention to this.
It's always wise to be aware of what these platforms are doing. So many people still use Meta products with zero awareness of how much censorship is there.
so far I’ve not experienced. any of these occurrences. Recently I have stopped subscribing to some. I just had to many to read/watch and decided to decrease the load. Thank you Andra, I’ll be looking out forbtgeee examples
I'm glad you haven't, Janis.
So here's my (more than) 2 cents. I exclusively joined Substack to read. I am not a writer. I comment and "like". I pay for several Substack subscriptions because you authors should be paid for your work. I have a manageable list of subscriptions. I use the app as I didn't like getting the articles in my email. I listen to the articles either with the AI voice or the author (I prefer the author's reading). Because I get my articles through the app, I don't believe I've missed anything. I do get email reminders for paid renewals about a week prior and on the renewal date.
Good to know. For some people, it seems like Substack is working fine. For others, it isn't. I don't know what that's about.
Maybe the algorithm leaves me alone because I never post anything on my own account. I have restocked a few things but those are rare. I occasionally will see that someone has followed me. So I check their Substack when this happens and block them if they don't show any content on their Substack. My bio states that I don't write and there is no reason to follow me. They are probably bots anyway.
"Our unwillingness to participate in our own information hygiene allows tech companies to get away with so much fuckery."
I got in the habit years ago of taking care of password hygiene during the end-of-year holiday week. The days are short, there's usually good food, and it's nice and warm inside. Great time to find an hour or so and go through the password manager, making sure all of my passwords are strong, none are used more than once, and none have shown up on lists of exposed passwords. I check that I've used some random bumblefuzz as my username whenever I can instead of a password - the password manager stores it so I don't have to remember.
Funnily enough I performed Substack hygiene earlier today, mainly because I wanted to double-check all subscription renewal dates and cancel the paid subscriptions that I wasn't reading/using/enjoying as much as I thought I would when I signed up for them. I'm going add that to my holiday hygiene ritual.
This is a great system, Doug. And a good reminder for everyone to be better about passwords.
“I don’t have time to work for you for free.” 🤯 So I guess spreading your knowledge about P2025 to empower/protect others is not worthy….sigh.
Andra,I thought you might like this post by Greg Olear on Madrid,The Black Paintings and the lesson from Spain that it’s possible to survive/thrive after an “empire” falls…
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/sunday-pages-the-black-paintings?r=fqsxl&utm_medium=ios
Thanks for sharing this with me. I restacked it with a note. I love how he juxtaposed Goya (who I really can't stand) and empire and hope.
(My favorite museum in Madrid is the Reina Sofia.)
It’s always lost on them that they’re demanding that I give them some piece of my work for free, and when I give them a way to have it, they’re like “How dare you ask ME to work for YOU for free?”
Andrea, it sounds like the contains complainers just want to give you shit. The entitlement is bonkers! You are absolutely right to protect yourself from what is probably abuse. Fuck ‘em. Also, good to know information about Substack. I have got to get off Gmail. Thanks for reminding me!
I'm a nag about Gmail. Ha.
I think a lot of these complainers don't realize Substack wasn't originally designed to be a social media platform; it was solely a space for writers to general newsletter subscriptions for their long-form work.
The newsfeed is an addition. Algorithms are an addition. Following users is an addition. Chat. Video. LIVEs. All additions that have dragged Substack from its original mission.
Of course, it is in pursuit of profit. These platforms ALWAYS sacrifice the creators who built them and the users who grew them for more profit.
At first I misread 'addition' as 'addiction'. Which is how I think all social media is designed to work. An extractive economic system.
I'm sure Substack was originally envisioned as yet another gateway drug.
Thank you for the tireless work you do every day to so meticulously keep tabs on everything the fascists are doing. Truthful information is the most valuable commodity in these times.
I haven't experienced any of these issues yet, but I mostly stick to reading the writers I subscribe to and when I open the feed I don't scroll past the first couple of posted notes. I may not be giving them as much opportunity to demonstrate algorithmic fuckery?
My thought - and to be clear this is just my own possibly too hopeful thought - is that the wealthiest of the wealthy almost always care more about money than any ideology. If I can attribute a behavior to trying to make an extra buck, rather than some deeper nefarious intent, I do, because I think greed outweighs any other of their values by a lot. And there's just not enough money to be made (for them) in treating people well.
That said it's the effect of their actions, not their intent, that matters. And the effect is very political.
I agree that the farther you go down the food chain, the more the other hateful values come into play. Although even then a lot of them are greedy little bastards. For example I always try to remember how much worse the effects of the massive quantities of money they are putting into ice contractors and 'crisis pregnancy' centers would be if it were all going directly to those depraved missions rather than being siphoned off to pad their pockets.
Not sure how much any of this matters but we're all always trying to look for where their weak points might be or what strategies they could be vulnerable to. And I could be wrong about it all anyway. 🤷
(Also fwiw I'm about a month behind on most of my reads but I try :)
I know you've had a lot going on in your life, Zach. (Which is why I bother you privately sometimes to hear what's up.)
I believe the billionaires at the top of this are completely nefarious, psychotic, greedy bastards, truly some of the worst people who have ever lived. And I believe they love to pay those who think they can someday be them to peddle their garbage.
I suppose if the world swings hard toward socialist equality and away from late-stage capitalism, we might see some of these assholes pivot. But I doubt it. This is who they've always been.
I think it's 100% about money for those who take billionaire dirty money to spread fascism. And the left doesn't spend nearly enough on that.
We've created an economic system that can only elevate the very worst people to the top. The current mafia boss president is just one highly visible example of how things 'work'. The challenge is how do we change a system while we're all trapped under it and subject to it. I suppose the first step is we need widespread agreement on what the problem is, and I'm not so sure about that. Way too many Americans still hold high opinions of wealth and the wealthy; it's in our corrupted value system. It might hopefully be better in other countries idk. Could hardly be any worse for sure. The problem is we (the U.S.) are a threat to drag everybody else down. We are the #1 global predator now.
"How do we change a system we're all trapped under and subject to?" STOP PARTICIPATING IN THAT SYSTEM. A coordinated general strike - no spending; no work; no school; as long as it takes - is the only way to stop these people. We cannot do that effectively until we have established community support structures that exist outside of the current system. Which is why I talk about that so fucking much.
Too many Americans are still just keeping their head down and grinding it out to the next election, where they think we'll vote all this out and everything will change. IT WILL NOT. THIS THINKING IS INSANITY.
The Epstein Class has shown us that we are ruled by a corrupt uni-party. Both parties are complicit in this system. We are not going to change the system by continuing to do the same thing. We the People MUST reject this system entirely. The only peaceful way to do it is with a coordinated General Strike. Nobody will ever see me calling for anything else, because violence in these situations almost never leads to freedom.
Correct. The (relatively independent) community support structures are critical. The wealthy don't want us doing anything outside their system; they want our every last penny. (I just realized those don't exist anymore but you get the phrase).
And making these structures means sacrifice. It means going without. It means inconvenience. So Americans go back to "I'll grit my teeth to the next election, and we'll vote them out, and everything will change."
In the end, Americans are going to be forced into going without in a much bigger, more horrifying way because they didn't want to go without a little less to avoid that fate.
And the planet is the gigantic ticking time bomb in the background. None of this is sustainable.