Rec | AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES FROM A NEWLY HOPEFUL...

📰

An Open Letter to The New York Times from a Newly Hopeful Voter

Dear New York Times, I’m addressing this open letter to you to ask one simple question: Why won’t you interview Dr. Jill Stein and Butch Ware? As we are witnessing in real-time the death of journalism along with a live-streamed targeted massacre of journalists themselves, I am concerned about the selective election coverage by your institution. In the most anti-democratic presidential race in the history of the US, we are being led to believe that we have only two options: A delusional narcissist who is only interested in self-gain above all else and at any cost, and who has taken control of the Republican Party to firmly claim it as the conservative American right wing party, fueling his fascist agenda with racism and hate. Or An appointed “nominee” injected into the race by a failing candidacy and platform, who is relentlessly supportive of a fascist and genocidal American ally, while establishing the Democrats as the centrist party, gaining support from and platforming the policies of moderate Republicans, and alienating the entire left wing of the country’s electorate. Within the past couple of months the Green Party has been more successful than ever in maintaining and amplifying a relevant voice for a coalition of progressive viewpoints and parties, despite the concerted effort from the Democratic Party to silence them (going so far as fighting in the courts to exclude Stein and Ware from ballots) while spreading targeted misinformation about the party and their platform. The anti-democratic nature of the Democratic Party’s strategy is underlined by their hypocritical insistence that they are the party saving and upholding democracy. By choosing not to cover this story, journalists and media institutions allow the false narratives created by bad actors to circulate unchecked. The decision to invite JD Vance onto The Interview, for example, illustrates a willingness of The New York Times to platform and fact-check a member of the Republican Party (a party that has been fact-checked by your institution thoroughly). As the election draws nearer, American voters are being told by media institutions that their choices are limited to two candidates with very similar platforms and policies. The reality is that alternatives exist, and may be this country’s only path to avoid a full descent into a militarized nation governed by austerity and authoritarianism. Journalism is an essential tool of citizen empowerment in a truly democratic society, and yet The New York Times—our nation’s paper of record—appears to be abdicating its responsibility to seek the truth and help people understand the world. So again I must ask: Why won’t you interview Dr. Jill Stein and Butch Ware? Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I hope you will consider a democratic approach to covering the 2024 election. Sincerely, Marcus McDonald

@deiman_marcus

Oct 22, 2024

see likes

Comments (0)

Make an account to reply.

No comments yet

Related Recs

🗳

America correctly rejects neoliberalism, but will erroneously accept fascism with rizz in its place

For those who are shocked and in disbelief at how Harris could have lost to Trump, let me try to explain why I think that people were right to want something better than Harris and how Trump took advantage of this rational instinct to serve his own megalomaniacal needs. In short, it’s just 2016 all over again. Everyone knows and agrees that the status quo is failing (or they just benefit from the status quo, but I don’t want to focus on the privileged class since there’s no surprise why they might support Trump). There are also those who do not consciously know that the system is failing, but they might have an unconscious sense of the things which are wrong without a picture of the whole. They might recognize the issues of the cost of living and inflation crisis, the wage crisis, the housing crisis, the climate crisis, the incarceration crisis, the wars and genocides happening with the direct support of the American government and our taxpayer dollars, etc. What they do not see is that these things are the consequences of the same system: Neoliberalism, the American status quo ideology. Our two party system is not the solution to the status quo, it is a product of it, and the system by nature will not produce the solution to itself. Nevertheless, people are like “let's vote for the guy who says he'll make things better over the person who promises more of the same,” and then it just makes everything worse. Just as Clinton lost to Trump in 2016, history will show time and time again that the American public will reject a warmongering, status quo, Neoliberal Democrat in favor of a fascist with rizz that positions himself as being meaningfully different. This is because status quo Democrats believe in the system, they do not want it to change. They largely choose to be blind to its flaws while those to the right of them politically understand the system and its flaws but love it because it serves their individual interests. Trump himself is a member of the wealthy elite and benefits greatly from the status quo, and its his own elite class whom he truly serves. But Trump doesn’t openly present this way, and for good reason. Instead, he presents himself as the people's candidate of change, and he won because of it. This works because the populous knows that their material conditions will not improve under corporatism, American interventionism, capitalism, and individualism, though many would not knowingly identify these as being the greatest forces against their well-being. But, given that this is the status quo ideology of America (Neoliberalism), when an alternative ideology that is objectively worse (Trumpism, which is Fascism) effectively markets itself as being in opposition to the norm and claims that it has the public's best interest at heart (populism), the masses will gravitate towards it even though it will only accelerate the deterioration of their material well-being, as Fascism and Neoliberalism serve many of the same purposes in terms of material impact. In truth, neither ideology benefits from meeting the needs of the people. It may be hard to accept this. The Neoliberal system we were raised in instilled within us the belief that it is a system which works to serve us. Out of the system's need to develop widespread acceptance in order to guarantee self-preservation, we were not raised to see the need for an alternative. In fact, we were taught that other ideologies are inherently worse, which is why we don't use them (some correctly so, none of us were taught that Fascism is good). But when people begin to realize that the system is failing, they reach for whatever alternative seems the most viable without giving much thought as to what that ideology really is. They just know that what we're doing isn't working, and want they to believe in something else. Currently, this is Fascism, and the blind faith in the exceptional and infallible nature of the American status quo which the system instilled in us made it inconceivable to imagine that it would produce Fascism so easily. In addition to an unwillingness to reckon with the truth that America has been seduced by Fascism in the form of Trumpism, the masses have actually been convinced that it is Trumpism which will be their savior by manipulation and propaganda. Online and traditional media spaces have deteriorated meaning and truth to an alarming degree (which may not be irreparable now, but will certainly become irreparable as AI improves in its ability to produce false realities in the form of fabricated digital media—videos, images, articles, etc.—that cannot be distinguished from true real world media, which is to say nothing of the exacerbation of climate catastrophe that AI and capitalism at large will continue to accelerate and that the status quo will continue to be the engine of). It’s unsurprising that the demographic of young men skewed so heavily in favor of Trump, these kids are getting their worldviews from right wing influencers online who care less about truth than preying on the insecurities and fears of their demographic. Same goes for older generations who stick to Fox News and other TV news stations. The process of the erosion of truth in the media spaces from which we now inform so much of our worldviews will only serve those who profit from pitting the victimized masses against themselves. The reality is that neither ideology will improve people's lives meaningfully. If this were true of Neoliberalism, it would have born its fruits by now as it has been the operative ideology of America (and the West at large) at least since the end of WW2, and arguably since the industrial revolution, or indeed even since American independence. And we've seen what fascism does. The only true method to combat the forces of Neoliberalism and Fascism from continuing to impoverish the masses is to return power and agency to those from whom it has been stripped. However, so many Americans have been programmed to demonize any such ideologies and call them Communism, Socialism, etc. They say that these ideologies are inherently anti-American. Which, to be fair, they are inherently in opposition to the status quo, thus they are the solution, but I would not conflate that with being "anti-American" as they are more concerned with the material well-being of the American people than the current system has ever been, and it is the people who are important, not the concept of the American nation state and its position on the world stage (American Hegemony and Imperialism), which is what both Neoliberalism and Fascism serve. What is needed now is a widespread collectivization of the masses in an effort to meet each other's needs in community without reliance on the state or the free market. The people must come together to meet their own needs and demand unceasingly any compromise the system will begrudgingly allow. The mission from here on out is to make it known to the system that we will no longer accept its self-serving agenda to our continued detriment. Even had Harris won, this would only have provided peace of mind for many while the daily material conditions of the people continue to deteriorate. Trump winning makes our system no less at fault, but it may awaken people to the need for a better system. Let this moment radicalize you rather than lead you to despair. The system isn’t broken, it is working exactly as designed, and it must be dismantled. Let's care for each other, y'all.

@royallmonarch

Nov 6, 2024

🖊

The Sky is Falling; We've Got This

or: yes it's bad, no we need not despair Margaret Killjoy published this essay shortly after the US election and i found it very needed especially as it’s (from a leftist perspective) balancing realism and hope/optimism as the country approaches a second Trump presidency

@marxinista

Nov 13, 2024

📖

Unbought and unbossed by shirley Chisholm

This was an amazing read. I read Unbought and Unbossed right after the election results came out. Like many I was very upset and angry when I woke up on November 6th. As I began to spiral about the state of democracy in America Mrs. Chisholm calmed a lot of the fear I possessed. "Political pioneer Shirley Chisholm—activist, member of the House of Representatives, and onetime presidential candidate—consistently broke barriers and inspired generations of American women, especially women of color. Unbought and Unbossed is her story, told in her own words..." Throughout the book, I was constantly inspired by Mrs. Chisholm's hard-work and dedication. She truly cared for her constituents, unlike many politicians that have called Capital Hill home. And although there are not enough people like Mrs. Chisholm working in Washington at this moment, this book is a reminder that there are people who care. There are people who want to help the American people, not the corporations. I find this book to be a guiding light over the next four years—a reminder that we can come back from this administration.