And Democrats are STILL showing up and out, and we don't need the legacy press

[Sympthsical]

20. A free press is required for healthy democracy

There's a kind of new arc - and I blame much of the Internet and social media for it. That not only should the press - and journalism in general - be avoided, but that it is a moral good to wrap oneself in a partisan or ideological bubble where only preferable narratives, facts, and context be allowed and affirmed.

This is . . . not great. It's not good for critical thinking, it's not good for being informed, and it's not good for a democracy that doesn't devolve into a partisan shitshow.

Which is where we're hedging towards now.

I know people like to say "Fuck the MSM!" or whomever.

But Twitter ain't news. It's barely accurate half the time. And headlines aren't news articles.

This recent penchant people have leads to terrible places. I now see people actively advocating that our politicians and government officials no longer feel any need to answer the press. Or really the people. Just all sympathetic Internet press releases and junkets.

This is dangerous. And I don't think people appreciate just how dangerous it is. We're already a severely underinformed society. This will aggravate it rapidly. Social media are already well on their way to putting us there.

This is not something to embrace. At least not if one has read history. When you advocate for courtiers rather than journalists, nothing good flows from that.