Thank you Carole. We will defeated technoauthoritarianism. My civil service colleagues and I have caught the muskrat and his minions committing crimes. We will gather evidence to throw the broligarchs in jail where they belong. That is how we will save our sacred democracy! https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-one-elected-elon
Thank you for this. My admiration for you is bottomless, Carole. But please can I give you some advice as someone who was edited many newspaper sections and several magazines - write shorter pieces and keep them very tight. It's so important that people absorb the information you are sharing and as most of us read this on our phones, concentration tires pretty quickly scrolling down and down and down. So more, shorter posts are the way to get your information across. THANK YOU
I second the suggestion to shorten essays, state the object of the idea, and then provide concrete examples. I’m a former defense attorney. Over the decades, everyone’s attention span has shortened bc of internet communication. Juries used to sit still for at least 30 minutes. These days, they disconnect and show boredom after 10 minutes. You’re doing great stuff. Thanks a million for giving us the benefit of your fraught experience.
Haha!! Yes, every week I mean to make them shorter. In fairness, this time, I wanted to package up the column with the new podcast because it explains the concept and the conceit behind it...but I hear you. On the other hand, there are some newsletters I've subscribed to where I'm getting bombarded and they feel pretty insubstantial. But you are both so right about attention spans, my own included...
They may be correct considering common wisdom. Normally I would agree, but people like me are hungry for content/community that takes a thorough look at all of this. Because they are coming at us with such rapid fire intensity, the short form counter, while usually a winner due to conciseness, doesn’t always apply. And I can only speak for myself, but if it is a more complete compendium of this grand and novel threat —and every bit of it is relevant—, at least in this case, the flagship, if you will, landing page of the fight against the Broligarchy has been done well. And well received. (Disclaimer: I am no writer, and I should take a course on eliminating such run-on sentences)
Yep. Personally I love long-form articles. But ... their very nature means I am absolutely ruthless about which I have time for. (BTW Tortoise has been a 'fail' for me from the start, due in no small part to the length of their articles... yes I realise that was a selling point, but not for me...the topics and what was 'revealed' often didn't justify the length and time... sorry!)
Some of us have still got the attention spans, so you're OK with a core group of us, Carole. But I know others who could be assisted with tight, shorter burst pieces. Highlight summaries of the longer stuff as well. Me? You'll never lose me to other dis... ooh a dangly thing...
Ditto. I can’t see how most of Carole’s ‘columns’ here could be – and wouldn’t want them to be made – any shorter. I actually visit Substack for such longer reads (having vetoed most other forms of journalism) that impart interesting, useful and important knowledge; and see it as the antidote to the short, often meaningless, compressed stuff published on most other social media (which I have never really used).
My fear is that all such social media tend towards the same end: adding features, adding users, etc. until they collapse under their own weight like a dying star. I would hope that quality long-form journalism would be be the one thing that at least slows down that process on here… – but don’t hold out much hope.
This. Most of us just don't have time - even when we are actively (especially?) focused on media in our jobs . Yes, it's harder work to write and edit it 'tight' ... but often worth it.
This here Yank just wants to let you know how strangely comforting is to hear British voices from across the pond sending us hope, solidarity and insight as we sit here under the occupation of Sieg Heiling fascists in open alliance with Russia’s thug-in-chief. While the reverse of a Normandy invasion to rescue us would be nice, this will more than do for now, thank you!
I'm so glad you're doing this work, Carole. It's so important that more and more of us understand what is at stake now. Thank you for your courage and tenacity. Big love from the Canadalands.
Whew, that was a lot to get through,Carole, and your essay was absolutely Amazing. Thank You for being here on Substack, and sharing your wealth of knowledge with us, I appreciate you, and will reStack ASAP 🙏💯👍
Thank You Carole. I’m a long-time admirer of yours since you brought Cambridge Analytica out. Seeing -and living thorough - the repercussions from that has been disheartening. I am looking forward to your views and suggestions on a way forward. Thanks again!
Have listened to the new podcast, read everything you've posted here about it, and want to say a huge thanks to you, Carole, plus Claire Wardle, Mark Little, and Roger McNamee. Yes, the newness of what you are doing comes across, and I sense a feeling of liberation - almost euphoria as you dive straight into new, thrilling unknowns, with unending sets of possibilities. Scary, sure, but you get to do this your way.
For me, it's all about content, so what I'll do is absorb it all and come back here to comment more thoroughly, aiming to be objective in a way which might be helpful? Maybe? I'll try, anyway.
But you want the first... er... hit right now, so my initial reaction is: this is it. Precisely what we need. How the crucial news of what's going on as it unfolds needs to be unbesmirched in an accessible way, somehow and somewhere we can count on. Like we need secret codes and codenames to keep this going when they come to shut us all down. Or send their silent, invisible, flying Ai monkeys. Or whatever.
Through your guidance and the input of others, we collectively find a way to stay One Step Ahead.
Hello Carol. As a German living in the UK during the Brexit, I can fully understand the anxiety and helplessness, being subject to changes to a life you've built in a foreign land that others decided for you, and you can't understand how that has happened because it wasn't logic. Then I stumbled over your piece about Cambridge Analytica at the time when it was published in the Observer. It left me openmouthed and speechless and I shared it with everyone, because suddenly it all made sense to me. What I couldn't understand at the time is, why not every leftleaning, europefriendly Newspaper like The Independent was sharing your discoveries. Hearing about the things you went through, I understand now. But the times didn't get any better - on the contrary - and we need investigative journalists like yourself right now, more than ever, who tell people the truth and fight against the rising tide of autocratism that's popping up all over the western democraties. Thank you for your work.
U.S. citizen here. Thank you for this broadcast. You two women are absolute powerhouses! Please know we ARE active and we ARE fighting back. The movement IS quite noticeably growing on substack accounts and elsewhere, and into the streets of every nation, but the sleep was deep and pervasive. People resisted the general alarms by sleepily reaching over and hitting their "snooze" buttons. Some awoke as from a dream, but stepped right into a nightmare of a reality, in a stupor.
We are gathering momentum and not relying solely on our governmental officials to save us. The leadership who see the injustices are handcuffed by the legal limitations of our very own governing laws. There are agencies that have won multiple temporary restraining orders, TROs, to stop Trump's and Musks illegal actions, to their great credit, and some of the most important limiting decisions were given by Trump-appointed federal judges. Of course, ultimately, Trump can appeal any court decision to the Trump-loaded Supreme Court which is an absolute roll of the dice. We are as much limited by our laws in extreme times as we are protected by them in times of peace.
Please know there was and continues to be some who are waking up to question how this happened. It seems to be a very rude awakening for them. Some of us were, at the very least, braced for impact. We just weren't in the majority.
I must say hearing your guest say that "the U.S. is your enemy" in the same way that Russia is curdled my blood. You can understandably speak all you want about protecting yourself from the U.S. government's new political attitude and approach, but PLEASE do take care NOT to talk about the WHOLE of the U.S. as your enemy. It's simply not true. Please consider this.
Attempts, and successes, to exclude and divide us in the states is PRECISELY how we got here. It's perfectly natural, and wise, to protect your individual and collective, interests, but please don't exclude in your hearts The People of the U.S. because we are being as pummeled by this moment as much as anyone else. WE are on the frontlines, facing the actual enemy on the ground and online, speaking out against the injustice at our own peril. Soon, if not already, we can be traced, blocked, shut down, made bankrupt and tracked down, physically, and possibly even arrested for what used to be honored as free speech. That's how serious it is. Oppositional speech has already started to be shut down as well as oppositional press, and those are "protected" in the First Amendment. And this in leadership posts in several military branches have been made to step down along with their best legal counsel.
The most important thing we have left is still free speech though it is being highly threatened at this time. You will see in the coming days if you haven't yet more and more MAGA districts rebelling against the gutting of gov't funding for public services and the massive lost of jobs and invasions of privacy. Many didn't see it coming because they were tricked into being scared of "criminal immigrants invading or borders in record numbers" and voted primarily on that issue. Others were blaming increased food prices on the past administration and believing the lies and changed it the party in hopes of better days. They see now that campaign promises about inflation were bogus, as were the protection of public services, and what he really wants is a $1 trillion+ tax cut for the wealthiest in the country.
Anyway, our two countries will likely need to collaborate again in the future, if not, at least, cohabitate in this global economy when this fiasco is resolved. So I ask that you please stand with us now so we can stand together when it's time.
I don't normally have heroes, Carole, but you are the exception! I'm in awe of your brilliant journalistic talent, integrity, courage and determination. Reading your ideas for how we can fight back gives me huge comfort and hope in the bleakest of times.
Given the massive dangers facing us, I'm so thankful and happy to read every word you care to write, and will look forward to listening to the podcast. Article length isn't an issue for me, especially as your style is so lively and engaging. However, if shorter articles are necessary to achieve a wider readership then that's important too.
It's outrageous that after 20 years of dedicated service you're being forced to move on from The Guardian. However, your ideas for a new, more democratic media are brilliant - stronger and better, the Phoenix rising from the ashes!
FEEDBACK - although I doubt it will be particularly helpful
1. Overall: thank you, Carole, this is just what I need, and by the looks of it, lots of others need too. The most important thing for me is correct information, which we are being increasingly denied. Correct, useful information is the basis to challenge threats to democracy, livelihoods, lives and our planet. This is no time for meandering, ill-considered speculation.
2. The lazy, lowest hanging fruit-plucking of mainstream news media moronically all chasing to grow subscriber bases by telling them what they want to hear means that non-subscribers are being increasingly denied definitive, dependable information. Broligarchy already is, could be, and I hope will become, the antidote to this virulent disease. Perhaps much more than that?
3. News and information is far too often 'well, OK, I know that now', but I think the real value of information is what we can do with it. Preferably right now, in a practical way. The sensibility Mark talks of can be a mechanism to ensure that what we learn has practical benefits for us all, perhaps?
4. Hugely impressed with how you and your excellent contributors managed to maintain light, upbeat tones while delivering what is heavy stuff. As Fiona Hill confirmed weeks back, she's 'on the list' and maybe we'll get to find out where we're positioned and who's next? Really had a gulp moment for what Claire had already been subjected to - we can't just let those higher up on the list be so easily crossed off. The more we can do to slow them down at every stage, the better.
5. You had a bit of a 'serial killers' eureka moment in the podcast, Carole - I liked that a lot. Sometimes crimes are so high, perhaps we don't think of them as crimes? Not taking a legal standpoint here, rather that there are moral crimes where the killers are more than serial killers.
6. "An appetite for a pro-democracy, anti-broligarchy, media & movement"? 3 points on this: Yes. Yes. And yes.
7. I liked the pace of delivery - I find the Sergei podcasts a bit too slow for me and not being podcast experienced, I just thought that's how they're finessed now for the widest audiences. But Broligarchy zips along and conveys the urgency and enthusiasm in a way which is preferable to me. Plus you can convey a lot more in the 40 minutes or so because it's more exploration than story telling?
8. Conclusion: I think you're on to something important. I would like more on the tech side - what can I do online to protect myself and others? How can I actually help? What would be the most effective things we can do collectively? What do we take offline? Is there a point where we get offline ourselves? In my own predictive work, I set indicators to confirm that I'm on track. That could work here: look out for this specific - when you see it happen, then that is coming next.
Thank you Carole. We will defeated technoauthoritarianism. My civil service colleagues and I have caught the muskrat and his minions committing crimes. We will gather evidence to throw the broligarchs in jail where they belong. That is how we will save our sacred democracy! https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/no-one-elected-elon
Thank you for your work. Conserving of evidence always so critical...
Thank you for this. My admiration for you is bottomless, Carole. But please can I give you some advice as someone who was edited many newspaper sections and several magazines - write shorter pieces and keep them very tight. It's so important that people absorb the information you are sharing and as most of us read this on our phones, concentration tires pretty quickly scrolling down and down and down. So more, shorter posts are the way to get your information across. THANK YOU
I second the suggestion to shorten essays, state the object of the idea, and then provide concrete examples. I’m a former defense attorney. Over the decades, everyone’s attention span has shortened bc of internet communication. Juries used to sit still for at least 30 minutes. These days, they disconnect and show boredom after 10 minutes. You’re doing great stuff. Thanks a million for giving us the benefit of your fraught experience.
Haha!! Yes, every week I mean to make them shorter. In fairness, this time, I wanted to package up the column with the new podcast because it explains the concept and the conceit behind it...but I hear you. On the other hand, there are some newsletters I've subscribed to where I'm getting bombarded and they feel pretty insubstantial. But you are both so right about attention spans, my own included...
They may be correct considering common wisdom. Normally I would agree, but people like me are hungry for content/community that takes a thorough look at all of this. Because they are coming at us with such rapid fire intensity, the short form counter, while usually a winner due to conciseness, doesn’t always apply. And I can only speak for myself, but if it is a more complete compendium of this grand and novel threat —and every bit of it is relevant—, at least in this case, the flagship, if you will, landing page of the fight against the Broligarchy has been done well. And well received. (Disclaimer: I am no writer, and I should take a course on eliminating such run-on sentences)
Yep. Personally I love long-form articles. But ... their very nature means I am absolutely ruthless about which I have time for. (BTW Tortoise has been a 'fail' for me from the start, due in no small part to the length of their articles... yes I realise that was a selling point, but not for me...the topics and what was 'revealed' often didn't justify the length and time... sorry!)
I imagine the Churchill thing is part of it - ‘apologies for the length, if I’d had more time it would have been shorter…’…
Some of us have still got the attention spans, so you're OK with a core group of us, Carole. But I know others who could be assisted with tight, shorter burst pieces. Highlight summaries of the longer stuff as well. Me? You'll never lose me to other dis... ooh a dangly thing...
I like the longer form of these - feels like more of whats needed
Ditto. I can’t see how most of Carole’s ‘columns’ here could be – and wouldn’t want them to be made – any shorter. I actually visit Substack for such longer reads (having vetoed most other forms of journalism) that impart interesting, useful and important knowledge; and see it as the antidote to the short, often meaningless, compressed stuff published on most other social media (which I have never really used).
My fear is that all such social media tend towards the same end: adding features, adding users, etc. until they collapse under their own weight like a dying star. I would hope that quality long-form journalism would be be the one thing that at least slows down that process on here… – but don’t hold out much hope.
Yep, Maggie's right. Longer pieces as and when required, but short bursts of tight need to be in the mix as well.
This is what I meant to say but wrote a tome about it. I fully support this sentiment.
This. Most of us just don't have time - even when we are actively (especially?) focused on media in our jobs . Yes, it's harder work to write and edit it 'tight' ... but often worth it.
This here Yank just wants to let you know how strangely comforting is to hear British voices from across the pond sending us hope, solidarity and insight as we sit here under the occupation of Sieg Heiling fascists in open alliance with Russia’s thug-in-chief. While the reverse of a Normandy invasion to rescue us would be nice, this will more than do for now, thank you!
Love that. It’s going to be fine. We’re sending the Atlantic convoys and we’ll keep the light on for you…
Sending hope across the pond 💪🏼
I'm so glad you're doing this work, Carole. It's so important that more and more of us understand what is at stake now. Thank you for your courage and tenacity. Big love from the Canadalands.
Whew, that was a lot to get through,Carole, and your essay was absolutely Amazing. Thank You for being here on Substack, and sharing your wealth of knowledge with us, I appreciate you, and will reStack ASAP 🙏💯👍
Thank you so much, Karen. Appreciate it.
Thank You Carole. I’m a long-time admirer of yours since you brought Cambridge Analytica out. Seeing -and living thorough - the repercussions from that has been disheartening. I am looking forward to your views and suggestions on a way forward. Thanks again!
Have listened to the new podcast, read everything you've posted here about it, and want to say a huge thanks to you, Carole, plus Claire Wardle, Mark Little, and Roger McNamee. Yes, the newness of what you are doing comes across, and I sense a feeling of liberation - almost euphoria as you dive straight into new, thrilling unknowns, with unending sets of possibilities. Scary, sure, but you get to do this your way.
For me, it's all about content, so what I'll do is absorb it all and come back here to comment more thoroughly, aiming to be objective in a way which might be helpful? Maybe? I'll try, anyway.
But you want the first... er... hit right now, so my initial reaction is: this is it. Precisely what we need. How the crucial news of what's going on as it unfolds needs to be unbesmirched in an accessible way, somehow and somewhere we can count on. Like we need secret codes and codenames to keep this going when they come to shut us all down. Or send their silent, invisible, flying Ai monkeys. Or whatever.
Through your guidance and the input of others, we collectively find a way to stay One Step Ahead.
Awesome! Can’t wait to check out the pilot. You’re a hero, and hopefully more and more heroes will rise up in your wake.
They're not broligarchs, though, they're f'ing gangsters.
They are both, but I'll say that Trump really brings the gangster vibe, and it starts trickling down to his minions. For example, trying to shake down Ukraine. We already knew this in 2016. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910/
Careful. A gangster is an actual thing, and thus this is arguably defamation.
Hello Carol. As a German living in the UK during the Brexit, I can fully understand the anxiety and helplessness, being subject to changes to a life you've built in a foreign land that others decided for you, and you can't understand how that has happened because it wasn't logic. Then I stumbled over your piece about Cambridge Analytica at the time when it was published in the Observer. It left me openmouthed and speechless and I shared it with everyone, because suddenly it all made sense to me. What I couldn't understand at the time is, why not every leftleaning, europefriendly Newspaper like The Independent was sharing your discoveries. Hearing about the things you went through, I understand now. But the times didn't get any better - on the contrary - and we need investigative journalists like yourself right now, more than ever, who tell people the truth and fight against the rising tide of autocratism that's popping up all over the western democraties. Thank you for your work.
Excellent, thanks.
I'm so glad I found you on Substack! Thanks so much for the work you are doing!
Thank you, Jude. I don't really know what I'm doing but am trying to figure it out as I go...hence why feedback so helpful!!
U.S. citizen here. Thank you for this broadcast. You two women are absolute powerhouses! Please know we ARE active and we ARE fighting back. The movement IS quite noticeably growing on substack accounts and elsewhere, and into the streets of every nation, but the sleep was deep and pervasive. People resisted the general alarms by sleepily reaching over and hitting their "snooze" buttons. Some awoke as from a dream, but stepped right into a nightmare of a reality, in a stupor.
We are gathering momentum and not relying solely on our governmental officials to save us. The leadership who see the injustices are handcuffed by the legal limitations of our very own governing laws. There are agencies that have won multiple temporary restraining orders, TROs, to stop Trump's and Musks illegal actions, to their great credit, and some of the most important limiting decisions were given by Trump-appointed federal judges. Of course, ultimately, Trump can appeal any court decision to the Trump-loaded Supreme Court which is an absolute roll of the dice. We are as much limited by our laws in extreme times as we are protected by them in times of peace.
Please know there was and continues to be some who are waking up to question how this happened. It seems to be a very rude awakening for them. Some of us were, at the very least, braced for impact. We just weren't in the majority.
I must say hearing your guest say that "the U.S. is your enemy" in the same way that Russia is curdled my blood. You can understandably speak all you want about protecting yourself from the U.S. government's new political attitude and approach, but PLEASE do take care NOT to talk about the WHOLE of the U.S. as your enemy. It's simply not true. Please consider this.
Attempts, and successes, to exclude and divide us in the states is PRECISELY how we got here. It's perfectly natural, and wise, to protect your individual and collective, interests, but please don't exclude in your hearts The People of the U.S. because we are being as pummeled by this moment as much as anyone else. WE are on the frontlines, facing the actual enemy on the ground and online, speaking out against the injustice at our own peril. Soon, if not already, we can be traced, blocked, shut down, made bankrupt and tracked down, physically, and possibly even arrested for what used to be honored as free speech. That's how serious it is. Oppositional speech has already started to be shut down as well as oppositional press, and those are "protected" in the First Amendment. And this in leadership posts in several military branches have been made to step down along with their best legal counsel.
The most important thing we have left is still free speech though it is being highly threatened at this time. You will see in the coming days if you haven't yet more and more MAGA districts rebelling against the gutting of gov't funding for public services and the massive lost of jobs and invasions of privacy. Many didn't see it coming because they were tricked into being scared of "criminal immigrants invading or borders in record numbers" and voted primarily on that issue. Others were blaming increased food prices on the past administration and believing the lies and changed it the party in hopes of better days. They see now that campaign promises about inflation were bogus, as were the protection of public services, and what he really wants is a $1 trillion+ tax cut for the wealthiest in the country.
Anyway, our two countries will likely need to collaborate again in the future, if not, at least, cohabitate in this global economy when this fiasco is resolved. So I ask that you please stand with us now so we can stand together when it's time.
The WE, in WE, The People, are not your enemies.
Be well!
Christy 🇺🇲❤️🕊🇬🇧
I don't normally have heroes, Carole, but you are the exception! I'm in awe of your brilliant journalistic talent, integrity, courage and determination. Reading your ideas for how we can fight back gives me huge comfort and hope in the bleakest of times.
Given the massive dangers facing us, I'm so thankful and happy to read every word you care to write, and will look forward to listening to the podcast. Article length isn't an issue for me, especially as your style is so lively and engaging. However, if shorter articles are necessary to achieve a wider readership then that's important too.
It's outrageous that after 20 years of dedicated service you're being forced to move on from The Guardian. However, your ideas for a new, more democratic media are brilliant - stronger and better, the Phoenix rising from the ashes!
FEEDBACK - although I doubt it will be particularly helpful
1. Overall: thank you, Carole, this is just what I need, and by the looks of it, lots of others need too. The most important thing for me is correct information, which we are being increasingly denied. Correct, useful information is the basis to challenge threats to democracy, livelihoods, lives and our planet. This is no time for meandering, ill-considered speculation.
2. The lazy, lowest hanging fruit-plucking of mainstream news media moronically all chasing to grow subscriber bases by telling them what they want to hear means that non-subscribers are being increasingly denied definitive, dependable information. Broligarchy already is, could be, and I hope will become, the antidote to this virulent disease. Perhaps much more than that?
3. News and information is far too often 'well, OK, I know that now', but I think the real value of information is what we can do with it. Preferably right now, in a practical way. The sensibility Mark talks of can be a mechanism to ensure that what we learn has practical benefits for us all, perhaps?
4. Hugely impressed with how you and your excellent contributors managed to maintain light, upbeat tones while delivering what is heavy stuff. As Fiona Hill confirmed weeks back, she's 'on the list' and maybe we'll get to find out where we're positioned and who's next? Really had a gulp moment for what Claire had already been subjected to - we can't just let those higher up on the list be so easily crossed off. The more we can do to slow them down at every stage, the better.
5. You had a bit of a 'serial killers' eureka moment in the podcast, Carole - I liked that a lot. Sometimes crimes are so high, perhaps we don't think of them as crimes? Not taking a legal standpoint here, rather that there are moral crimes where the killers are more than serial killers.
6. "An appetite for a pro-democracy, anti-broligarchy, media & movement"? 3 points on this: Yes. Yes. And yes.
7. I liked the pace of delivery - I find the Sergei podcasts a bit too slow for me and not being podcast experienced, I just thought that's how they're finessed now for the widest audiences. But Broligarchy zips along and conveys the urgency and enthusiasm in a way which is preferable to me. Plus you can convey a lot more in the 40 minutes or so because it's more exploration than story telling?
8. Conclusion: I think you're on to something important. I would like more on the tech side - what can I do online to protect myself and others? How can I actually help? What would be the most effective things we can do collectively? What do we take offline? Is there a point where we get offline ourselves? In my own predictive work, I set indicators to confirm that I'm on track. That could work here: look out for this specific - when you see it happen, then that is coming next.
Well done, it's already a triumph.
I prefer to call it a Fuckwitocracy.