WHY BOOKS MUST ALWAYS BURN
On Gamestop, Steven Colbert, and Che Guavara Labubus
1: MONARCH MIGRATIONS
I love the internet. I love Foodtubers. I love having multiple screens blaring at the same time. And most of all, I love tossing these meaningless pixels off into the digital void, just to see how they echo. But there are also times when I just want to enjoy a physical book. In silence. Times when I want to stretch and tone my executive function. Times when I want much more…of far less. And today, more than any other, I am reminded of just how important physical books still are. How fragile they are. And just how flammable they must always remain. For everyone’s safety. But in order to explain why I think books should always burn, I want to ask you a question. What does a secret dinner group of Tech Executives, a Che Guavara Labubu, and the book burnings of the Nazi Party all have in common? In my opinion? Narrative Monarchy.
2: NARRATIVE WARFARE
Stories are war, ideas are ammunition, and your mind is the cratered, thunderous no-man’s-land caught between their flashing volleys. Stories recruit armies. Those Armies have troops. Those Troops follow Generals. But, above everyone else, at the high pinnacle of global influence, there stand...‘Narrative Monarchs.’ What is a Narrative Monarch, you ask? A Narrative Monarch is just any individual with undue influence over narratives, stories, and media. Someone who, with the flick of their wrist, can alter a media landscape forever. A person whose financial assets can alter an entire population’s standard of “Truth” itself. A Narrative Monarch is someone who has amassed so much power in an individual arena, that they have effectively monopolized, or at least feudalized, entire hemispheres of Humanity. This could describe a dictator. This could describe an oligarch. It could also describe a One-Party State. It doesn’t matter. Because at the end of a day, a Narrative Monarch is simply someone who (comparatively to you and I) owns too much of a system to ever be held accountable by the common mechanisms of order. It is someone who has a vested interest in controlling every aspect of public opinion about themselves. And, regardless of whether that Narrative Monarch is good or bad, their very position endangers all of Humanity. Why does this matter?
Because Narrative Monarchs are fundamentally incompatible with any sort of Republic. Or indeed, the very concept of ‘Voting’ as well. Why? Because by limiting the stories that we Humans are able to tell each other, and by imposing one person’s limited imaginings upon us all, we are all of us made so much more vulnerable in turn. Much like how ‘monocultures’ are the most susceptible to disease, so too are Human Populations endangered by a lack of narrative diversity. Rootbound by way of centralization.
Now, make no mistake, 'Narrative Monarchs’ are not new. Not in the slightest. It’s just a snappy rebrand I came up with to describe a very old phenomenon. Information-Control and Deception are both now, and have always been, a crucial part of tribal statecraft. But, Narrative Monarchy is a phenomenon that only works in a Country or nation-state designed to support Royals as an institution. It does not work with Democracies or Republics. Because when someone does amass enough money or power to be considered a Narrative Monarch, the very concentration of that power begins to erode Democracy itself. It does not matter if they are good or bad. Anyone who controls that much is a threat to us all. And they know it. Their position is dangerous and unstable. As such, Narrative Monarchs pay enormous amounts of money for their ‘Generals’ to head armies and wage alternative idea campaigns against us all. Their only goal? To change your mind about them. To occupy that middle distance between your eyes. To blitzkrieg the Rhineland of your prefrontal cortex. To besiege the lighthouse where the lens through which you view the world itself resides. I, like everyone else, want to move that lens as well. But, as I’m sure you know, ideas are dangerous. Your lens is fragile. And the slightest tick in the wrong direction can change the way in which you view the world forever. As such, Narrative Monarchs have a vested interest in suppressing certain stories that could damage their standing. To them, they have so much that they cannot even allow the possibility of its seizure. To them, it is very important you not get the wrong ideas…about the wrong things. God, no. Because, depending on where you live, some stories can be much, much more dangerous than others. That’s why, when a particular kind of story gains a little too much traction, these ‘Narrative Monarchs’ will send their generals off to battle. But the wealthiest Monarchs take it a step further than that. They actually take steps to ensure that the enemy General and his Rogue Brigade of Radicals will never rear their ugly heads again. They take steps to ensure that a threatening story will be forever corrupted, that and its fruits be rendered seedless. Unable to be replanted. In other words, they salt the very earth itself to ensure an idea’s destruction.
In the case of American Narrative Monarchs, the most dangerous idea that could possibly damage we peon’s ‘Lens’ is not socialism, capitalism, mormonism, or any other tired old -ism. No. It’s just…class. Plain and simple. The simple idea that our world is split into Haves and Have Nots. And that no matter how much a Have Not may try…they will never ever cross the threshold of acquisition. It is the idea that one person owning everything could, theoretically, impact the well-being of others. A bit like how hoarding materials on a lifeboat might cause others to starve. To American Narrative Monarchs, that is a dangerous idea. One that threatens an entire system of globalized profit extraction. However, what I find much more interesting than the Narrative Monarchs themselves (as they are almost always very dull People), is the method and process they use to destroy an undesirable story. What I am interested in is the processes of Narrative Warfare post mortem. How powerful actors can not only destroy, but defang an idea. Because, make no mistake, there is a process. And in order to kill a story, there is both a method and a madness to its butchery. A tried and true way of dismembering and mutilating martyrs so that even their death can eventually be made to safeguard the very Narrative Monarchs whom they once sought to debase. A way of dismembering stories and turning them into either nonviolent fairytales, or much more impressively, into allied tokens of general agreement: a castrated, kneecapped, wing-clipped shadow of itself. A train of thought, forever derailed for a general population. And the first step to doing any of this…is to gain a foothold in the press.
3: THE FOURTH ESTATE SALE
Now, as with most things in life, if you have money, this step is exceedingly simple. It involves purchasing, owning, or coercing the Press in some way, shape, or form to do your bidding. Because in Narrative Warfare, if stories are war, then Newspapers and News Channels are an army’s supply lines and munitions factories. And, in order for any Narrative Monarch to safeguard their monocultural hegemony, they must first place a ‘boot on the neck’ of ‘the finger on the pulse.’ This process of press coercion can be accomplished through many ways. But the most effective among them are threats, monopoly, and dissection.
THREATS: This one’s obvious. So, there’s a guy named Stephen Colbert. He’s a late-night talk show host here in the States. Or…was. Anyways—just recently—he was pressured by his parent company’s lawyers to bend the knee to our Federal Government. This is, of course, a violation of the US Constitution and an obvious attempt to weaponize the law. But that doesn’t matter in this context. What matters is that the President of the United States utilized his position to make a threat. A threat with teeth. A threat that scared Colbert’s Lawyers. So, the night preceding his regularly scheduled show, Stephen Colbert was told in no uncertain terms that he was absolutely not to…interview a politician. He was ordered by his attorneys not to give any airtime to Narrative General. One whose narrative directly threatened the pockets of major Republican Donors in the Great State of Texas. Incidentally, those were the same Donors that helped to elect our President Of These United States, and as such, had bought his influence by proxy. Now, zoom out. Narrative General tells a story. The story offends a Monarch. Monarch uses military command to stop the Press. This is an example of THREAT. Colbert’s Lawyers, scared by that threat, quickly shat their pants and then vigorously rubbed their feces into some ‘recommendations,’ on behalf of their parent company. Those recommendations then informed Mr. Colbert that he was not to give any airtime to one James Telarico. Of course, Mr. Colbert did not comply and is now out of a job. But what matters here is not the politics of anyone involved. Rather, it is that an institution of the press was threatened by those with money and forced into Narrative Compliance. This is an example of Threat.
MONOPOLY: Monopoly exists by the same token: overwhelming top-down control. But, in Monopoly’s case, it's much more straightforward. In other words, instead of having to buy elected military officials to do your bidding, and then threaten people on your behalf, a Monopolist can just…do it themselves. By right of ownership. Because…they own it. Naturally. And, furthermore, because they own so much of a press institution, the threat of force and violence is already baked into their position. You want to mess with me? Fine. No healthcare. You want to mess with me? Fine. You’re out of a job. Right? Right. Monopoly, named after the board game, describes an industry where EVERYTHING is subject to the disproportionate influence of an individual entity. In fact, they don’t even have to own everything. Just most. Just enough. A Narrative Monarch just has to own enough of a media industry, to where their whims cause waves. That way, they can easily influence journalists and thereby control the stories they tell.
Now, normally, monopolies are frowned upon. Historically speaking, anyways. In ancient times, in the early 20th Century, the US Government would actually jump in and say…
“Hey, you. You can’t own all that. That’s not fair. We need some competition up in hya.”
Ordinarily. But not today! Because in the current United States, Monopolies are not only allowed, but openly encouraged. Because, despite whatever their Generals might say to the contrary, there’s nothing Narrative Monarchs hate quite so much as a free market. For example, just recently, Paramount-Skydance has finalized their plan to buy Warner Bros Productions for 110 billion dollars. That means all of the titles, studios, assets, and IP can now be comfortably huddled under the same man’s loincloth. And, as such, anything that one individual dislikes can be cut accordingly. Monopoly is by far the easiest way for a Narrative Monarch to ensure problematic narratives are quietly lost forever. And then destroyed by neglect. To put it in terms of Stephen Colbert, if Stephen Colbert worked for this studio instead, then…well…boom. Easy peasy. Story’s cut. Employee contract is terminated. And then, every aspect of the production sphere can then be weaponized against him. No external threat needed. Why? Because the entire industry was bought from the start. Farm to table. This is an example of Monopoly.
DISSECTION: Of the three options for coercing the Press, Dissection is by far the most interesting. It involves not only buying a company out, but then strategically selling it for scraps. In other words, buying an enemy’s printing press just to burn it. For example, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man (without gender-affirming care surgeries), recently bought the Washington Post for 250 million dollars. The Post, which was once a shining beacon of investigative journalism, has since been systematically been gutted for profit. And, by proxy, the threat that it once posed to that Narrative Monarch has now been dramatically reduced: hollowed out from the inside. Because Dissection is the process of paying for something with the expressed intent of disassembly.
To put it again in terms of Stephen Colbert, if Stephen Colbert worked for the Washington Post, he could have easily aired James Telarico. No problems. It all would have gone off without a hitch. But then…a change in ownership. At first, nothing would have seemed out of place. But then…gradually, the broadcast equipment would be reduced. The staff would be furloughed by department. The assets needed to make his show would have been sold off. Strategically. Slowly. Undeniably. Then, his staff…furloughed. The audience chairs…sold. The primetime slot…moved. And then gradually, slowly, from the inside out, that threat in the press would be eventually neutralized. Accomplished quietly by the process of selling the factory for scraps. Piecemeal.
But, no matter which of these methods are used, Money almost always manages to suppress media eventually. Especially when Lawyers kowtow in fear. So sooner or later, these Narrative Monarchs will always acquire their own “Munitions Factories” to fight against these 'narrative insurgencies.'
4: MUMMIFICATION
Once a foothold in the Press has been successfully acquired, a Narrative Monarch can then begin the fascinating steps of salting the earth. A process of taking an enemy Narative’s General, and then changing them into something else. Preserving that General in such a way as to entirely undermine the movement which they were once a proponent of. A process I’ve taken to calling Mummification. For while the Revolution may not be televised, god-willing, it will be simplified. It will be castrated, sanitized, and baptized to death: drowned in the penitent river of nonviolent passivity. Now, what does any of that even mean? Well, in the case of America, it meant,
“Please! Please! PLEASE! Don’t let those filthy f*cking Poors ever think they can come for our money again. Let them protest or whatever, just don’t let them think that me owning everything has anything to do with it.”
More or less. That was the fear.. And historically speaking, that fear of theirs was well-founded. The Richest people in the world exist in a precarious state. And the second a society begins to suffer en masse, the Rich are usually their first targets. A good example of this can be seen in the mid-20th century. During that time, it was generally accepted that something needed to change. Segregation was not working. And American Society was tearing at the seams. But at the same time, above it all, there were also extreme fears by the Narrative Monarchs of that day. Fears that ‘Black Liberation Movements’ would start…talking about money too. You know, the jump from equality to reparations. The difference between 5/5ths vs 40 acres and a Mule with interest. A jump that could theoretically not only ally the Black Community, but the White Community as well. A story that could create a communal identity among these two separate, but equally poor groups of people (at least compared to the Truly Rich). It was a story that began to gain momentum. A story whose communal identity included not just oppressed Black Folk, but anyone with a shared economic disadvantage. It was a story that terrified the Narrative Monarchs. And, when a Narrative Monarch is threatened, they look for an Enemy General their Press Houses could mummify. But in order to do that, they must first eliminate…one of its Generals. That elimination can come in many forms. Directly, or indirectly. It doesn’t matter. Because money just makes things happen. So, whether it’s via prison, strange accidents, or being targeted by some Lone-wolf Killer with redacted ties to bigger redactions that will never be unredacted…the end result is always the same. An enemy General’s incapacitation. A body with a recognizable face, rendered lifeless, so that their image can be mummified, and their goals adapted into something less threatening. Financially speaking.
And when that Enemy General has been safely anesthetized, the Narrative Monarch’s media outlets can begin the Mummification process. A process that begins with something called Evisceration. Evisceration is when a bought member of the Press, a corrupted High Priest of the Fourth Estate, begins weighing the brains of that dead General, and deciding which parts of their story could be most useful for Pharaoh’s ambitions. The Brain is removed via the nose and then reduced to a shadow of itself. And only then, once the narrative has been safely simplified, can the Narrative Monarchs begin to control the enemy Narrative. In the Case of the Civil Rights Movement, the Narrative General selected for Mummification was named Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. And the rest was history.
5: CURING
Once a General is mummified and their Narrative simplified, that is when the real work can begin. Curing. Curing is the process of ending discussion. The process of killing an idea and curing its figurehead in salt. Curing is the process of destroying a narrative’s momentum forever by minimizing and warping the goals of its figureheads. Done so in such a way, that no revolutionaries will ever grow from that ideology again. But what do I mean when I say curing in this context? Well. Imagine this,
Say you want everyone to be fed. You think everyone SHOULD be fed. So you and some friends stage a protest saying that food shouldn’t cost money. The person who makes money selling all the food sees this and gets mad. He pays cops to beat you up, puts you in prison, and begins telling your story. Curing is when that malicious actor takes your idea and turns it into a smaller victory instead. Acknowledging your movement, but denying its end goal. Imagine if, while you were in prison, they took your statement, “everyone deserves food,” but then changed it. Changing it once you have lost the ability to correct the record. Reducing your message from ‘food for all,’ into the much more palatable, “Maybe students should get a free lunch at school every now and again.” It’s a malicious tactic and a highly effective one. It’s the process of taking an enemy’s ideology and then artificially warping the location of their end goal. It is the process of using the Press to shape an enemy General’s finish line artificially. Usually, they move the goal posts to a less expensive, halfway point. Somewhere between costing the Narrative Monarch a little bit of money, versus costing them a lot. And as they cure the enemy General, that process changes the enemy’s motivational threshold to a distance that is…tolerably close: moving it into a "less radical end zone.” A place where the Press can tell your story and say, “THIS was their goal all along.” And, in so doing, they make Everyone else in your movement, whose motivations may differ from their retelling, look like dangerous radicals by comparison.
Because by curing an Enemy General, by changing a story’s goal post to a different victory location, an entire Narrative's original philosophy can be effectively handicapped. Split. Rendered static. Rendered sterile. Artificially molded to look strange and radical against the backdrop of a newer, lesser, and more sanitized dream.
In other words, Tokenizing cuts off a Narrative Army’s information systems. It creates chaos and dysfunction within their ranks. And the more people hear this artificial retelling of a cured General’s story, the more people everywhere begin to believe it. And the more people believe it, the more they associate that story with the movement itself. This cures ‘your narrative’ in salt so that nothing so dangerous will ever grow from it again. It stops decomposition. It stops growth. It stops change. And most of all, it stops progress by redefining an entire story’s end.
6: TOKENS AND GRAVE GOODS
Curing completed, the wrapping and gift shop sales can finally begin. Meaning, once the narrative battle is won, it’s time to profit. It’s time to turn the entire ordeal into a digestible, and (most importantly) a purchasable commodity. The next step of narrative warfare is something called ‘Tokenization.’ The practice of creating products that, by design, fly in the face of the original narrative entirely: taking that Narrative and then recasting its message into the vanilla guardrails of nonviolent passivity. Creating a “revolutionary” commodity that actually ends up benefiting the Narrative Monarch it originally threatened.
Now, I want to be clear here. This is not a specifically American thing. Not by a long shot. Kings do it, Dictators do it, and Chinese Eunuchs trying to safeguard their Court Positions do it too. But, what makes America interesting is both our role in Global Media Post-WW2, as well as our particular emphasis on tokenizing specifically ‘Economic’ or ‘class’ related stories. Liberty is fine. Freedom’s cool. Revolution is fine if it's in Star Wars. But don’t you dare suggest that your situation right now has anything to do with the People who have more. That would be intolerable. And by selling an image, a token of different movements, you can effectively safeguard yourself against all of them. Tokenization ties physical and purchasable commodities to the very identity of a narrative.
You want to fight for the wetlands? You’ll need some organic hemp cloth.
You want to fight against the man? You’ll need some Doc Martens. There’s an outfit you need.
You want to fight against Sissy Liberal Snowflakes? My good man, there’s a uniform for that too.
By monetizing the aesthetics of an idea’s Proponents, you can enforce the boundaries of its context. By tokenizing Movements with a specific look, a Narrative Monarch can ensure that the idea does not grow by limiting the scope of its operational definition, and, of course, by setting a price on the bar of entry. It’s not just identity politics…it’s aesthetic tribal enforcement. And it’s nothing short of Genius. In my opinion, we’ve seen this same pattern play out time and time again. It does not matter if you align on the Right or the Left; if your Movement gains roots in America, rest assured, it is subject to these rules. For the literal millisecond that Movement starts threatening a Narrative Monarch’s money…the process begins anew. And by the time the process is complete, rest assured all those dangerous bits about ‘CLASS’ have been stripped like copper wires from the Cured General’s House. Because Narrative Monarchs would always rather grant token victories to their workers than to risk the possibility of a total collapse of their profit extraction schemes.
In the case of the Civil Rights Movement, many such Narrative Generals met this fate. But none exemplifies it better than Dr. King. Because, out of his many contemporaries, Dr. King’s message was by far the most nonviolent, and, because of that, his words became a prime target for both narrative predation and, eventually, tokenization. Gradually, over time, though his face was championed as the sole architect of the Civil Rights Movement, the actual meat and potatoes of his narrative were strategically reduced, cut, and altered. The Bought Press diminished him to a shadow of what he, and many others in the Civil Rights Movement, had all been pushing for from the start. That being, Financial restitution…as a necessary prerequisite for achieving true Social Equality. Because believe it or not, Reparations was a central idea to the movement; but, following Dr. King’s mummification and tokenization, all those radical bits about money changing hands, became banished to the realms of ‘dangerous criminals,’ like Malcolm X, and Fred Hampton. Meaning, the Press kept Dr. King’s Dream, but they cut away the bits of how we might actually achieve it. They cut away all the parts that might dare to suggest that the People responsible for upholding a system of extraction should be made to give any of it back. Now, his face is being sold on T-Shirts as a symbol of unity. And what’s more, I’m not denying that he is one. But the dream he championed is not quite the same as the one you’ve been told. So long as Narrative Monarchs exist, no one will ever be immune from this process. Just look at Che Guevara (an Argentine freedom fighter who hated free-market capitalism with every fiber of his being). His likeness is now being sold on the TikTok Shop as knock-off Labubus, appealing to the token sensitivities of Champagne Marxists all over the world (thereby kneecapping his movement’s plight in turn, by redefining the scope of its entry). This method is tried and true. It works every time. And it’s done everywhere. Tokenization is the narrative warfare of choice for this modern age. But, despite it being very effective, what Narrative Monarchs don’t like known, is that two can play at that game. Enter…the Internet.
7: A GLOBAL FORUM
You know her, you hate her, you love her. The Internet is everything…to most everyone. It changed everything. And surprisingly, it was a Change that most Narrative Monarchs never saw coming. Because of this, the Internet quickly became the world’s first true Global Forum. A confounding and cacophonous cavern of craziness and relatively free speech. And for all of its many, many, many faults, the Internet allowed Humans everywhere to bypass Narrative Monarch interference of their local media institutions. For the first time, a Human under illegal occupation in the West Bank could talk to a Human in Chile who remembered life under Pinochet. For the first time, a Human in Russia could talk unrestrainedly to any random person they might choose. For the first time in all of Human History, anyone could talk to everyone. And, at least at first, nobody could stop it. Almost overnight, globalized media machines were democratized and, some, radicalized. All the investments of Narrative Monarchs all over the world suddenly meant almost nothing in the face of chatrooms, social media, and Reddit. It allowed ordinary people to share their stories instantly. Stories that, under normal circumstances, would have been mummified or tokenized before they ever got the chance to spread. Narratives that would otherwise have been quickly suppressed. Because of this, Twitter became a place for Journalists as much as for grade-schoolers learning about slurs. Reddit became a place not just for foolhardy teens to try the 50/50 game, but also for organizing protests and talking to anyone who might share your point of view. The Internet grew. It became a place to find out which Hogwarts Star said what, right next to a documentary detailing evidence of Human Rights Abuses (sometimes uploaded from under the very nose of Authoritarian Regimes). Because of this, victims of every demographic found community against their Abusers, and narrative cohesion as a result. People who would ordinarily never get to meet…did. And though all the noisy, chaotic, and sometimes horrifying chatter, the Internet quickly became an indispensable part of Global Society. A natural counter to the established systems of media and Monarchic Narrative Control that have plagued Humanity since industrialization. It created forums where ordinary people could protect each other from powerful, well-entrenched, or narratively malicious actors. The sort of Narrative Monarchs that thrive on dysfunction, and the sort who would otherwise own too much of a system to ever be exposed by the actions of their lessers. In this environment, the internet community peaked. Enter…Gamestop.
8: THE CURIOUS CASE OF GAMESTOP
In January 2021, something strange happened. COVID was raging, everyone, still home, and everyone was losing money. During that time, a bunch of Ordinary Plebs, every day Peons like you and me, they found out that something interesting was happening over on Wall Street. While everyone was stuck at home, losing money by the day, and more of their minds every second, a curious narrative started to float around the investment chatrooms of Reddit. A narrative that some rich people on Wall Street had bet a bunch of money on the Gamestop Company to fail. Everything was set to go off without a hitch. And the company was expected to be sold for scraps, making the Rich richer in the process. But what the Wall Street Delegation did not know was that Gamestop happened to be very popular among those particular people. It had nostalgia credit to millions of Millennials, and street cred to all those with credit card debt. And, because of the Internet, those People all got to talking. They spread the narrative of GameStop’s plight like wildfire. And then, all of a sudden, it caught! People all over the world started to pool their money. Betting against the Wall Street firm. Attacking a Narrative Monarch’s bottom line. In their minds, they were trying to save Gamestop, and in the process, stick it to the People who were trying to kill a beloved childhood institution. Maybe for once…maybe this time, they could win. And perhaps most surprisingly of all…they did. For a time. In fact, the narrative’s push was so effective that Gamestop shares surged by almost 140%, causing the Wall Street Investors who’d bet against it to lose a fortune overnight. For a moment, there was joy, and in it, inklings of what was to come. With that single event, I believe the US Internet’s death warrant was signed. For naturally, as the Banking arm of our Narrative Monarchs, a Wall Street firm was not allowed to fail. They were not allowed to cost Monarchs their money. So, unlike its namesake, the stock-trading software ‘Robinhood,' suspended all trading on Gamestop shares, thereby allowing Wall Street to recoup their money and to limit their losses. An action, that no doubt similar to Mr. Colbert’s experience, was brought about by the forceful recommendations of a terrified attorney. Quickly, the Press jumped into action. The Bought Press Machines went into overdrive and started saturating the public with a cured story to compete with the narrative on Reddit. Soon, what initially began as ‘Save Gamestop and stick-it to the Rich,’ got dissected, repackaged, and warped into, ‘Con-Artists and Meme-Lords delight in destroying the savings of innocent people.” Soon after that, the affected Wall Street Firms recovered their losses, and the free market was protected against alternate narratives. Soon, laws were changed, and all was right with the world. But…for a few glorious moments, people everywhere got to see the truth. Narrative Monarchs included.
People everywhere saw that the systems in place were never designed to benefit them. In reality, they exist as they are solely to benefit established institutions. Institutions with Narrative Monarchs at their heads. Monarchs that would never allow Trash like you to ascend the ladders that they’d spent so much time and money convincing you to climb. But the Gamestop fiasco proved one other thing as well. Proved it to the Narrative Monarchs everywhere. It proved that the Internet was much too dangerous to be left free. It was an environment that had not only grown to threaten their systems of control, but to threaten their profits as well. See, until the Internet, Revolutions, Bank Runs, and Worse, had all relied mostly on word of mouth, or on the written word. Those were both things that could be controlled, patrolled, and bought by pre-existing ‘Narrative Investment.’ But Gamestop revealed to the Uber Wealthy just how tenuous their grip truly was. How precarious their position at the apex of Global Extraction truly is. Privately, they all came to the same conclusion. The Internet must die. And thus began the systematic dissection of the Internet. The disassembly of our Global Digital Forum.
9: THE DEAD INTERNET AND JOSEPH GORDON LEVITT
While it may seem like I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill, I truly think the Gamestop fiasco was much more important than the news cycle made it seem. Until that point, the stock market had remained relatively insulated from Internet Actors. But, it showed all of them that the internet was too dangerous to let be. And ever since that day, the internet has become a much, much worse place. A place that, much like Press Houses and Newspapers, has been steadily eroded by fourth estate purchase. Twitter was bought and dissected. Bots were unleashed on chat rooms. Most major media companies have since merged together into Monopolies. AI has sown doubt into the very concept of truth, and cast doubt on the concept of ‘photo evidence’ itself. Digital IDs are becoming commonplace, and the US Government has a page on their website for Media Offenders. In other words, ever since Gamestop, the internet has been marked for dissolution and control. It’s not happening in one place. Or from one person. But, it is happening most places, bit by bit. It is as if someone, or some people, behind the scenes all privately agreed that they must change the Global Forum.
And, I think nothing exemplifies this apparent narrative campaign quite like the actions of one Joseph Gordon Levitt (yes, the Hollywood Guy). As you may or may not be aware, as one of Humanity’s foremost experts in cybersecurity, Joseph Gordon Levitt has made some surprising waves in the last couple of years. When presented with the typical Hollywood activist route, he chose to become a Lobbyist for Cyber Security instead. He, as a private, unaffiliated, and deeply concerned citizen, started pushing very hard to alter a specific law known as ‘Section 230.’ He, along with many, many other activists, all seemingly overnight, came out of the woodwork pleading with lawmakers to overturn this villainous law.
But I hear you. You’re asking, what is Section 230? And why does the ‘plot exposition guy’ from Inception care so deeply about federal speech regulation?
10: SECTION 230
Now, bear in mind, I don’t know much of anything. That being said, allow me to describe this complicated law as best I can. Section 230 has the single most astoundingly long Wikipedia page you could possibly imagine. And beyond that, it is also the lifeblood of free speech on the internet. The law that enabled a digital forum to even exist. A US law that essentially grants qualified immunity to internet companies, granting them special privileges due to their function of providing users a free place to speak. Think of it as stage insurance. But what does that mean? It means…that social media companies can’t be sued for the things users post on their platform. Imagine it like a billboard. Twitter is a billboard. People put community notices on it for display. Section 230 is the law that says Billionaires can’t sue Twitter for one of their user’s tweet. In other words, Section 230 means that internet forum providers are not responsible for the words of other people. Even if a User said something that ticked off a Narrative Monarch, Section 230 protects the company from reprisal. It means that Rich People can’t threaten a company…for the words of those they allowed to speak.
Now, to give a more extreme example than a billboard. Imagine a Journalist. The Journalist uncovered a story. A story that implicates someone rich. A story that implicates rich people in power. The Journalist tries to get it published….but the newspapers (for some reason) won’t sign on. So, that Journalist makes a Twitter account. She posts the story online. It gains traction, and the person responsible gets angry. But, because of Section 230, Twitter can happily host the story without fear of getting sued.
And strangely, this is the law that so many rich actors and Media Moguls want to be repealed. They are fighting for a wrold in which, once the law is repealed, And once the law is repealed, anybody with money can threaten to sue. Anybody with money can sue a platform for all that they have. Whether the story is true or not? It doesn’t matter. It never matters. Because WITHOUT Section 230, a company has no reason to allow ANY form of speech, media, or narrative that may ruffle the feathers of those with money. In a world without Section 230, the same threats of financial ruin that caused Stephen Colbert’s lawyers to sh*t themselves in fear…that fear would suddenly be in effect…everywhere, all the time, and across every part of the internet, effectively burning the last neutral ground that remained of a once global digital forum.
11: AN EXECUTIVE’S FUNCTION.
In other words, Levitt was pushing a narrative that would allow Social Media sites to be intimidated by Narrative Monarchs. But he was doing it in a way that changed the goalpost. Indeed, in true Narrative-Warfare-Style, the repeal of Section 230 has been made to seem like a good idea on the surface. Levitt, as a concerned and unaffiliated party, kept appearing nationally to repeat some talking points. Points that repeated how repealing Section 230 would “protect the children.” And of course, I would never allege anything regarding the purity of his ideals. He may truly just be a concerned citizen. However, what has since come out…in the last couple weeks…is nothing short of hilarious. A guest list, belonging to a certain ‘secret society,’ was leaked. Now, the society is not all that secret. But it is, at the end of the day, a group of powerful Executives and profoundly rich Individuals who believe they can influence the future of the world. People who get together behind closed doors to decide how to best plan and strategize to achieve their goals. And regardless of whether or not you would choose to call anyone in that room a Narrative Monarch…that’s up to you. I certainly won’t make that claim. But I will say that the Viral Guest List included everyone from Politicians, to Billionaire Financiers, to Press Officials, and to…yes…now…even Joseph Gordon Levitt. In other words, Levitt, a public face now known for pushing a narrative that directly benefits Tech Executives, ended up in a room of powerfully rich Individuals, whose expressed intention is to try and influence the future of Global affairs. A group of people with a vested interest in controlling the mechanisms of both public interest and also, collective accountability. But then again, I’m not here to point fingers. Maybe their intentions are truly genuine. Maybe I’m just jaded? I mean, if there’s anything Hollywood Actors and billionaires are best known for, it’s protecting Children.
Still, whether or not you find this particular instance of Closed Doors Strategizing to be a convincing example of Fourth Estate Coercion, you must at least see the signs. Signs that the internet has changed. Signs that powerful entities, both Governmental and Private, have begun staking claim on Global Forum outlets. And because of all this, I believe that the Internet, at least in its current form, is doomed. Doomed to be eroded by financial pressures, piece by piece. Because, believe it or not, an actor who gets paid to convincingly read other people’s words might not be telling the whole truth. And, in the same vein, a group of the richest people on the planet, scheming how best to affect the future of global media…they might not have your best interests at heart either. As such, I assure you: the repeal of Section 230 is attempting to take some of the last neutral ground on the planet, more susceptible to the threats of those with money. Don’t believe me? Just ask X. Furthermore, because of AI, the digital landscape is becoming increasingly harder to trust. Just this morning, I saw an AI video of a child crying, with links to a fictional charity. Today, by some estimates, more than 60% of all Web Traffic is just Bots. And that cures any stories we might hear. Meaning, digital stories are increasingly subject to corporate mechanistic oversight. And it’s safe to say that in this brave, new digital world, soon enough, any story that can be influenced by money, WILL be violently mummified or tokenized at the slightest sign of challenging a Narrative Monarch’s financial Hegemony. Even what I write! What I write on here. In the unlikely event that I piss someone off, and then that person wanted to sue my website bulletin board for platforming me, then best believe I’d be dropped like a hot potato in summer (exactly like how Colbert’s Lawyers ordered him not to platform an ideologically spicy guest). So yes. The Internet is dead. Or at least, more than halfway mummified at this point. But do not despair. For there still exist two silver linings to a Narrative Monarch’s fears. 1 is that you can rest assured there is a method to their madness and a clarity to their actions: that being…that no matter what politics they pretend to have, they will always act in pursuit of their own financial well-being. And 2, that, there still remains at least one form of media that is truly resistant to Narrative Monarchs…
12. A BOOK MUST ALWAYS BURN
There is a very good reason why Authoritarian regimes always try to burn books. It’s because, once something is printed, it becomes a time capsule. The concept of paper can’t be sued or pressured into changing the patterns of its ink. Once anything is printed, it becomes immune to both the monetary and more traditional threats a Narrative Monarch usually relies upon. Books exist as they are. Static. Unchanging. And, flammable. With liberty and justice for all who can read them as they were made. Untouched. They can’t be overwritten by AI Slop Bots. They can’t be mummified, tokenized or revised with a single button. And, if the last couple of years have shown us anything, it’s that physical media will never lose its value. So, if you want to protect yourself, if you want to take action against Narrative Warfare in this modern age, I suggest you start reading again. And desperately start coaxing others to do the same. Executive Function and Reading Comprehension are perhaps your greatest tools in this modern world. They develop each other hand-in-hand. They are not only satisfying to use, but they are also your greatest defense against Liars, Cheats, and Threats. However, they are not abilities. You’re not born with them. They are habits. Skills. Mechanisms born from repetition. Think of Reading Comprehension and Executive Function like the actions of ‘shopping’ and ‘cooking.’ The more of both you do for yourselves, the less likely you are to be poisoned by someone else’s taste…or investment. The less that you allow others to spoonfeed you mystery meals, to let them summarize media for you…The safer in all aspects of life you will eventually become. But...I know it’s difficult. Really. There’s movies. TV shows. Doomscrolling. Streamers. Tiktok. I love it all. And faced with it all, reading anything static just seems kind of…boring. And that’s fine. Because you’re not taking a test here. You just have to do something. Read SOMETHING. Anything. What that may be? I genuinely couldn’t care less. So long as you do it. So compromise. Adapt. Build. Turn on subtitles. Read manga. Read fanfics. Read the backs of cereal boxes! It doesn’t matter. Just do it, and learn to enjoy it. Because soon after…very quickly in fact, you’ll find that your brain will begin to improve most everything about itself. Everything from your quality of life to your decision-making capacity, to a reduction in your anxiety. All are benefits of Reading. And as you get better at it, you’ll get better and better at spotting the Liars, Narrative Monarchs, and Mummifications everywhere else (even as they happen in real time). Because make no mistake. Stories ARE war. And your mind is the battleground in which ideas fight. But, at the end of the day, that land belongs to you. It’s your mind. And it’s up to you to determine your own terms of engagement. So build your attention span. However, you can. Wherever you can! If it’s uncomfortable. Good. Your brain was made to make. So don’t let others con you out of your true potential. And if things on the internet start to change…if the world starts to get darker, if the stories start to get worse…don’t be afraid to pick up a book. The more flammable the better…