PanoptiCon Artists: Your Questions Answered

On digital surveillance, ICE city raids, the need for new parties, and more.

Thank you, subscribers, for your thoughtful questions! I answered most and tried to address the main points of the rest. I’ve also done two recent interviews on the Mark Thompson Show that answer even more questions. (Click on the underlined links.)

Finally: Please sign up to get this newsletter in your inbox! Email is the most reliable distribution method in the oligarch algorithm era, so if you’d like to hear from me, sign up — it’s free! If you’d like to offer financial support — and get the perk of submitting a question for the next Q & A — please do so here:

Mary: What are you doing about research now that the internet is so broken? Tracy: Do you have suggestions for how we the people can archive information before it disappears?

SK: The loss of working search engines and easy access to information is a tremendous crisis for researchers, especially when coupled with AI. Here are some suggestions. First, all AI content needs to be labeled as such. Second, we need far more curation, including preservation of digital-only works. Third, anyone who can make their website free should do so. I am a lone writer in Missouri, and I keep my work free, yet millionaire media groups claim they can’t. As a result, we end up with a slew of paywalled “Here’s the only way to save democracy” articles with the “answer” blocked. People pay to bypass the wall and land in a gated community of Stepford Pundits. These pseudo-resisters prey on fear for profit: they are the regriftance.

The war on information is a war on the future by way of destroying the past: especially the recent past. I worry that the history of the first quarter of the 21^st century will be annihilated. When I look back on my books, I know I could never uncover all that corruption today — partly because search engines are broken; partly because media is censored or outlets have gone under. My end notes have become dead ends.

I encourage folks to print out articles, make copies as Word docs, save them on Internet Archive — anything. Hopefully there will be a more organized preservation movement in the future. Given the enormous amount of vital digital information out there, every effort helps, even if it’s not public yet. Someday a writer may post that they’re looking for something, and you may be the person who can provide it.

Richard and Jodie: Did you see, or read about, Stephen Miller’s unthinking reveal on CNN? It’s here on Reddit:

SK: That’s some weird shit! It’s hard for me to believe Miller thinks he revealed too much when he routinely flaunts administrative impunity. Perhaps his handler at CNN thinks he said too much, or perhaps it was an actual glitch. What I’d really like to know is why the Democrats never followed through on their 2017 investigation of the alleged lies on Miller’s security clearance forms. They could have removed Miller from the first Trump administration and spared us this fate.

Shawn: What would be the most effective way to persuade Schumer and Jeffries to step down and be replaced with actual opposition leaders?

SK: Schumer and Jeffries are enablers of the Trump regime, but their foremost loyalty is to Israel. They have both stated this and it’s evident in their donors and votes. They are not unique in Congress; nor are they unique in not caring that they are unpopular. I don’t know who can convince them to step down, since the fate of the US is what is at stake, and the US is not what concerns them. It is better to expose their complicity than to try to change their minds. Exposing complicity is a civic virtue, and it also can shift political culture in a way that inspires better candidates to challenge them.

Extra Ordinary People: I understand why Trump is declaring war on [Portland] and seeking to occupy the city. I know there is no factual basis for it, and that it is illegal and unconstitutional. How do we best combat the administration’s propaganda machine and its attempts to create “unreality” in order to impose authoritarian rule notwithstanding the facts and law? Rebecca: I live in LA and I’m from Chicago. I’m angry about troops being in these cities and Portland. Do you think Trump will keep sending troops to cities or can anyone stop him?

SK: Trump is targeting rich cities first because he wants residents to move out and drain the wealth that would flow to locals who seek to combat his regime. That’s why he started with LA, DC, Chicago, NYC, and other wealthy hubs, and now has shifted to Portland.

It is great that folks from Portland are showcasing their city, including its irreverent culture, and proving that Trump’s assault is based on lies. It’s also refreshing to see Portland folks helping each other out. I’ve been to Portland; it’s very nice. My tornado-battered city, St. Louis, is dear to my heart but a rundown renegade on the national scene. I worry that when the gritty cities I love are the focus of attack — and let’s be clear, they have already been violated by ICE — they won’t get the same treatment because they’re not “nice,” even though their people are just as deserving of support.

One of the most effective methods of battling propaganda is for Americans to shun stereotypes and listen to people in each city about their experiences. In addition to trying to depopulate the US and drain the opposition of resources, Trump is trying to stoke civil war. It would be powerful if folks from Dallas stand up for Chicago, and folks from Chicago stand up for Dallas, so that narratives like “Texas invades Illinois” can’t take hold. Cities are not invading each other. The federal government is attacking Americans. The Trump regime knows friendly alliances between far-flung regions are effective: that’s why his lackeys invented “antifa” to criminalize a growing and wide-ranging opposition.

Charlie: I’m wondering if you can share some of your recent writing insights. Since I first found you — with Flyover Country —I have been impressed with your mastery of craft. You have a singular voice: unpretentious, direct, blunt. But I think I have noticed a growing confidence and mastery of storytelling. That makes sense, right? When we focus and work hard and expose ourselves to different artistic influences, it’s gonna seep in. I wonder if you can talk about your own journey as a writer over the last several years — techniques and maneuvers and influences you have incorporated into your work.

SK: Thank you! I feel like I’m doing some of the best work of my life in this newsletter. The question is what to do with it. I don’t trust that Substack will continue in its current form, and I want my writing preserved. I’d like to compile my essays into a book like I did with The View from Flyover Country. I had total freedom when I wrote the Flyover essays, and I have total freedom now. I attribute the improved quality of my work to the ability to take risks in style and subject matter. Two of my most popular (and best) essays, The Miners and Searching for Bobbie Gentry, were drawn from material I was forced to cut from The Last American Road Trip. I’m glad I could publish them here and I’m grateful they were well-received. That Bobbie Gentry essay…well, it wasn’t just about Bobbie Gentry.

Frances: So many of this regime’s policies are terrible for the economy. Do you foresee CEOs and other business leaders pushing back on them? Jeanine: How effective would economic boycotts be? Do you think Americans have the appetite and discipline to pull it off? I see national strikes in Europe. Do they work?

SK: How does one boycott and strike in a country where the government wants the economy to collapse? That is the question folks need to answer. Trump has been explicit about his desire to collapse the economy for over a decade. He is surrounded by technofascist versions of his corporate raider colleagues from the 1980s.

People need to think hard about what constitutes leverage and not pretend the US is Europe or that this is the 1960s. There is potential in both boycotts and strikes, but folks need to be very strategic and ensure support systems for striking workers, because the government will treat them as disposable. They may well see strikes or boycotts as doing their dirty work for them — much like the government shutdown does. They also see many CEOs as disposable: oligarchs operate at a level of wealth far beyond typical corporate heads and prefer robots to people. We can regain power by building things ourselves: mutual aid or community organizations or independent media or whatever you imagine.

Daniel D: Your favorite pie?

SK: Here’s a humiliating tale for you! When I was growing up, my grandma hosted Christmas. We ate traditional Polish foods: kielbasa, kapusta soup, a lamb-shaped carved butter. And of course, the famous Polish delicacy of…banana cream pie.

Because we ate Polish foods only on Christmas, and also ate banana cream pie only on Christmas, I thought banana cream pie was Polish until I was twelve and a friend informed me, through fits of laughter, that bananas do not in fact grow on the frigid plains of Poland. Nonetheless, my grandma’s banana cream pie was awesome — a fine product of an American public school home economics textbook! We use that recipe to this day, and somewhere in heaven my grandma is laughing at me.

Beth: What can we do collectively to resist the global rollout of digital ID? As the middle class continues to be destroyed by inflation, my fear is governments will make UBI or similar payments contingent on opting in to digital ID.

SK: Excellent question. I am worried about the same thing and believe a digital social credit system — which will curtail our freedom of speech and movement as well as our economic rights — is an end goal of Thiel and others. I would watch the situation in the UK closely, including efforts to resist it. Try to free yourself from technological dependence in advance. Use browsers instead of apps. Refuse to use AI. Stop tracking yourself with metrics that can be weaponized by corporations. Go back to pen and paper when possible. Smartphones are the biggest threat, in my view. I’m still a fan of the internet, but smartphones have made the world worse.

MakeTheWorldSafeForDiversity: It is accepted that Roy Cohn was Trump’s mentor and Cohn was very involved with the [mafia] families. How involved were Roy Cohn and Meyer Lansky in murdering JFK?

SK: I just did a long interview with another researcher that studied this question in depth, Aaron Good. I’ll post it when it’s up, which should be soon.

Derek (and others): What does “running away” solve? Isn’t it important to fight for what we believe in locally, and take the stance “why the fuck should WE move? BRING IT ON, FASCISTS!” I LOVE our country and want to fight for it, with ALL of its faults and flaws. [My wife] unfortunately does not—anymore. General advice? Sologrammer: With all of that you know and have studied, if you were inclined to leave the US (and I know you aren’t) what places would you consider and why?

SK: I’ve gotten “Should I leave the US?” in every Q & A. My answer is always that this is a personal choice. I would never judge, for example, a parent of a trans child for leaving this country in order to protect their kid from repressive laws. But personally, I’m standing my ground. I’ve quoted St. Louis abolitionist journalist Elijah Lovejoy before: “If the laws of my country fail to protect me, I appeal to God, and with him I cheerfully rest my cause. I can die at my post, but I cannot desert it.”

Of course, Lovejoy got murdered across the river after that. But he went down with a clear conscience. I have to live that way too — but that’s particular to my job and nature. If people think they will be happier elsewhere, that’s their business, not mine. But I’m not sure people will be safer elsewhere when the end goal is a digital panopticon run by kleptocrats. What will be done to the US will be done (and is being done) to other countries — including ones still labeled democracies.

Arc of a Diver: Is demonstrating having any tangible effect other than boosting morale? Sometimes I think the powers are laughing at us. Sometimes I think that even if they are laughing, it’s still important to show up.

SK: The consciences of elite officials will not be changed, for they have none. However, the protests serve other purposes, like showing widespread determination to protect the vulnerable, forging community bonds, and providing news updates in places where local media is decimated. Many protesters are taking brave risks, and the stories of victims are being told. Elites may not care, but members of the military or other institutions told to oppress fellow Americans may be influenced by what they see — which is why the Trump regime is frantically using fake images of destruction and inventing opposition groups from scratch.

Bernard: I’ve wondered if the only thing that might save us from becoming a true auto/theo(cracy) is that Trump and the people he surrounds himself with are too incompetent to pull it off. Do you feel there’s any credence to that idea?

SK: When it comes to competence, you have to ask — competent at what? Trump is no geopolitical mastermind. But he doesn’t need to be. He is very skilled at propaganda and crime, and he knows which lawyers to use for corrupt bureaucratic initiatives. Their goal of a mafia state is not to serve the public. It’s to serve themselves, and for some, to create a new world order of mass surveillance and brute force. If you evaluate competency on their terms, you’ll get better at locating their weak points, which are not the same as in people who have shame.

Jimmy Roe: How much of what’s going on do you see as a battle between elites? Why does it seem like everyone is choosing the apocalypse? Norm: I see Thiel and Musk along with other Tech bro supporters of “Longtermism” as a real danger. Besides accepting present and near-term human suffering (us not them) for the purpose of achieving their personal long-term vision for humanity, I see eugenics written all over it. Have you looked into this?

SK: They’re chasing the apocalypse — or using a biblical apocalypse as an excuse to create a manmade one — because of the ravages of climate change and because they’re high on their inhumane technology and trillions of dollars. I shortened your questions for space, but yes, they are cultists, and they worship themselves. They want to create “transhuman” versions of themselves that live eternally. They view humanity on a hierarchical scale: they are indeed eugenicists.

As for battles between elites: about a decade ago, formerly feuding factions decided to overlook their differences in order to ruin the world. (Right-wing groups with a history of antisemitism teaming up with the government of Israel are a prominent example.) There are still internal battles for power, as well as mafia turf wars, but oligarch class loyalty trumps all.

Mark S: It appears we will lose the majority of our independent media. Yet most Americans still desperately want the fact-based solid reporting. Are there any good prospective news networks or new business models that you know of coming up to replace the old broadcast systems we once relied on?

SK: That is a great question. I would love magazines to come back. I would also pay for a well-curated online newsletter that lists the best articles from different sources and provides access to all of them without a paywall. Independent media, for now, is doing pretty well — it’s just too scattered to keep people actually informed.

Marina: US tax dollars fund genocide in Gaza and this filthy regime is trying to use the same techniques here. As Asimov said ‘violence is the last refuge of the incompetent’ and they are hoping to provoke and escalate the situation. Do you imagine a peaceful resolution at this point?

SK: Marina, you may be psychic, because right after you posted your question the alleged ceasefire was announced. I say “alleged” because I do not trust it to last. For the sake of the Palestinians, I hope it does, but it reminds me of the “humanitarian pauses” that were so easily broken.

Sherri: I fear that our borders will close at some point and that it will be hard either to leave or to get back into the country. Is there any foreign place you would want to visit/ take your kids to see if you knew that leaving was going to become difficult?

SK: There are SO many countries that I’d love to show my kids. They’ve never left the US. I want to show them the world like I showed them America. But being who I am, it is maybe safer to travel for them without me. This question breaks my heart.

A Declining Democracy: What, if anything, do you know of the “disappeared” from Alligator Alcatraz? If Trump can defy court orders with impunity, what hope do we have of the courts being our last line of defense against his authoritarian ambitions?

SK: The courts provide tenuous protection at best. They were packed by Trump and not purged of unqualified sadists by Biden. I do not know of the fate of the disappeared and included the question because maybe someone else can answer it.

John K: Is there a mainstream or Bluesky or Substack or other big media type who is not full of shit who you wish would speak to you? Or let you speak to them? Or are you DONE?!

SK: I’m done talking to big media unless you got a Ouija board handy.

Natalie: Do you have any tips for a [single] mum who is completing a PhD with a young child?

SK: It’s hard to get a PhD and have a child with a partner, so I admire you for doing it without one. First, the best dissertation is a finished dissertation. Do not worry about perfection; just get it done and focus on articles. Work when the baby sleeps — you likely already know that! Do not let people tell you that you don’t belong. I had to tell my advisor, “You’re the chair of my dissertation committee, not my uterus.” So long as you do the work, the rest is not their business!

Patty G: Do you have any thoughts regarding Charlie Kirk’s killing? Do you think there is more going on than the official story of one gunman? Tim: Do you believe the Trump assassination attempt was staged?

SK: I don’t know what happened in either case, but I think it’s reasonable to not accept the official narrative when dealing with: 1) a reality TV career criminal 2) his network of mercenaries well-trained in professional assassinations.

John W. S. In the last Q&A, you mentioned the need for new parties. Can you elaborate? John C: Do we need more parties or no parties?

SK: Both parties are permanently tainted as brands. This may sound cynical, but remember I am from the bellwether state of Missouri, where political trends hit first. It is impossible for a Democrat to win here even though progressive ballot initiatives win all the time. A candidate could run on a progressive platform and win without that “D” next to their name. The “D” stands for “Dragging the Candidate Down.”

Slimy national Democratics are a burden on states like mine. As I said before, the best scenario is two new parties so that the GOP doesn’t gain Democratic votes. I’ll add that here in the bellwether-of-decline state, most folks distrust everyone: including the GOP. The MAGA brand is loathed in equal measure by different people. Folks need to stop assuming that the creation of new political parties is some evil plot and admit the two-party system prevents us from becoming a nation where citizens have a chance to make things right.

Mike in weho: This weekend I fell into an SK rabbit-hole. I was looking for one of your articles to forward to a friend, (the Eerie, Indiana essay. Found it!), and I must have read through at least a dozen from the last six years. Your accuracy was uncanny. Certain events you discussed that, then, even I, had dismissed as a bit hyperbolic at the time, evolved just as you speculated they would. To quote The Confluence: “I’ve been right so long, I’ve been done wrong.”

My question: Is there something you can think of, perhaps some event or non-event since that essay was written, that you’ve been wrong about? Or maybe, something you expected would happen that hasn’t happened yet, and maybe now it won’t?

SK: A US war with Iran. This is because, for my entire life, operatives in every administration have attempted to start an Iran War. (I’m still waiting to find out why lifelong Iran War hawk Elliott Abrams was in cahoots with the Biden admin.) Trump’s deep connection to Netanyahu is concerning. I worry that Israel attacking many of its neighbors in recent years while carrying out assassinations of Iranian leaders is a prelude to an Iran War. It might be. But it has not happened yet, and it might not be a top priority now. It would be terrific if I’m wrong because I do not want this war!

Glenn: Thanks so much for everything you write. Your flying carp episode is especially remarkable. I’ve been thinking of Pam Bondi’s performance in front of congress, especially that it was a planned misdirection complete with cliffs notes of insults, conceived from the get-go to give no information. It’s almost as though Blumenthal and Schiff were just props. What do you think about how that went?

SK: Thanks! I never watch these performances. They’re American remakes of the dictator schlock I watched while getting my PhD. I’d rather get hit with a flying carp again than sit through that.

Karen: Does hyper-normalization concept fit into what’s happening in the US? What is the most obvious example? What’s the most subtle or subversive example?

SK: The most obvious example of hyper-normalization is that sedition is no longer treated as a crime. The clearest sign of state failure is not that Trump won the presidency a second time, but that he was allowed to run in the first place. There was no meaningful prosecution for severe crimes committed in plain sight. Instead of stopping criminal elites with well-funded agendas, the Biden admin targeted regular people who showed up on 1/6. The Biden admin’s countenancing of sedition made Trump’s reinstallation predictable, which I why I could write about it in detail in 2023.

The US is the only country in history to allow a seditionist to run unpunished. Even Hitler went to prison in between his putsch and presidency. But “scholars” of American politics have refused to ask why this unique disaster happened here. Their silence on that topic, in itself, is worthy of study. “Scholars” have become influencers, and they shape a culture of surrender.

Megan C: What do you think of Eric Swalwell proclaiming the end is near [because of Epstein]? Is this more hopium than reality or have the GOP reps finally had enough?

SK: I have a litmus test for whether an official is serious about Epstein and that is whether they are willing to discuss Robert Maxwell. Swalwell is not. Every administration has had the opportunity to release the full information about Epstein and Maxwell. They did not. Now they are using child rape victims as political pawns, each party blaming the other for an atrocity in which they are both complicit.

John K: Did PBS ask for permission to use “stripped for parts” as the title of their documentary about hedge fund managers, destroying American newspapers?

SK: No, but they didn’t need to. That’s a common way to describe what corporate raiders do. In 2016, I popularized using the phrase to describe the Trump administration, but it’s not a term of my invention.

Rebecca W: You travel, you’re out in nature, you kayak, you take amazing pictures, you do crafts and needlepoint. What do you find most relaxing for you? The most rewarding?

SK: Travel is the most interesting and exciting. Kayaking is the most relaxing. It makes me happy at a level I can’t explain, especially when I’m on a river. I love looking at wildlife. Crafts calm me when I’m sad, which I often am. I do embroidery while listening to music and zone out. I’m glad cheap string delivers such profound relief.

Pat B: Trump keeps babbling about activating the military against America. Veterans say it’s highly unlikely that the military would willingly go along with it. I suspect they have some institutional bias there. What’s your take? Is this a serious threat or something he trots out to make everyone afraid?

SK: I am more worried about ICE, which has been trained to be lethal and lawless for decades (see Jen Budd’s work on this) than I am about the military. But I also know that the Trump admin’s dream is Kent State on an exponential level. They will try to get the military to attack fellow citizens. I do not know if soldiers will do it. Many joined the military purely for money: they can’t find another job, they want to pay for college, and so on. Shooting random Americans is not what they signed up for. But they may be hesitant to disobey orders and face repercussions. If folks have to stay in the military, I suggest resisting through feigned incompetence and Bartleby-style refusal. An underrated strategy of surviving an authoritarian takeover is to seem like an absolute moron who can’t figure out orders well enough to follow them.

Jennifer: I started listening to you back when you published this article: https://thecorrespondent.com/5696/were-heading-into-dark-times-this-is-how-to-be-your-own-light-in-the-age-of-trump/1611114266432-e23ea1a6. I’ve learned so much from you. I don’t understand how the people can harness their majority to now overthrow the oligarchy backed government. We know that this is an international crime syndicate. How do we throw these motherfuckers off now?! How do I convince people to give a shit about my kid’s future when they barely give a shit about their actual lives now?

SK: This crisis is not our fault: it’s our burden. We can’t do a citizen’s arrest of a mafia state. We cannot vote out the mafia, though we can try not to vote them in. There were many off-ramps and opportunities for officials to curtail this disaster. The best opportunities were between 2015 and 2018. Officials threw those away and ordinary people pay the price.

I do think people give a shit about your kid’s future. I care! People are often afraid to express concern because they don’t know the answers and fear rejection. But we are more likely to find solutions if we are creative, and creativity requires vulnerability and honesty. The first step is admitting the scope of the crisis, and proceeding from there, finding points of leverage against oligarch assault. At the same time, build your own refuge. Refuge can become subterfuge when you’re up against the soulless.

There is no guidebook for the situation we’re in — not with digital surveillance. That component makes it new. We have to write the guidebook ourselves, and it may be a sloppy, messy thing, but it has to be ours. Don’t count on institutions, and for the love of God, do not ask AI. Trump and his cohort succeeded through malicious ingenuity and a deep understanding of power. We need creative and compassionate ingenuity, but with that same grasp of power — and I mean grasp. Nobody gives you real power. Real power is something you take. And to prove my willingness to take things, I stole that line from Jock Ewing on Dallas. But it’s true!

OK, that’s it! Thanks again, everyone. I apologize if I sound exhausted in this Q & A — it’s because I am! If you’d like to submit a question for next time — or to simply keep this newsletter going — become a paying subscriber:

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