Survive the Tyrant!

lol

@mattgertz.bsky.social I worked pretty hard on this and thought you might be interested. I did it because I couldn't find it all laid out in one place anywhere else.

Maybe this isn't the right way to present it but, like, the people need to know, ya know?

(Also, writing this feels like 88 lines about 44 billionaires)

...OK, /intermission, back to it... 33/43

I put a little effort into cataloguing the "vapid media" and naming names of who exactly they are.

bsky.app/profile/surv...

I’m stepping away again, with one more thank you to the people who were kind to us as we tried to get our guide in people’s hands. Especially @mostlybree.kitrocha.com @courtneymilan.com and @theradr.bsky.social

Please stay safe and do what you can

find your place on deck another world is possible-- but we must start living into it today

If you’re not sure what you can do, these are tremendous resources. Find your role, form your adventuring party, and go do whatever good you can.

www.lifeisasacredtext.com/deck/
www.lifeisasacredtext.com/goodtrouble/

It doesn’t really matter though. It had the effect it had. Every organizer we respect says the same thing: try and do stuff with other people. You don’t know what will work

The only way we are getting through this, emotionally, is by doing what we can.

bsky.app/profile/raha...

It’s hard to tell if our little zine was made for the right audience. I’m not sure the RPG community really embraced it. But we obviously don’t know how much it was passed around (we have seen people sharing the link some and printing them for little free libraries and the like).

If anything, we underestimated how much they control the media.

As much as you are able, please try to stop supporting their businesses. Find alternatives the best you can.

bsky.app/profile/surv...

A quote from our zine Survive the Tyrant! "The regime’s most loyal allies are the ultra-rich. Authoritarian regimes depend on the support of billionaire oligarchs and their businesses. Those businesses depend on all of us to be their customers. Many social media networks, newspapers, and other media organizations are owned and controlled by individual billionaires. As much as you can, avoid supporting billionaire-owned businesses. Be wary of anything you see on a billionaire’s social network or newspaper. If you can, cancel your accounts with them entirely."

One thing I think we got right was the focus on billionaires.

Still, organizing people is hard, and we definitely did not mean to make it harder.

I wish we’d said more clearly: “when someone you trust is trying to organize, please say YES and help however you can.”

As @prisonculture.bsky.social says, “people are in motion everywhere.” Join them.

The back page of Survive the Tyrant! "Stay Safe / Help People / Boycott the Billionaires / When the Time Comes, Take to the Streets / Help Rebuild When This Is Over / Survive"

Friends, it’s been a year since we published Survive the Tyrant!

I started writing these reflections in December, and at that time it felt like our tone may have been too negative, too cautious.

With ICE escalating, now it feels like our message of “first stay safe” was correct.

If you made it this far, consider taking a look at our zine.

bsky.app/profile/surv...

And please support and subscribe to:

Your local NPR and PBS stations
wikimediafoundation.org
archive.org
fallows.substack.com
www.thehandbasket.co/p/independen...

43/43

There are of course countless dedicated journalists working at all of these organizations, billionaire-owned and not. And many more at smaller, independent publications. The courage it takes to practice real, ethical journalism in America today should not be lost on anyone. 42/43

There’s a tremendous opportunity for Disney/ABC, Netflix/CNN, and USA Today to separate from the pack by providing ethically sound journalism that is not warped by the worldview of a billionaire patron.

They should market themselves as independent—and then prove it. 41/43

USA Today Co. operates many local newspapers along with USA Today. It is publicly traded and doesn’t seem to be controlled by minority shareholders. 40/43

Netflix founder Reed Hastings owns a lot of shares, but maybe not enough to control the company. It’s possible that moving Warner Bros. Discovery and CNN to Netflix and out of billionaire John Malone’s control may be an improvement. 39/43

The Guardian is operated by a blind trust for the benefit of the heirs of founder C.P. Scott, but the Scott family does not appear to control its operations. So it may actually be run as a business, and in the interest of its subscribers. 38/43

The Associated Press is cooperatively owned by its members: other news organizations. It is not controlled by one billionaire, but its members are mostly the billionaire-owned businesses listed above. So the industry rot infects the AP too. 37/43

Apple (streaming video, etc.) is also publicly traded and doesn’t seem to be controlled by minority shareholders. Tim Cook has steered them in a strongly pro-Trump direction, but they could be responsive to customers and the public. 36/43

Disney/ABC is a publicly traded company that does not appear to be controlled by minority shareholders.

Rivers of ink have been spilt describing the egos in charge at Disney, but to their credit they did ultimately respond to public pressure on Jimmy Kimmel. They may be reachable. 35/43

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board Votes to Dissolve Organization in Act of Responsible Stewardship to Protect the Future of Public Media Washington, D.C. (January 5, 2026) — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress to steward the federal government’s investment in public broa...

So what major media sources in America aren’t controlled by billionaires?

NPR and PBS may be the best among them. It’s no coincidence the Trump Administration is doing its best to destroy them. And it’s working. CPB just dissolved. 34/43

cpb.org/pressroom/co...

(Also, writing this feels like 88 lines about 44 billionaires)

...OK, /intermission, back to it... 33/43

Breaking the News | James Fallows | Substack Dispatches from a veteran reporter. Click to read Breaking the News, by James Fallows, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

How did we get here? I’m no expert, but @jfallows.bsky.social is. It’s been about 30 years since he wrote Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy. Here's a link to his current writings. 32/43

fallows.substack.com

We Can't Afford Billionaires Fighting back against a grotesque perversion of our shared humanity; doing so by building community in a nation built to accommodate community-destroying narcissists. Read to the end for an invitation

These are the billionaires who directed the media to obsess about Biden’s age (but not Trump’s) and disavow Trump’s connections to Project 2025.

These are the people to blame for where we find ourselves. 31/43

armoxon.substack.com/p/we-cant-af...

...Intermission...

Can we just take a moment to reflect here on the ego, the hubris of the people listed above. Their goal is to try to control reality by controlling how it is observed. To alter actual truth by bending our perception of it. But they themselves know they’re selling lies! 30/43

X/Twitter is the most obvious example of a billionaire with no prior media experience buying something just for the megaphone. For all its flaws, Twitter was a crucial public space. Elon Musk brought it to silence voices he doesn’t like, and effectively destroyed it. 29/43

Billionaire John Malone loves Fox News. But he owns a piece of CNN. One of the world’s most powerful news outlets has a new mandate.

Warner Bros. Discovery operates CNN, along with many other channels and HBO Max. Billionaire John Malone orchestrated CNN’s rightward shift over the last few years. Netflix is in the process of purchasing Warner Bros. Discovery. 28/43

www.vox.com/2022/8/26/23...

US News and World Report was the third of the “big three” magazines, and well known for its college rankings. It is owned by Mortimer Zuckerman. 27/43

Truth Social is the social network Donald Trump founded in 2022. 26/43