re: #76 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

That was the plan: let chaos rule for a few years and the people welcomed a strong hand to put things back in order.

I heard enough people say in the early 90’s “So they gave us freedom of speech, but what good did that do us?”.

My response was that nobody gave them freedom of speech, that is a natural right we are all born with, they just stopped punishing people for exercising it.

I listened to an interesting podcast yesterday with an expert in Russian and Chinese journalism who said that after the fall of the USSR journalists were fearless and some average people thought too powerful and irresponsible. Now one of the only remaining independent newspapers has photos of all the murdered reporters on their lobby wall so that interns will know viscerally what they’re getting into. (Whereas in China you get warned, then you lose your job and your family is blacklisted, and then if you persist you disappear into the prison system.)