Dispatches Mailbag: Corporate Monopolies, Betting on the News, Tucker and the CIA, Conspiracies, and What was 2025?
I answer your questions and dive into some of the more consequential stories we haven't had a chance to discuss
The focus of Dispatches From A Collapsing State has changed over the years. When I first started this project four years ago, I wanted a place where I could provide reactions to breaking news and, hopefully, give some much needed context that was missing in mainstream publications. My interactions with major publishers and news sites had been…let’s say, inconsistent. But then, the more that I saw things turning in the body politic and culture at large, I felt a need to dive deeper into trends and happenings as a way of helping to educate and organize people who saw the larger, worsening picture.
In that time, I’ve been working hard to take stories most thing they understand (say, the Hegseth war crime scandal) and provide some historical context to show where the rot is and where future reform is necessary. Series such as The Stakes, took a long look at the 2024 Presidential Election and detailed what a Second Trump Administration would look like when allied with the oligarchical tech class. The ongoing A Crisis of Meaning and Purpose series is drawing the connection between our mental health crisis and the authoritarian crisis, something that hardly anyone in mainstream media seems interested in doing.
These are focused and researched articles and series that take a lot of time and energy. While I prepare them, a ton of things happen that, I think, are important and could provide additional clarity. That’s where Dispatches Mailbag comes in. I get your questions about topics that have also piqued my interest and I can take a little bit of time to look at these things and even begin the genesis of some new analysis or share where my brain has been going when it hasn’t been focused on these larger products.
I thank you for the questions, as always, but also for the support. As the planned demolition of the economy continues, resources dwindle. I depend on my paid subscribers to keep this project going. If this work has meant something to you, if it has resonated with you, and you have the capability, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Today we get into a whole host of topics, including Netflix’s purchase of Warner Brothers, CNN signing a deal that will encourage viewers to bet on the news, Far Right rumors that Tucker Carlson is a CIA agent, whether the 2024 Election was stolen and the Trump assassination faked, and a little bit of perspective on what 2025 has meant.
Adam: The news that Netflix is buying Warner Brothers really hit me in the gut. One of my few joys in life is film and I have watched for years as the industry has been hollowed out and destroyed. Is there any chance we’ll see some kind of trust-busting in the future that fixes this?
In the midst of all the indignities of the fascist regime, stories like this often go under the radar. We all know that monopolies are bad. We know that every time something like this happens that we’re not going to just get screwed financially, but also culturally. And yet, corporate consolidation just continues to pick up speed. It is the essence of what the problem is, why we’re in this position in the first place, and, yet, hardly anyone talks about it.
The Netflix purchase is strong symbolically. It is yet another instance of the tech world devouring something that has worth to people and the experience of watching some of the things that mattered to you in your past life being consumed and likely destroyed is maddening. Add to that the fact that watching movies and television shows now is an experience that vibrates and throbs like an infected tooth: you can feel where things are getting worse. Artistry is being strangled. The experience of being human is suffering. Hours upon hours of mindless propaganda are being thrust upon us and even if you’re not fully aware of what’s taking place, you can feel and intuit it.
