Why Free Access to Truth Matters More Than Ever
Diary: 19 March, 2025
Look, I understand why paywalls exist. Journalism is struggling, and quality reporting deserves support. If you can pay for the news, you should. But there’s a harsh reality: when the truth is locked behind a paywall, it is less accessible.
And here’s the thing. Lies, propaganda, and extremist rhetoric spread without barriers. Meanwhile, vital facts—about democracy, science, and justice—the truth, itself is often locked behind digital gates. And in times such as these, this imbalance isn’t just frustrating—it’s dangerous.
Across the world, and not only in authoritarian countries, truth struggles for oxygen. Language itself has become a battleground. In the US in particular, something chilling has been happening since January. Content and datasets, essential for research, policy-making, transparency, and accountability, are quietly vanishing from government websites. There is no censorship through outright prohibition, just a slow deliberate erasure. Certain words—clean energy, climate crisis, climate science, pollution, Native American, women—are simply disappearing from public websites and school curricula.
What makes this erasure particularly dangerous is its subtlety. In the case of climate, rather than openly rejecting climate science, institutions create an environment where speaking about it becomes difficult. This is not the dramatic spectacle of book burnings but a quieter form of control—where truth is not outlawed but made unspeakable.
Of, course, any attempts to hide climate science from the public will not stop us from feeling the dire impacts of climate change. But that’s not the point. The point is control. Creating a world where questioning power feels unnatural.
Social media accelerates this crisis. Even on professional platforms like LinkedIn, copycat algorithms show you repeatedly viral threads about tech billionaires and meme stocks while burying crucial discussions on democracy, science, and justice. Lies move frictionlessly; facts are buried in digital quicksand. As the master of modern propaganda, the nazis Joseph Goebbels once said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
We can’t afford to let this happen. If we ignore these erasures, we risk forgetting the fight itself.
That’s why my work remains free. My Substack will stay accessible for as long as I can physically, mentally, and financially keep it that way. If you want to support or share it, I’d be deeply grateful. If not, I’m still grateful that you’re here, reading this. The whole goal of this page isn’t personal recognition or monetisation— it’s about exposing the disinformation playbook, learning from history, and demanding accountability.
We often focus on the political chaos surrounding the U.S. presidency. I don’t see chaos. What I see is a well-organised plan, the realization of a radical ideology, that a small group of tech plutocrats have pushed for years.
But here’s what we should be talking about more: the growing resistance. Across industries, people are pushing back— challenging mass layoffs in the name of "efficiency," questioning the unchecked power of billionaires and forming a new political consciousness.
A few years ago, the global far right aligned itself with street-level extremist groups, like the Proud Boys. Today, its ambitions extend into international politics, forcing even some within the liberal elite to recognise the need for action. But resisting authoritarianism isn’t just about defending constitutions; it requires confronting the unchecked power of both oligarchs and authoritarian states.
If we don’t act now, we risk a future where a handful of tech corporations control the flow of information. A future where people can’t even grasp the forces shaping their lives, let alone challenge them. A future where we would be unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true. A future where we sleepwalk, without even noticing, back into superstition and darkness.