# The Washington Post: Democracy Dies With Us **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [October 25, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210 "2024-10-25T17:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/381 "2025-01-07T14:50:32Z")
Different highs, mostly. Also being a teenager; discrimination about how exactly to get wasted is not a high priority. I mean, we huffed chloroform for light entertainment. Effectively any drug was open season. We tried snorting nutmeg (mystrecin, precursor to MDMA), and morning glory seeds (lysergic acid amide) Spoiler: [formaldehyde is toxic](https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails.aspx?mmgid=216&toxid=39#:~:text=Formaldehyde%20can%20cause%20irritation%20of,chemical%20burns%20to%20the%20lungs.) ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/382 "2025-01-07T15:16:49Z")
It may have been upthread, or on the radio, but I heard someone point out the better way is to keep the subscription, since it loses money anyway, and avoid using Amazon, which actually does make Bezos rich. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/383 "2025-01-07T16:40:49Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > The Lost Years That works, assuming we come out the other side okay. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/384 "2025-01-07T17:45:38Z")
The people who lived during the Dark Ages took scant comfort that long after their lives had run their course the following centuries were better. We can hope this is a couple-year bout of temporary insanity before the general public realizes what they did and the bums are dethroned before they can lock themselves into the palace. OTOH … The Ayatollah took over from the Shah in 1979. The bulk of the Iranian people have wanted a regime change back to mostly-secular rule for most of the 45 years since then. It’s probably still 40 years in their future. Lots of stuff is far easier to break than to repair. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/385 "2025-01-07T17:51:01Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > It may have been upthread, or on the radio, but I heard someone point out the better way is to keep the subscription, since it loses money anyway, and avoid using Amazon, which actually does make Bezos rich. While I’ve [made that argument](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-canceled-your-amazon-prime-or-washington-post-subscription/1009307/49) and both of those statements are ostensibly true, the reality is that a million objectors could cancel their Amazon Prime subscription without making a measurable dent in the company’s bottom line (the free shipping is actually a ‘loss leader’ for Amazon which is intended to compel subscribers to buy more stuff to make the membership ‘worth it’), and cancelling _Washington Post_ subscriptions really just hurts the staff trying to put out (mostly) good journalism; The _Post_ as been a cash loser for Bezos since he purchased it in 2013 and it is really just a vanity purchase and (presumably) a tax writeoff. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/386 "2025-01-07T18:49:31Z")
@Stranger_On_A_Train and @OldOlds I understand, but I can no longer support a so-called newspaper I can’t trust to be truthful. Someone else will get my clicks. I am trying to wean myself from Amazon, but that’s hard. And Bezos probably makes more profit from the share of AWS GovCloud fees that my taxes pay than from my purchases. I just can’t keep doing what I’ve been doing and hope things will change. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/387 "2025-01-07T20:16:11Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > the better way is to keep the subscription, since it loses money anyway, and avoid using Amazon, which actually does make Bezos rich. That makes sense. I first read this as keeping the Amazon Prime subscription and not using it, which was incomprehensible (you’re giving Bezos money and not getting anything for it). Then I re-read. Believe it or not, I always got EXCELLENT grades for reading comprehension in school, LOL. I’ve actually started looking elsewhere for purchases when I can, to at least reduce Amazon usage. I recently bought a few kitchen items from WalMart - they have a similar selection, all in all, nothing I needed “2 days from now”, and one item was about half the price it was at Amazon (in fact, last time I bought that item, from Amazon, it arrived in a WalMart box!!). I’m debating whether to renew our Prime membership next month (I’m “the Mrs”). For shipping, WalMart’s plan (100/year) is cheaper but has fewer add-on benefits like videos. Their plan was half off in November - sorta sorry I didn’t jump on that then. WalMart is really the only viable competitor in terms of “everything under one virtual roof” - plus you can get a LOT of their merchandise same day pickup. I did cancel my Audible membership - which I’d been meaning to do anyway, but the endorsement gave me an incentive to remember to do so. Then they offered me 3 months for 0.99 a month plus a 20 dollar credit, and they had me again. I feel dirty. I can’t control other Amazon income streams (e.g. they use AWS for some of my work projects). We’ve kept our New York Times subscription - I started that back in 2020. They seem sane so far. Going back to the whole “won’t endorse” thing: it makes sense taking a broader view - WaPo is pretty influential and one could make an argument that they shouldn’t influence such a critical election. But that would be a lot more easy to believe if they had done so many months in advance - I could chalk that up to journalistic integrity. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/388 "2025-01-07T20:31:36Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > @Stranger_On_A_Train and @OldOlds I understand, but I can no longer support a so-called newspaper I can’t trust to be truthful. To be honest, I’m quickly approaching the point of cancelling my _Washington Post_ subscription (and cancelled the _New York Times_ after they doubled down on not apologizing for having promoted the “Iraq has yellowcake/WMDs” stories that Bush/Cheney used to draw us into that war). I’ve cancelled Amazon Prime and minimized my purchases through Amazon (for what that is worth), and…well, that’s about it. It’s really more a point of satisfying myself that I’m not directly supporting any of these creeps even though it makes fuck-all difference and they’re getting my tax dollars through contracts and federal subsidies regardless. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/389 "2025-01-07T20:52:08Z")
I just never thought that the media would capitulate so quickly. You hear all these stories of braves journalists opposing oppressive regimes. I understand that people don’t want to go to jail or be sued but I somehow didn’t think that the American media would proactively capitulate to an authoritarian government. This is how dictatorships gain power and I just had more faith in America. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/390 "2025-01-07T21:40:35Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > You hear all these stories of braves journalists opposing oppressive regimes. I understand that people don’t want to go to jail or be sued but I somehow didn’t think that the American media would proactively capitulate to an authoritarian government. Those brave journalists elsewhere, the WaPo of Woodward and Berstein and Deep Throat, or the NYT of the Pentagon Papers, are not the same thing as what’s out there today in the American press. Most of the people with that mentality have long since retired or been laid off as the legacy media outfits have become shadows of what they were. OTA or cable TV channels and print papers are generally considered to be on the ropes anyway vs. “new media” and feel they can’t afford to become targets for finishing off. And the big “new media”, for all their vaunted valuation “on paper”, are acutely conscious most of that value is up in the cloud and can evaporate in a round of bad news – and that for all their free market talk, the RWingers will not hesitate to weaponize the regulators and the taxman to make that happen. When Bezos bought WaPo it became just a matter of time for when it would be hobbled to protect the interests of Amazon/Blue Origin/Bezos personally. People just did not expect that it would be _this_ way. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/391 "2025-01-07T21:43:37Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > just never thought that the media would capitulate so quickly. You hear all these stories of braves journalists opposing oppressive regimes. I understand that people don’t want to go to jail or be sued but I somehow didn’t think that the American media would proactively capitulate to an authoritarian government. It’s not the journalists (mostly); it is the billionaire owners and corporate interests who are falling all over themselves to comply in advance because they want to be the first at the trough. It is characteristic of incipient autocratic and fascist regimes that unscrupulous people want to get in on the ground floor to share in the spoils. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/392 "2025-01-07T22:59:55Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > . I understand that people don’t want to go to jail or be sued but I somehow didn’t think that the American media would proactively capitulate to an authoritarian government. Don’t remember the Bush administration? > [@](#): > > The President makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction! Colbert nailed it in 2006. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/393 "2025-01-07T23:48:10Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > The President makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction! > **[Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner](https://www.liveabout.com/stephen-colbert-white-house-correspondents-dinner-2734728)** > > Read the full transcript of Stephen Colbert's biting 'tribute' to President Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/394 "2025-01-08T12:43:19Z")
And, with all the online and partisan outlets, politicians don’t need a hostile press to get their message out. Which means the press needs to play nice or they’ll never get another interview. I can’t tell you how many times I find myself yelling obvious follow-up questions at the radio, questions the interviewer doesn’t ask ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/395 "2025-01-12T18:50:25Z")
And now, this bullshit from the Editorial Board: [“Which of Trump’s nominees should get confirmed? We made a chart.”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2025/trump-nominees-confirmation-hearings-editorial-board/) Correct answer: none of them, but especially not professional motivational speaker Scott Turner for HUD, lobbyist and TV personality Sean Duffy for Transportation, wife of WWE owner Linda McMahon for Education, and boastful dog-killer Kristi Noem for Homeland Security. What is the point of this “thumbs up/down” list other than to normalize the extreme deviance of Trump in putting wholly unqualified people in Cabinet-level roles? By comparison, in the past [_The Post_ has presented more detailed backgrounds for Cabinet nominees](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/biden-cabinet/) without making any specific evaluations or endorsements, _which I thought we weren’t doing, **Jeff** , because we don’t want the paper to be seen as biased, right?_ Subscription gets cancelled today. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/396 "2025-01-12T23:14:24Z")
Maddow has started a _Public Servant Announcement_ series on MSNBC, saying since the Senate isn’t going to be vetting Trump’s cabinet picks she might as well do it. On YT each is a 10 or 12 minute video with 5 or 6 “things you should know” about the proposed pick. You can search for _public servant announcement maddow_ or there’s a playlist on the MSNBC channel. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/397 "2025-01-12T23:40:14Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Maddow has started a _Public Servant Announcement_ series on MSNBC, saying since the Senate isn’t going to be vetting Trump’s cabinet picks she might as well do it. On YT each is a 10 or 12 minute video with 5 or 6 “things you should know” about the proposed pick. I find Rachel Maddow generally kind of tedious because she just seems to repeat the same obvious points over and over again as if she doesn’t trust her audience to get what she is saying but this certainly sounds more worthwhile than whatever it is the _Washington Post_ is doing here; a full quarter of their list is just a nominees name, the department they will oversee, and not even a single sentence blurb. To call this half-assed is an offense to half-assers everywhere. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/398 "2025-01-13T02:04:57Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > And now, this bullshit from the Editorial Board: > [“Which of Trump’s nominees should get confirmed? We made a chart.”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2025/trump-nominees-confirmation-hearings-editorial-board/) Unable to read without creating an account. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/399 "2025-01-13T02:12:05Z")
Sorry, here is a guest link: [https://wapo.st/405btSQ](https://wapo.st/405btSQ) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/400 "2025-01-13T04:16:02Z")
Thanks for trying, but that says I have to create an account to redeem my free link. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210.md?page=21)