We are not born cruel, greedy and intolerant, it's a learned behaviour

In a world in which there should be no barrier to opportunity, we have normalised misogyny, racism, homophobia, cruelty and division. That's what propaganda does.

I’m going to start each piece moving forward with the statement below:

Americans CAN stop this anytime without being arrested or punished in any way for their actions. STOP SPENDING on all but essential items and shift as much of that essential spending to local businesses. No need to stop eating out, just eat in locally run family eateries (NOT corporate chains). It’s about strategic spending decisions. It’s all about common sense, but if you need more detail, click here for my broader thinking.

There is no case to be made for saying ‘there’s nothing we can do’ It really is very simple, and I would urge you to encourage everyone you know to become part of a sustained act of strategic economic disengagement, because I guarantee just by this most simple of actions, you can unlock the gate on the road back to real American values. A sustained 3-4% drop in consumer spending will occur if Americans have the collective and sustained patriotic determination to say ‘enough is enough’.

The truth is, nobody is coming to save America; it’s up to you. It’s not performative; it’s not sexy or high-profile; it represents the most silent but economically deadly of revolutions. Remember, this is NOT about not buying stuff, it’s about changing your spending habits, focusing on putting money into your community and deferring high ticket purchases, simply until the end of the revolution ( a month or two at most).

I’d be happy to arrange merch if that would help with slogans like ‘I’ve stopped feeding the oligarchs’ or ‘Spend local community matters more than special interests’ (could do better, Martin, but you get the idea). There’s lots that can be done, it’s just about a collective commitment to make it happen over a sustained period.

My journey here began as an opportunity to document my thoughts as a historical record of what I believe will be regarded as one of the most consequential moments in modern history. I wanted to document how I felt in each moment as history was being made. I did this not out of a sense of self-importance, but rather to give voice to the thoughts of an average Joe living through a time when the longstanding world order was shifting on a tide of Darwinistic intent.

Much is said about the many changes underway and about what we can do to help the world overcome the clear and present danger: the threat of far-right populism sweeping across Western democracies. While not new, it’s occurring at a moment when there has never been a more permissive environment for political propaganda. The tech revolution and social media have now enabled lies to travel around the world before the truth pulls on its pants, and this is at the heart of the huge challenge we face today.

What started as a journaling exercise became something else entirely when people began reading my thoughts and encouraging me to write more. This encouragement led me to believe I might have something more to contribute to the important geopolitical conversation. The Truth Matters Substack now has 100,000 subscribers and reaches over 1.5 million people every month. Combined with a 12 million reach last month on X, this has now become more than just writing a diary. The generosity and support of this community have helped pave the way for me to now hopefully make a larger contribution to the fight.

We have seen the changes a shifting media landscape has brought to information dissemination, and I’ve observed it with interest, though not without some disappointment. The reason cable and network news have been so influential since the advent of television is that news has shaped the thoughts and political decisions of generations. Our tribal instincts have always driven where we choose to get our news from, so it’s no surprise that this led to the birth of Fox News and other right-wing propaganda outlets.

Before television, newspapers shaped public perception. Foremost in my mind is a famous news headline in 1992, which appeared in a UK tabloid paper called ‘The Sun’, a Rupert Murdoch-owned publication, acquired in 1968. On 11th of April 1992, the paper led with the headline, "It's The Sun Wot Won It"claiming credit for the Conservative party's surprise UK General Election victory under John Major. Following a brutal anti-Labour propaganda campaign from the News Corp owned rag. It marked Rupert Murdoch's dominance as a global kingmaker, a model that later led to the launch of Fox News and the subsequent right-wing dominance of cable news.

It’s not a matter of opinion whether media ownership shapes politics; it’s a matter of fact. Fox News, founded in 1996 by Murdoch, was led by the infamous Roger Ailes. His brand of predatory right-wing propaganda has become the gold standard for far-right news ever since. Political narratives over the years have formed a drug culture among voters. In the case of Fox News, they became the Cartel drug Lord for far-right propaganda, and the street dealers to the masses became figures like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingram, two of whom still peddle Trump narcotics to this day.

The advent of social media changed everything. New drug labs were created because there was a recognition that drug addicts are always in search of a bigger and better hit, and if it’s for free on the internet, why not get some of that stronger stuff? It was, and remains, an unregulated Wild West operation in the US. The demand for racist, homophobic and misogynistic views had always existed in America. It was just hidden away and reserved for those who gathered occasionally to burn crosses and play at being soldiers in the woods.

That all changed when Trump ran for president in 2016. Straight out of the gate, he was into the birther conspiracy, but much more than that, he gave those people who had been cast out into the wilderness for their abhorrent views an invitation to come out to play. He made it clear that racism, homophobia and misogyny had a role to play in ‘Making America Great’. This marked the beginning of the end for American democracy as we know it. I know many will argue that it started much earlier than this, but in terms of social media influence on politics, Trump’s 2016 campaign was the pilot episode.

During his campaign, we witnessed the first real weaponisation of social media. Democrats didn’t know what had hit them; the rules of engagement were that there were no rules. We saw the real-time normalisation of the political lie and the birth of ‘alternative facts’. This was a whole new battlespace, and to this very day, Democrats have, in my opinion, still failed to come to terms with it. The Heritage Foundation had no such problem. In alliance with numerous right-wing think tanks, they made a strategic decision to change history by using technology to transform and reimagine American politics.

Trump’s loss of the 2020 election was viewed by the Heritage Foundation as just a bump in the road. They saw it as an opportunity to create a framework for a white Christian Nationalist theocratic kleptocratic state. In the words of HG Wells, ‘Slowly but surely, they drew their plans against us”. Project 2025 was born and initially dismissed as a threat by Democrats, until it became one. And here we are.

Moving back to the reason for me being here, I have evolved from being a guy writing an online diary to someone who has, in the short space of a year, built a community that, while not always agreeing with me, at least respects my commitment to writing what I believe to be the unvarnished truth without fear or favour. The same applies to my short-form content on X, where the audience is very different, but where I have an even larger reach. For those who think I only ever preach to the choir, that’s absolutely not the case, and I have the scars to prove it.

Independent news is increasingly important in a fractured society; it’s not unlike the BBC World Service and the Voice of America in WW2 in some respects, although being much more fragmented. We can argue about the propaganda value of state-broadcast news and the role it played in ‘soft power’ (something Trump doesn’t understand), but the principle was to promote democratic values. I see the role of current independent commentary and reporting as of even greater value in a moment where a tyrannical regime has taken the media and social media hostage.

What I find deeply disingenuous, however, is that some independent ‘self-identified’ journalists persistently denigrate the value of highly qualified, seasoned journalists with a catch-all claim that legacy or corporate media is failing the people, or has become irrelevant, while at the same time cutting and pasting the work of said journalists without attribution, claiming it as their own. That is not journalism, it’s plagiarism. It’s the primary reason I describe myself as a commentator and opinion writer, choosing not to perpetrate the moral crime of stolen literary valour.

If corporate/legacy media were to disappear tomorrow, few independent influencers would be able to function, as the food chain would collapse. Then what? Honesty matters, and that’s why you will NEVER find anything I publish lacking detailed source attribution, not only of the publication but also of the journalist who created the original work. As stated, I see my role as a commentator and opinion writer, curating the best sources of journalistic talent to punctuate my writing. I will forever pay tribute to the phenomenal journalistic talent that exists within the corporate media space. I, for one, could not write what I write without their talent.

It deeply angers me to see them described as failing in their responsibilities to the American people, because they are forced to work within the constraints of the organisations they work for, to put food on the table and pay the mortgage. To cover news truly independently would be prohibitively expensive, as it requires substantial infrastructure and institutional knowledge unavailable to one-man bands.

I’m able to write and provide fact-based analysis because of the exceptional work of others, and they deserve full credit. If I can’t establish a set of credentials without denigrating those who enable my work, then I don’t deserve to have an audience. I know I’ve wittered on about it, but it’s important to me. I pay an eye-watering amount of money each month on subscriptions (38 at last count) to benefit from the work of highly professional people, and I feel it’s my obligation to do so if I am to be taken seriously.

It’s a combination of all these things which has led me to want to do more as outlined in my piece below:

As I think I said in the piece, I’m very nervous but excited about the months ahead. I’ve taken the leap, and the rest is up to me as to whether I can play a bigger part in this fight. Support is critical, and while financial support undoubtedly plays a role, my audience's willingness to engage with and amplify my work is central to this mission. This is about using my voice to expand reach through both writing and visual content.

Fighting tyranny is a team sport, and to win, we need a strategy. Goodwill and enthusiasm against this regime just won’t cut it. That’s why resiliency and redundancy will, I believe, play a major role in this fight. The public needs reliable resources beyond the reach of social media, Barrons and algorithms, and that’s the purpose of extending the reach of the Truth Matters project.

Tomorrow, we’ll return to the familiar political commentary. I just wanted to outline my direction of travel for those interested in the wider objectives of me stepping things up.