There is one specific article by Edward Snowden that has been inspiring me since its publication in August 2021. It’s […]
Author: Laura M. Slot
Laura M. Slot is an independent historian and writer with a focus on outsiders in twentieth century intellectual history, the history of ideas.
From Individual Power to Collective Shame
In 1919, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays (1891-1995) founded America’s first public relations firm, applying psychoanalytic discoveries to promote consumerism […]
It’s Human Nature?
Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world […]
Building the Non-Lie
It’s harder than it seems to build a truthful venture atop the ruins of a World of Lies. Whoever has […]
The FBI and the Why of the Blue Sky
The biggest censorship case in modern history is that of the brilliant Austrian-American psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), who worked closely […]
Myths and Constitutions
Freedom and power are oftentimes inversely related, similar to the way social norms and moral codes can be inversely related. […]
“Oh, What’ll You Do Now?”
On Action in the Face of Destruction I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’ Bob Dylan, A Hard […]
I’ve Closed My Substack
Yesterday I migrated most of my ‘Old Revolutions’ Substack content here to my own website. If you are subscribed to […]
Addiction Cure Suppressed
The strange disappearance of books and articles on baclofen “Drinking heavily, you abandon people–and they abandon you–and you abandon yourself–It’s […]
Dutch Debate is Dead
Debate Remains Dead. And They’ve Killed It. A popular song about the Covid restrictions was ‘We’ve Lost Dancing’ in 2021. […]
Assumptions are Dangerous
Especially for the Targets of PsyOps: You & Me Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things […]
Revenge of the Epistemologists
How to Acquire Knowledge? What can we know? Perhaps not an uncontroversial question nowadays, yet an important one. Right after […]
On Indifference and Identity
When Moral Relativism Becomes Nihilism Back in 2007, Argentinian native Máxima Zorreguieta, who married Dutch crown-prince Willem-Alexander in 2002, angered […]
All Talk, No Action
Journalism Since the Great Financial Crisis In early 2009 I attended a memorable panel discussion at Columbia University’s Journalism School […]
Dutch Media’s Unforced Errors
Balancing the Scales after Deceit A law of nature dictates that energy always tries to balance itself, like a scale […]
Long Live All Who Can’t Be Fooled
A poem by HK & The Saltimbanks This is my first post in a couple of weeks. I intend on […]
The Deafening Silence of Columbia Journalism School
Maybe I missed the memo. I sure hope I did. Maybe there are groups of journalists trained by my alma […]
De ‘hamsterwiel’-jaren
Waar ging het mis? Zal het straks mis gaan, is het al mis gegaan, of allebei? Voormalig econoom en oud-werknemer […]
New Words
The beauty of language is that it can’t be stripped of its human, unpredictable, flawed, emotional, dynamic, local, temporary and […]
From Ponzi to Ponzi
I met Bernie Madoff at a party in Florida. It was just a year or so before December 2008, when […]
Journalism, Truth and Time
If I don’t speak my truth, I will never be able to take myself seriously again. I would be betraying […]
Er klopt iets niet
Het was nog erg vroeg, maar zoals altijd en overal in New York was het leven op straat in volle […]