Back in 2015 I watched Citizenfour, then in 2019 I read Permanent Record from Edward Snowden. If you read my reviews you know how I feel about the man and what he did 💯
Today I’m reading his newly launched newsletter. Snowden has been active on Twitter for a long time but you know how Twitter is. With his words:
…this is the reality of the fully commercialized mainstream internet: our exposure to an indigestible mass of shortest-form opinions that are purposefully selected by algorithms to agitate us on platforms that are designed to record and memorialize our most agitated, reflexive responses.
Edward Snowden
It’s fantastic that he’s starting to write a blog (or newsletter. Same thing). You know I love blogging, longer format posts away from social media, and RSS feeds unaltered by any algorithms.
For this reason, I’d like to do my part in encouraging a return to longer forms of thinking and writing, which provide more room for nuance and more opportunity for establishing consensus or, at the very least, respecting a diversity of perspective and, you know, science.
I want to revive the original spirit of the older, pre-commercial internet, with its bulletin boards, newsgroups, and blogs — if not in form, then in function.
Edward Snowden
Amen, brother. Yes! Bring blogs back 🔥 Bring the long-form back. Stop this ephemeral race for attention on social media. I’ve never abandoned following blogs and RSS, the blogs have abandoned my going silent 😔
The only downside Mr Snowden is that you’re relying on someone else’s platform to share your voice. You should know how dangerous this is to censorship. I would’ve liked to see hosting the blog yourself. I get you wanted to take the easy way with paid subscriptions. I wonder if Ghost could’ve served you the same, under your control.
Go have a look at his first post (where the quotes above have been taken from):
https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/lifting-the-mask
Ricard