Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

The fear is creeping in...

‘We live in a climate of fear’: graphic novelist’s Elon Musk book can’t find UK or US publisher”

Go and read the entire article.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/23/we-live-in-a-climate-of-fear-graphic-novelists-elon-musk-book-cant-find-uk-or-us-publisher

The bare facts:

A biography of Elon Musk by award-winning British graphic novelist Darryl Cunningham, the author of Psychiatric Tales (about his time working in a psychiatric ward), The Age of Selfishness (about Ayn Rand and the financial crisis) and Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator (amongst others), cannot find a US or UK publisher, despite the fact that it has already been translated into French and published in France by major comics publisher Delcourt to positive reviews.

Delcourt shopped the book around at the Frankfurt book fair last month, and reported that “there was interest from various international publishers, but there was concern over possible legal consequences.”

This is, of course, not surprising at all. We've all seen Scarborough/Brzezinski's public humiliation last week; and Bezos’ proactive surrender; and how many more we don't know about? Certainly, we can expect more of the same, lots more. This is how freedom dies, not with a bang but with a whimper, being slowly and gradually smothered to death.

You don't have to fear being thrown out of a window; just losing your job, your privileges, your access, is enough. When principles surrender to practicalities, morality to comfort, this is what happens. And why should we be shocked: half of the country felt that a rise in the price of eggs justified voting for a convicted criminal and a rapist. This is simply more of the same, on a smaller scale.

Until now, when the French had a choice between voting for a fascist and anyone else, no matter their policies, the majority always chose to reject fascism, out of principle, not because they liked the other person's policies (often, they didn't), but simply because the principle was more important to them than the economics. (How long that will last, I don't know, but it has held true so far.) The US, on the other hand, surrendered and crumbled the first chance it got to vote for a fascist.

So I'm not surprised that its media figures, its publishers, are cravenly anticipating the new regime's wishes and complying already, even without being asked. It's the old frog in the saucepan of boiling water meme.

I'm old enough (70) to have been to Spain while Franco was still in power, in the late 60s. (For a taste of life there I recommend Carlos Gimenez’ graphic works, starting with Paracuellos.) Let me tell you: you never forget that smell of fear in the air. It permeates everything. And I can now start smelling it in America...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/24/2288334/-The-fear-is-creeping-in?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web