One reason various institutions are crumbling and the people in charge of them so unpopular is that the material reality they defend is so different from their own professed values. They claim to value the “rule of law” but only enforce some laws against some people some of the time. They claim to value “public safety” but pursue policies that make most people less safe. They claim to value liberty but jails hundreds of thousands of society’s poorest people solely because they lack access to cash. They claim to value equality but ensures a small number of people control nearly every major decision. They claim to value evidence but pursues policies that defy evidence. They claim to value health but let us all be regularly poisoned and then destroy the opportunity for most people to get quality health care. They claim to value merit but ensure that fealty to power is what gets rewarded in elite institutions. As a result, establishment politicians, university presidents, and pundits are constantly speaking gibberish instead of being real with people.
— Alec Karakatsanis, the Copaganda Newsletter, July 13,2025