So almost 30 years ago, Rage Against the Machine called out the Democrats for running a centrist, corporate driven campaign that was failing to distinguish itself from the Republicans. In doing so they celebrated the tradition of getting your message out despite the government lying to you and trying to censor you. Because ultimately our politics, and our politicians, were driven by corporate greed, not popular will.
https://newsletter.mattdragon.com/archive/things-im-reading-2026-03-24/

Three decades later, what are social media, Buttondown newsletters, and group texts if not “Guerrilla Radio?” At the time, radio was the cheapest way to reach people via an extremely common device that was basically omnipresent, in the home, in the car, in the stores you shopped in, etc. Sounds a lot like a smart phone today. While various forms of electronic communication can be controlled, the government controlled the radio spectrum, a fact that guerrilla radio stations worked around by just not giving a shit about rules.
https://newsletter.mattdragon.com/archive/things-im-reading-2026-03-24/

As the Wikipedia article notes, one of the concerns with allowing RATM to perform was their most recent album title. “The Battle of Los Angeles” was a nod to both the imagined aerial attack on the city during World War II and the ongoing message of the band’s songs that our government would never fix itself. It is the people, not the politicians who must create the will to solve our problems. It was also an excuse for an overwhelming and violent police presence, justified by the risk of violence. Where have we heard that before?
https://newsletter.mattdragon.com/archive/things-im-reading-2026-03-24/

Jared Kushner represents the end state of capitalism’s death cult with fascism. He supports and lends whatever credibility a nepobaby fail son has to lend to an antisemitic US President (who happens to be his father-in-law) who wants to be king, and an Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal, who has undercut Jewish safety worldwide more than any publicly professed antisemite could dream to accomplish. He’s endangering himself and his family in pursuit of real estate deals and personal enrichment, making him a perfectly devout worshiper at the alter of capitalism.
https://newsletter.mattdragon.com/archive/things-im-reading-2026-03-20/

So our future is not a technology utopia. It’s a dystopia. Millions out of work, not because we have found better, more meaningful work for them to contribute to society instead. But because we chased a unfounded short term gain, yet, again, despite obviously long term risk. Today, we can still avoid the slop, we can say “No, thanks” as Google, and Microsoft, and Mozilla, try to force their slop machines in front of us. But when the AI hucksters convince your boss to fire you, you no longer have an opt out. That’s the downside we must protect against. That’s the space on the left to oppose the AI future that the right and the Epstein class has decided we have no say in.
https://newsletter.mattdragon.com/archive/things-im-reading-2026-03-17/

Palestinians in the West Bank have to deal with “Jump Out Boys” just like in Black, occupied neighborhoods in the US. Solidarity with Palestine isn’t antisemitic. It’s an acknowledgment that there is a shared struggle against occupation, against apartheid. Efforts to paint empathy for Palestinians as antisemitism are about the accuser not the accused.
https://newsletter.mattdragon.com/archive/things-im-reading-2026-03-20/