Author | Lightnews

Field Note 3.2 — All The King's Candy

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 9h

Before the Fairness Doctrine’s repeal, profit passed through a civic filter: make money, but not at the expense of the public good.

After, profit moved without hesitation.

🍬 All the King’s Candy asks what happens when appetite alone dictates markets.

noshortcutstonow.substack.com/p/field-note...

Every kingdom starts with a taste for something sweet.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 10h

My argument is not about manners, but about normative conditions.

In a democracy, the public has a right to be presented arguments and facts in good faith.

That right is greater than any that would grant an owner absolute control over what the public is allowed to hear.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 11h

Compelled speech is odious, and violates the 1st.

But providing the public access to relevant voices doesn’t compel content to conform, or force anyone to adopt an opinion.

The Surgeon General’s warning on cigarettes doesn’t make Marlboro endorse the message. It simply serves the public interest.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 11h

Had it not gone through substantial revision, it would’ve grown more irrelevant. By ’87, it was largely symbolic. It needed repair, not repeal.

Even so, symbolism matters.

Formal compliance may be possible, but the intent was never shouting matches. It was good-faith representation.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 11h

The FD was constitutional in its era, but wouldn't work now. Repealing it went the wrong way.

I wouldn’t support “truth panels.” I’d support legislation requiring public communication infrastructure to operate for the public good, ensuring good-faith access and exposure to relevant voices.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 12h

All causation presupposes correlation.
No causation is non-correlative.
Some correlation is insufficient to establish causation.

The repeal was a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 12h

True.

Tech was outgrowing the law. It was not keeping pace. But this didn't justify tossing out the principle it embodied: that public communication carries a civic duty.

It needed an update, not a burial. The version we scrapped wouldn’t work today — but we need a new iteration of it.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 12h

It was unevenly enforced, yes, but its repeal sent a clear signal: the standard itself no longer mattered.

RL was spewing hate already, like a virus in mutation. But once that barrier was gone, the conditions changed. The air got warmer. The culture became the host. He became a giant after 1987.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 12h

I like that: "Solidarity is the best disinfectant."

Don’t Squeeze the Protests: Postcard from the Kingdom of Crapulence

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed -- childish, and revealing.

Scatalogical Authoritarianism. I jotted down a few of my thoughts on it here, if you are interested. I think we describe it with a similar vocabulary.

noshortcutstonow.substack.com/p/dont-squee...

A dispatch from the No Kings marches — on freedom, filth, and the strange joy of standing up to a gilded tyrant.

🎧 Waypoint 3.2 — The Loudest Belch: Reagan's Revolution & The Birth of Outrage Media

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 1d

Reagan’s repeal of the Fairness Doctrine helped birth the outrage industry.

Should America bring it back — or would that be its own kind of overreach?

🗣️ Read more → "The Loudest Belch"

noshortcutstonow.substack.com/p/waypoint-3...

Satirical cartoon of a man with a cigar shouting through a megaphone that spews a toxic cloud over the U.S., bending trees and power lines and toppling a library — a metaphor for the destructive power of outrage media.

3

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote a piece on this topic recently, in the context of a larger project. It was interesting that I got a bit of push-back. The issue is alive and well.

noshortcutstonow.substack.com/publish/post...

From Chapter 3, The Blasted Heath — on the strange alchemy that turned outrage into truth.

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 1d

How did we get here?

From Reagan’s deregulation to Rush’s rage: the airwaves filled with fecund filth & fire.

🎧 Waypoint 3.2 — The Loudest Belch

👉 noshortcutstonow.substack.com/p/waypoint-3...

Cartoon © Singer (educational Fair Use).

Black-and-white cartoon titled “How Did We Get Here?” tracing the rise of right-wing media in America. It begins with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, labeled “Repeal of the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine and Media Deregulation,” leading to Rush Limbaugh smoking a cigar and a television labeled Fox News. The 1990s section shows the Koch brothers, the Cato Institute, and the Drudge Report. The 2000s feature Steve Bannon, Breitbart, and Alex Jones of InfoWars. At the bottom, Donald Trump appears in the 2020s, followed by a crowd of supporters holding signs that read “Stop the Steal,” “Covid is a Hoax,” “Climate Change is a Lie,” and “MAGA.” The illustration depicts how deregulation and propaganda evolved into modern disinformation and political extremism.

Don’t Squeeze the Protests: Postcard from the Kingdom of Crapulence

Reposted by K.L. Homme

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 4d

From the No Kings trail — a postcard from the Kingdom of Crapulence.

On freedom, filth, and the strange joy of standing up to a gilded tyrant.

noshortcutstonow.substack.com/p/dont-squee...

#NoKings #Protest #Democracy #Culture #WritingCommunity #Substack

1 1

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 4d

From the No Kings trail — a postcard from the Kingdom of Crapulence.

On freedom, filth, and the strange joy of standing up to a gilded tyrant.

noshortcutstonow.substack.com/p/dont-squee...

#NoKings #Protest #Democracy #Culture #WritingCommunity #Substack

1 1

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 5d

“Don’t squeeze the protests—Postcard from the Kingdom of the Crapulent King”

From the land of golden toilets and brittle thrones — a dispatch from the weekend’s uprising.

👉 noshortcutstonow.substack.com/p/dont-squee...

#NoKings #Protest #Authoritarianism #Myth #Culture #Trump #Resistance

A dispatch from the No Kings marches — on freedom, filth, and the strange joy of standing up to a gilded tyrant.

Trump posts AI video of himself flying KING TRUMP jet and bombing protesters with brown liquid

K.L. Homme @klhomme.bsky.social · 7d

The “Mad King” crowns himself in the sky, bombing protesters with filth—a reaction formation made visible. Fear becomes dominance; shame becomes scorn. The ego floats high because it can’t bear to stand on the ground.

ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-posts-...

The president’s video comes after weeks of Republican complaints about violent political rhetoric on the left

ca.news.yahoo.com