Editor’s Note: It is Day 265 of the Great Con II, and this is the the C-Note, the 100th issue of The Porcupine. I sometimes find it hard to believe that it’s been almost two years of weekly writing. It has helped my discipline but harmed my latest book that begs to be finished. A lot of other things have happened during that time for all of us, and I really appreciate your taking a few minutes each Sunday to read with me. Please do me the honor of sharing the hotlink above with those who may be interested in subscribing.

We have reached a point to where the survival of democracy may not depend on established agencies or bureaucratic norms. While autocrats direct about 70% of the world’s governments, in our country, the people have always ruled, and those with the least power occasionally have to act to preserve what has taken three centuries to build.

Speaking truth to power isn't merely about being rude to authority figures. It’s more about taking some calculated risks and sacrificing personal comfort for democratic accountability. It’s why MLK, Jr. spent nights in jail, or Julia Hill climbed and lived in a redwood for two years to keep it from being cut down, or why many Americans are putting obstacles in the way of ICE officers.

Speaking truth to power emerged from Quaker pacifists in 1955, but the practice is as old as democracy itself, dating back to the ancient Greek concept of parrhesia—fearless speech in the face of power. Too much politeness leads to complicity until someone acts for an occasional shock of uncomfortable honesty.

I’ve written before about the chokehold Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy had on the nation during the period known as the Red Scare. Making use of a too-accommodating press and feeding on anxiety from Soviet successes, McCarthy singled out innocent individuals and groups for further interrogation. Yet on June 9, 1954, Army counsel Joseph Welch delivered what many consider the most devastating takedown in American political history.

During the televised hearings, McCarthy had spent months destroying careers with unfounded accusations of Communist sympathies. When McCarthy attacked a young lawyer in Welch's firm, Welch finally had enough. Watch it here:

The moment was transformative because millions of Americans watched McCarthy's bullying tactics exposed in real time. Welch challenged McCarthy’s fitness as a Senator. Within months, McCarthy was censured by the Senate, and his political career was effectively over.

Another example occurred during the years of American operations in Iraq.

In 2006, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern confronted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a public forum with a question that cut through years of carefully crafted talking points:

"Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary?"

McGovern had briefed presidents for 27 years and was a career intelligence professional. When Rumsfeld insisted he hadn't lied about knowing where Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were located, McGovern read back Rumsfeld's own words: "You said you knew where they were, near Tikrit, near Baghdad, and north, east, south, and west of there."

The exchange was remarkable not just for its directness, but also for how it demonstrated that accountability requires challenging the message that those in power want you to believe.

Sometimes the most powerful truth-telling requires no words at all.

On December 14, 2008, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, shouting, "This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq".

Watch it here:

In Iraqi culture, throwing shoes represents contempt. Al-Zaidi's act was a calculated symbol of how Bush's war had devastated Iraq. The journalist spent nine months in prison for his protest, but his message went viral as a condemnation of American policy in Iraq.

The gesture was powerful because it exposed the hypocrisy of being too diplomatic and not to express outrage in the face of reality. The action showed the gap between the mission’s portrayal at home and what was really happening in the country.

Speaking truth to power is typically the work of American journalism. For example, the Washington Post documented over 30,000 false or misleading statements during Trump's first presidency—an average of 21 per day, yet journalists have struggled with how aggressively to challenge such a problem.

The problem intensifies when considering Steve Bannon's explicit strategy to "flood the zone with shit.” This is the exact strategy being undertaken now; to deliberately overwhelm the public with so much information that telling the truth from a lie becomes almost impossible. This tactic makes pushback by normally less involved truth seekers even more crucial.

History shows that confronting power carries real costs.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov, and Alexei Navalny all suffered for exposing Soviet and Russian lies. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dietrich Bonhoeffer died for their truth-telling in America and Germany. Yet these examples also demonstrate truth-telling's long arc of justice. The Civil Rights Movement, for example, succeeded precisely because many activists and volunteers like King combined a moral message of being better Americans with the strategy of nonviolent resistance. This forced Americans not to turn away from the differences between democratic ideals and the lived racist reality.

Critics argue that confronting political leaders undermines democratic norms and reduces complex policy to theater. They point out that shouting "you're full of shit!" at presidents or administrative officials might feel satisfying but rarely changes minds or policies.

Some worry that encouraging such confrontations could normalize political violence or destroy the civility necessary for democratic compromise. However, this argument deflects from the present reality that assumes such norms are being honored by all parties. We are not only experiencing a daily diet of lies, but an active effort by the administration to root out credible journalists and diminish places of education dedicated to honest assessments and freedom of thought.

The uncomfortable reality is that democratic accountability sometimes requires average citizens to risk their reputation, career, or safety to say what everyone knows but no one will admit. Welch's confrontation of McCarthy, McGovern's challenge to Rumsfeld, and al-Zaidi's shoe-throwing weren't breaches of democratic norms. They were an absolute necessity to highlight the abuses of power.

When official channels fail to provide accountability, unofficial ones must emerge. It is these small moments that can snowball when enough citizens choose truth over comfort, accuracy over access, and democratic duty over personal safety. The question isn't whether someone will eventually tell Trump he's full of shit, but whether enough people will do so with sufficient precision and courage to make it matter.

In a democracy, someone must always be willing to talk back or throw the shoe.

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One reason that speaking truth to power is so important is that people get too far along in their hate and beliefs and never turn back until violence occurs.

It never needs to get this far.

I like this story for its showing of redemption and going against norms. There are a lot of leadership lessons in this piece, both on the part of Shirley Chisholm and on the part of George Wallace.

In America, we have more freedom than we can imagine even if we waste it on hate and mundanity. One conman has used that freedom to induce a portion of the population to believe their freedom is under threat. It’s all kovfefe and gives cover for Americans to do “citizen reporting” on other Americans, to prioritize one type of religious belief, to diminish you if you have brains, and to arrest and threaten those who disagree with current sentiments.

This slide toward autocracy is a blow to the symbol and reputation of America. If you want to know what it’s really like to live under an autocratic regime, read this story, and see how one man refused to give in.

That’s our mission.

Not to give in.

And Now….

Keep up your reading and your progress. Remember that books and T-shirts make splendid gifts (and catch the fresh shirt for this issue at links below).

Continue to practice your gratefulness, and do only those things that support you being and becoming an excellent human.