In this crisis, there are only two kinds of social media posts, two kinds of op-eds in the world.
The first kind says that something is horrible. No shortage right now, for example, of op-eds and posts saying that it's horrible that top-down political pressure may have caused the cancellation of the late night political commentary of Stephen Colbert. Essentially:
"It's bad! The people who are doing this are bad! Bad!"
The second kind extracts a revealing pattern from the experience. Pattern recognition. The second kind locates techniques for making a useful real-world response. For action. This sort of thing:
The powerful have particular techniques for silencing the Fourth Estate. This is how we think they are using them right here and right now with Colbert's parent company. And here are concrete examples from history of essential work-arounds. For resistors to power, the specific principles for concrete action in urgent cases like this are . . .
True enough — most op-eds and social media posts don't take the time to include any of that good second-kind *stuff** that would earn them real honor in the world.** But some do. Here's one concrete example of Tad Stoermer posting that way.
And yes, you caught me making a third kind of social media post, the kind that divides the world into two kinds of this or that.
*_Pattern recognition, instructive historical cases, and techniques for action_.
**That's why most social media posts and op-eds are utterly forgettable. (But do not have to be.)