Cold War Daily

C Zappone

A private feed of ideas on politics, media, books and ideas that I have posted to share.

  1. Jun 21

    Congress for Cultural Freedom Manifesto, 1950

    The Congress for Cultural Freedom was an anti-communist cultural organization created during the Cold War. Author Arthur Koestler was critical in advocating for its creation and shaping its initial direction.

    5 min

  2. Apr 17

    Silicon Valley vs Pope Leo XIV

    Is technology making you feel helpless? According to this analysis of the writings on Peter Thiel’s philosophy and the Pope Leo XIV, there is a reason why: Silicon Valley is trying to engineer power away from existing, often democratic, institutions.  Around 6.40 in the Google LLM Notebook generated dialogue, it discusses the Silicon Valley ideology that seeks to shift power away from physical stakes, institutions and governments.  Some quotes: “The Silicon Valley business strategy inevitably morphs into a profound political vision. The sources identify a fascinating generational tension at play here. Thiel and his cohort basically belong to Generation X, okay? […]

    16 min

  3. Apr 17

    Silicon Valley versus Pope Leo

    Is technology making you feel helpless? According to this analysis of the writings on Peter Thiel’s philosophy and the Pope Leo XIV, there is a reason why: Silicon Valley is trying to engineer power away from existing, often democratic, institutions. Around 6.40 in the Google LLM Notebook generated dialogue, it discusses the Silicon Valley ideology that seeks to shift power away from physical stakes, institutions and governments.  Some quotes: “The Silicon Valley business strategy inevitably morphs into a profound political vision. The sources identify a fascinating generational tension at play here. Thiel and his cohort basically belong to Generation X, okay? […]

    16 min

  4. Apr 17

    Silicon Valley versus Pope Leo

    Is technology making you feel helpless? According to this analysis of the writings on Peter Thiel’s philosophy and the Pope Leo XIV, there is a reason why: Silicon Valley is trying to engineer power away from existing, often democratic, institutions. Around 6.40 in the Google LLM Notebook generated dialogue, it discusses the Silicon Valley ideology that seeks to shift power away from physical stakes, institutions and governments.  Some quotes: “The Silicon Valley business strategy inevitably morphs into a profound political vision. The sources identify a fascinating generational tension at play here. Thiel and his cohort basically belong to Generation X, okay? […]

    16 min

  5. Mar 14

    Information overabundance and narrative in the Trump-era

    It’s been a while…I’m trying something new…The sources discussed in this Google LLM Notebook generated audio are posts by former Russian Oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and US journalist Heidi Siegmund Cuda. They discuss the reality of journalism in a time of information overabundance. They also and the way bad-faith voices can continually hijack the political agenda of democracies. (This is a hobby podcast, and its content is independent of my workplace. CZ)

    16 min

  6. Mar 13

    The US tech world and Russia

    Given the interest in Elon Musk’s flirtation with the Kremlin view on Ukraine, the topic of the Western tech world’s openness to Kremlin narratives has emerged again. I’ve gotten a small spike of interest in a presentation I made at SXSW in 2018. So I’ll share it here again in a downloadable form. If I did the same presentation today, I’d have much to add – including about Elon Musk.

    1h 2m

  7. Mar 13

    Summit for Democracy, a contest against chaos… (from 2021)

    …and information disorder, untruths, trolling, disinformation. The virtual event is an effort to resurrect the global language of democracy after its rough start in the new century. One of the traits of this era is escalating complexity of systems. No form of government knows that better than liberal democracy — just look at the news and social media feeds in a democratic country on any given day. So it’s crucial in this time that there is a way to conceive of democracy simply, and as a whole.

    10 min

  8. Mar 13

    We are partners in our own demise: ex-president of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves

    Too much information, too much contradiction and too much confusion. In this era, how do we even think about where democracy stands in the world? The former president of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, in a speech in honour of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, offers a clear-eyed assessment of the state of democracy today in competition with Russia, China  and other autocracies. He notes how there once was moral clarity about where the West stood in relations to these countries. Not so now: one of the fallouts of 30 years of globalisation, the internet and free trade is this great blurring, which sees […]

    17 min
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About

A private feed of ideas on politics, media, books and ideas that I have posted to share.

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  • Creator
    C Zappone
  • Years Active
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  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
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    © 2026 Chris Zappone
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    Cold War Daily