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An Independent Archive · Established 2024

The Manifest Archive

The architecture of power, recorded.

By Jerry van der Laan

Earlier Chapters

The Index
Facebook, Google, X and TikTok: The Architecture of Modern Propaganda
№ 1

Facebook, Google, X and TikTok: The Architecture of Modern Propaganda

How visibility became power, how decisions replaced debate, and why perception is now governed.

Surveillance, Tech & Intelligence Feb 5 · 4 min read
The U.S. and Europe Are No Longer on the Same Side
№ 2

The U.S. and Europe Are No Longer on the Same Side

On power, escalation, and the end of assumptions

Geopolitics Jan 20 · 6 min read
Azov Battalion, Neo-Nazis, and the War the West Rewrote
№ 3

Azov Battalion, Neo-Nazis, and the War the West Rewrote

How a documented reality became unsayable

Geopolitics Jan 13 · 4 min read
Mark Rutte and the Lethal Certainty of War
№ 4

Mark Rutte and the Lethal Certainty of War

How estimates become facts, language becomes policy, and distance becomes deadly

Geopolitics Jan 12 · 5 min read
Venezuela: How the United States Robs a Country in Plain Sight
№ 5

Venezuela: How the United States Robs a Country in Plain Sight

Oil, sanctions, silence, and the architecture of modern bullying

Geopolitics Jan 4 · 6 min read
Antibiotic Resistance and the End of Medical Time
№ 6

Antibiotic Resistance and the End of Medical Time

How a temporary miracle became the silent boundary of modern civilization

Jan 2 · 6 min read
The Distorted Food Landscape
№ 7

The Distorted Food Landscape

An article you will hopefully get less stomach pain from

Surveillance, Tech & Intelligence Jan 1 · 5 min read
People Expected a New Year. Nothing Reset.
№ 8

People Expected a New Year. Nothing Reset.

What actually carried over from 2025 into 2026

Methodology & Meta-reflection Dec 31 · 6 min read
25 December 1999: The Day Putin Took Office
№ 9

25 December 1999: The Day Putin Took Office

It looks like a story about one man. It isn’t.

Geopolitics Dec 25 · 5 min read
Christmas Eve 1991: The Night the Soviet Union Vanished
№ 10

Christmas Eve 1991: The Night the Soviet Union Vanished

How the world’s most powerful superstate disappeared quietly while everyone was distracted by the holidays

Geopolitics Dec 24 · 5 min read
Putin, Money, and the Moment the West Stopped Moving
№ 11

Putin, Money, and the Moment the West Stopped Moving

How a single sentence about seized Russian assets exposed the limits of Europe, NATO, and the United States and why this conflict began long before the first tanks

Geopolitics Dec 21 · 5 min read
The Draft Without the Word
№ 12

The Draft Without the Word

How Europe prepares its youth for a war it refuses to name

Methodology & Meta-reflection Dec 17 · 3 min read