Joseph picked up "The Citizen's Daily" again and unfolded it, the front-page article essentially said: the new tax law had not undergone strict scrutiny and was concocted by the former Finance Minister Carolina out of thin air. If implemented, it would have unpredictable effects on France.
The several other newspapers conveyed more or less the same message, essentially beating around the bush and attacking the tax law with all kinds of absurd reasons.
Joseph couldn't help but think of those unscrupulous self-media of later generations—you talk reason to them, they talk history. You talk history to them, they get sentimental.
Anyway, all sorts of twisted logic were thrown around, simply avoiding a direct and straightforward discussion of the issue itself.
He looked for a long while but found only one paper, "Paris News," that continued to publish an analysis of the tax law.
When he turned to the author's name, he saw it was signed "Jean-Paul Marat."
