Matt has become one of the great free speech warriors of our time. It's why I first subscribed to him and will continue to do so, even though we disagree on many other issues.
Yeah, but as the penalties get more severe for crossing the line into Verboten Thought Land deodorant & incontinence liner manufactures will find themselves in an avalanche-like financial windfall.
Do you have something against capitalism buddy?
I don't think these people go far enough.
They should have started by banning all nouns & then just moved on from there.
By now we'd all be speaking in emojis.
Or grunts.
& clicks.
Think of how a language comprised entirely of grunts & clicks would make Joe & his vice principal Kamala so much more appealing.
Correction with the greatest respect to Phisto Sobanii.
I have followed Matt for a number of years, he has never wavered from “free speech”... NEVER!!!
I apologize for the emphasis; what happened was the transformation of his audience. Let me correct my statement... the audience didn’t transform, it was a swapping out of audiences.
Prior to Matt (and the many others engaged including all the people at “Public”) uncovering and publishing the “X Files” Matt was “labeled “leftist” and a threat to society. OK, that’s a bit over the top but the “right” didn’t care for his outstanding body of work.
The man is anything but HYPOCRITICAL, he willingly continues to espouse the Constitution under different circumstances. Go back 10 years (just to establish a distance time) and read his articles and discover his unrelenting consistency.
As Carlin said about the elites and the corporations, and the people that pretty much govern this country “it’s a very small club, and you ain’t a member!“
Great statement, especially the point about how common everyday folks don't have any say in what they can and cannot read! The professional class elites were also the ones working at home on their laptops during the pandemic, collecting a full paycheck, dictating policy, and silencing anyone who disagreed with the pandemic rules and vaccination mandates.
I sat in numerous Zoom meetings, with corporate people at home, while
I had to be on the front lines handing customers. It's was and still is maddening. As a result, now I just go to work and do the bare minimum and leave. I have ZERO investment in the success of my company and don't really fucking care about the handjob that is corporate America. I just trade time for money.
Similar situation. In 2022 I volunteered at a MAJOR National Park. I recall the Park’s senior leadership conducting staff meetings with the Rangers who were interacting with thousands of Park visitors each day. The leadership was working from home because of Covid. Chateaux Generalship at its finest.
"Nicaraguan police said Friday they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government."
Is there any scheme so stoopid & hairbrained that the CIA or some other US 3-letter agency won't try it to destabilize foreign governments? People wonder why The Pentagon refuses to say where their money goes. It lines the pockets of terrorists worldwide.
12/04/23: Intentionally, doubtful (but not impossible); unintentionally due to cronyism-promotions, entirely possible. 2023 Pentagon probably a mirror image of the rot that pervaded the Soviet military in the late 1980s-early 90s.
So what we are left with is the concept of personal integrity and personal growth. Our employer, the faceless corporation, does not have to be right or good, but we do. How we accomplish that is the path of life, for sure, and the end goal is our individual humanity. I get that we trade time for money -- it is nice to live indoors and feed your family properly -- we only need to guard ourselves against the encroachment of corporate soulessness while we are doing it.
Free speech is vital to our escape from the international "elitist" corporate fascist CCP style hyperreality central banking criminal financiers are attempting to impose on the world. (Davos: "Americans must accept limits on free speech.") But, how about their insane asylum belief in the right to seize the bank accounts and destroy the livelihoods and careers of anyone considered a threat to their criminality?
Reality: Capitalism and communism are dead because criminal capitalist/communist perps murdered them. The "greatest upward transfer of wealth in human history" stunted the upward mobility of common people and gutted social/economic systems across the globe. DNC/EU/WEF/CCP/Davos fascism is interested in (as available in China) uneducated subsistence wage throw away labor and, unfettered exploitation of Planet Earths natural resources without consequence. Again!! Same old jackboot. New shine.
These congressional hearings prove that free speech is under assault. (European EU/WEF policy, arrest and censorship has its peoples in revolt.) The real purpose of the corporate fascist/"woke" elite alliance is to prevent the American national dialogue needed to produce solutions and aide the Republic's recovery from the globalist fascist looting and gutting of its economy and industry. (Calls to silence Substack are getting louder.)
DNC/Globalist/Davos is vicious and violent. Consider: The early on DNC conflation of crime with revolution. The encouraged un-prosecuted murder and violence of the riots. The EU style flooding of America with unvetted illegals to further cultural/social/economic division. DNC/Soros political operatives refusing to prosecute crimes against citizens. And, why would rigged game capitalists remain silent when billions in merchandise is being openly looted from their stores and outlets? Or, the realpolitik. Car jacking, dope and spikes, s#!t in the streets, burning freeways, collapsing bridges and the train wreck of the week. CAPITAL HAS STOLEN YOUR LABOR, LIFE AND CAPITAL AND ABANDONED AMERICA!! The effort to further destroy and undermine the American middle class continues apace. Is or is there not a criminalization of the free citizen underway? And of course the DNC/University DEI wink and nod go ahead to assault Jews and white people at random without fear interference or arrest.--And guess what? The American tax payer is funding it all.
Sorry to be less specific. As I remember, Johnathan Katz at THE ATLANTIC, something like Substack has a Nazi problem. Malcolm Gladwell? Some MSN sources? After this weeks Congressional hearings it would be hard to doubt. But yes--lets stay honest. :)
“guard ourselves against the encroachment of corporate soulessness” is a perfect description of/prescription for the dynamic we’re up against. Like, how are any of our fam of we the people supposed to make Citizens United sexy enough to finally demand: No means No?
I'm more concerned about the Fed Government than I am about the corporations. Of course the corporations are in bed with the Feds, I get it. But only the Feds can arrest me, send the IRS to my door, etc.
And in the end we are the corporations. We are its employees, its leaders, its investors. We is they is refrain a sage person taught me a long time ago. We need to take stock of what we have done with the legacy handed us by the founding fathers and the greatest generation. We were handed a perfect blueprint and have erected a false facade in its place. We the people need to buck up and engage.
Thanks. I'm fortunate to have come late to the party (I missed COVID) and landed at an out of the way, rural district that seems relatively un-tainted.
Can or cannot read (as well as think)? Is your school or district using re-written history books, or banning books? Was slavery merely an apprenticeship? Were the twitter files released to Matt,Bari, et al cherry picked by Musk to show left censoring right? Matt gets invited by Jordan’s committee, why? What’s their agenda? I use this summary a lot -- You want to be free to say, think and do what you want to say, think and do, and you want me to be free to say, think, and do what you want me to say, think, and do.
That's classical liberalism. Otherwise known as liberal arts and nothing wrong with it at all. Shows well roundedness despite some dumb knuckledragger who thinks it's "not a democracy, a republic only" you know thses morons; anyway, him saying your well roundedness amounts to shit cause he can turn a wrench quick and maybe, just maybe his fat ass can shoot and shoot.
Agreed. A 6th caveat as a former social studies teacher
Past atrocities/bad actions do NOT justify present policy decisions. Any policy decision should be made and evaluated on it’s present merits, for present circumstances. As a history professor at Ohio State told me 30 years ago “I’m a Democrat but that doesn’t have anything to do with Genghis Khan”!
So, I would agree that they can be free to express their political beliefs when teaching adults, but not free to enforce it as the only right answer.
I majored in philosophy and one of the professors in my dept (that I had at least one class with every semester for several years) would enforce her worldview on her students by way of grades. If your paper supported her worldview, A+, no red marks. If you contradicted her worldview, very harsh grading measures, marked down for every argument she could poke a hole in, B-, C+. Students quickly learned to play her game for a grade. That's not great teaching in my opinion.
Another prominent professor in the same department taught from every side of the argument. She kept us on our toes in class because she would always come up with a counter-argument, no matter what side we were on. NOBODY knew what she really, personally believed because she was so good at showing us how to see every side of an argument. She was incredible, and I learned so much from her.
Your personal beliefs as a teacher/professor are irrelevant. Teach the students *how* to think critically and form their own beliefs.
Given the absolute clownshow level of ignorance being exhibited on college campuses these days, it's very clear that "adult" students need MORE history and LESS "political" indoctrination.
Yes, the “essential” class. As distinct from the “nonessential” class who had their gyms and parks closed, their jobs ended, while liquor stores and weed stores were somehow still “essential” during the pandemic.
Playgrounds and parks closed, strip clubs open. Hollywood movie sets open with full catering spreads, mom and pop restaurants closed. Big box stores open, small local shops closed.
There's nothing progressive about censorious authoritarians. And the past few weeks have taught us that most of the self-identified "right wing" defenders of free speech were immediately ready and willing to censor speech critical of the foreign country Israel... if i were you I'd wake up and discard the partisanship.
Al, disagree. The institutional take over by the left is obvious. The power imbalance they now project is undeniable. Who do you think is funding and pushing the censorship industrial complex. It’s not Hillsdale or the Federalist. Of course over time authoritarians can change their colors. And now it’s predominantly blue.
- You guys are all so desperate to debase every formerly meaningful political term... you'd probably get on better with the gender ideology activists who want to totally re-write the english language than you think you would.
How many times does one have to re-iterate the obvious fact that believing women can have winkies doesn't make you "left"? These are wealthy, privileged, economically right wing people who aren't in favor of worker's rights, democracy or freedom of speech... y'know, the three pillars of the left? Sheesh.
Al, you’re wrong again. It’s the left that debases words and strangles all standard meaning out of them. It is also an obvious fact that without institutional take over we’d never hear about any of this crap which is supported by the left; anti-free speech, CRT, DEI, Covid and the Censorship Industrial complex. It is what is brother. Time to put on your big boy pants and accept reality. People who love freedom need to band together. But the enemy needs to be called out for who they are. And it is the authoritarian fascist left.
If you're an authoritarian fascist, you're not what used to be called the Left.
Just because you call them the Left, doesn't mean the fit the traditional meaning of the term.
Imagine if you will, that the ideals you espouse are referred to as Leftist ideals. Would you still believe in those ideals? Or does retaining your "Right" or "Conservative" label matter more?
Right and Left have switched positions.
Referring to the corporate-loving, authoritarian bastards of the contemporary Democratic Party as the Left is just ignorant.
For those who say that the Democrats no longer represent the “left”, that right and left have switched positions: have you given any thought to why authoritarians would infiltrate the Democrats?
If you were the Nazis of America, and you wanted to take control of America, how could you do it? You know nobody will vote for Nazis. Therefore, you will need to infiltrate one of the major parties. But which one?
The one that believes in limited government and personal responsibility? Or the one that believes in a powerful government that can control much of life (for equity and the common good, of course!)?
The authoritarians chose the party that best suited the objectives of control. Leftist philosophy hangs out a neon sign: If you crave power, and have a charming, persuasive personality, we have a position for you. Sociopaths welcome.
I see leftist as authoritarians in they seek to control the vast majority by an elite few. I see democrats as liberals which in the past has meant support of free speech, association, religion, and economic liberty. The left want to centralize power, control thought, actions, and thus create the equity in society they deem best. You tell me is that the historic Democratic Party or a leftist cult that has usurped the Democratic Party.
The term is not descriptive of any type of policies, except for the time when it was coined, perhaps, in which case right were monarchists and nobody is saying today that the American right wants a king.*
* Insane projective assertions that all conservatives are somehow authoritarian to the contrary
There is no discernibly organized group in the U.S. operating under the rubric "Antifa." That Antifa is a monolithic organization of cutthroat leftists is a 3-year-old meme-cum-bogeyman propagated by professional right-wing propagandists and fed to the gullible true-believers.
What Antifa really is: an organizing slogan and concept, mainly---deployed randomly and periodically by small cohorts of unaffiliateds on the left who share a deep antipathy towards explicitly fascist groups in America. Namely White Nationalists, White Supremacists, Christian Nationalists, American Nazis, Ku Kluxers, etc.
They get ink from there MSM when trouble hits the streets, providing a compelling foil to the various groups of right-wing meatheads who are doing most of the street hazing.
There is no discernibly organized group in the U.S. operating under the rubric "White Nationalists", "White Supremacists", "Christian Nationalists", etc.
They are just thugs who like going out on the street and pretend they are fighting "facism" by causing trouble and being rowdy. Similar to the Jan 6 protesters, a role playing exercise.
Oh no, I must have used a feldspar keyword and summoned the demon from his slumber. Yeah, you're right Rep Nadler, Antifa is just an idea and not an organization that has representatives who run their Twitter accounts, create fliers and posters to advertise their "direct actions", print their flags to fly at their riots, provide matching shields...
Interesting debate between you two, because you're dancing around the actual sides in this fight and they ain't red or blue. The enemy of the great un-washed are the rich and powerful. Hopefully one day, the bulk of America will stop treating them as demi gods, and see them for what they are - profoundly psychologically damaged and disconnected from reality.
Prediction: One day, if humanity survives, humans will understand money to be as harmful to a healthy society as heroin or crack.
Money is a neural abstraction, a representation of power and resources. It isn't the money that's the problem, it's the centralization of power and resources. The original idea of the US was a federal government with limited power, but that has been tossed aside in favor of an all powerful bureaucracy.
Agreed. Money is a neural abstraction, just like heroin is. And yes, the reason they both exist is to maintain power and control while giving citizens some kind of neural escape mechanism so they don't grab pitchforks and torches. Eventually however, the rich and powerful become so disconnected they do dumb things that endanger the money supply (and by extension the heroin supply), then out come the pitchforks and torches... and history repeats itself.
Yep. I always have to laugh at the outrage toward the Sam Bankman-Fried and the Elizabeth Therano types. We have a system that just cannot seem to reward greed enough, and people are shocked that the greediest motherfuckers among us rise to the top of that system. What a surprise.
There is no "censorship industrial complex." It's a collective fever dream of the Racket News illuminati induced by a few substack "independent" opportunists.
"Progressive" in 2023 means "ruthless 1890s robber baron," only much worse, because the 1890s RBs didn't have the electronic means of controlling the media that the fascist-progs have today; nor did the 1890 RBs pretend that they were doing anything "beneficial" for mankind.
Hopefully, historians who write about this era will recognize "The Twitter Files" as the beginning of the end of all this woke nonsense, assuming history itself doesn't end
I am a simple carpenter ( good one) and live in a water side “Science Town “ i.e. Woods Hole MA. Every week the local tree killing news rag, The Enterprise, features local scientists and educators that constantly claim that we will all be dead within five years if we don’t address the issue of Climate change right now. A major first step in there eyes to save our water source is “urine diversion” requiring additional plumbing in all new homes and businesses. I keep telling them that I have been pissing in the back yard for 65 years and I get no credit for doing my part. Class warfare?
I find it quite funny that for the last 4 decades the climate activists have been screeching, "Earth will become uninhabitable within 10 years if we don't reverse climate change now!"
I'm not sure how you can say that. From where I sit, its been the republican-led house that has given Matt and Michael, two died-in-the-wool liberal democrats, a platform to speak, while the demoncrats have been labelling them as 'conspiracy theorists'.
This bespeaks a woeful ignorance of history - it’s even ignorant of current events. The Republicans are already calling for suppression of speech and information- they just don’t currently hold the levers ( but they will shortly). Teachers in the US in some states must call evolution ‘only a theory.’ Books are banned. Adult women are unable to receive best practice medical advice. History must be taught in a manner that upholds patriotism. University tenure has become a thing of the past, absolutely obliterating academic freedom. It is absurd to me that any adult can honestly believe that Republicans aren’t equally likely to use these tools - it’s like you have entirely forgotten the journalists who “suicided” while reporting on Reagan, that Assange is in prison for reporting on Iraq, or the nice men in dark suits who visited private citizens when they objected to the war on terror.
Every word of this is utter bullshit. Deciding the state curriculum of state schools is not “banning” anything. California is the only state that passed any laws telling doctors they aren’t allowed to tell their patients true information regarding COVID if it contradicts the state.
You’re just a partisan idiot that knows nothing beyond the last MSNBC bumper sticker you read.
Have you been watching any actual news? The rank and file of both parties started calling for censorship over Israel. While I am sure there may be some good-faith actors involved in this, they are few, far between - and ultimately do what is demanded of them by their donors.
The patriot act and mass surveillance was ushered in by Republicans and the PNAC crowd (Wolfowitz, Cheney et al)—— and was continued by the Dems. Bidens WH is filled with the exact same ghouls who ran Bush’s WH.
The cabal of security state and big money interests that run our country do not change from administration to administration. The owners and ultimate interests of MSNBC and Fox are more or less the same. And their trick at this point is to silo us into this absurd and deadly partisanship over what is essentially unimportant so we can believe that someone we live in a Republican Democracy because we have strong emotions about culture war bullshit.
As to what I said above, none of it was “bullshit” and I sure as fuck don’t get my news from sock puppets like Rachel Maddow.
You're misinformed and glaringly ignorant of the subject to which you speak. Republicans and the Right are banning all sorts of books, ideas, and thoughts that run counter to their homogenized vision of WhiteChristianville.
For example: the phony fascist hate group "Ain't Gay If It's a Three-Way" Moms For Liberty. These fascist, hypocritical bitches never met a book they couldn't burn or ban. Most of them strike me as never meeting a book that they could read. But that's for another day. And Republican-controlled state legislatures are racing to see who can out-fashy and out-ban one another with radical revisionist legislation. Come on. Get hep. Do some research.
And how 'bout them racy Florida Zieglers? Moms For Liberty and a Whole Lot More!
I'm sorry you have been so propagandized. Since you're commenting here I assume you have read some of Taibbi's articles. Why then ignore their content?
Are you talking to me Burt? I have followed Taibbi since he was a baby reporter. And Hedges. And Mate. And Greenwald - and pretty much all the rest. I also read BOOKS. BIG BOOKS. And I follow politics and political movements carefully, and I know history well - not just the history we are fed in school - but the history of politically and global movements. Now, why is it that partisans always think people who don't agree with them are 'propagandized' whereas they themselves are not.
We are all heavily propogandized all the time. That any adult human being believes anything a politician says - especially because they belong to your preferred party - is mostly absurd. Especially given our collective life experiences of being lied to about everything all the time by whichever party is in office.
LBJ lied us into a war. Nixon lied us deeper into a war. Ford doesn't count, and when Carter tried to fight back against the deep state, Bush stole the election on Reagan's behalf. Reagan's administration lied about everything, including arms for hostages, trickle-down economics, and the blood bath in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. Clinton lied to us about nearly everything, and pretty much pushed through the completion of Reagan's anti-worker, pro-globalists, Neo-liberal agenda. Bush Jr lied us into war after war, and Obama lied about the bail-out, the security state, mass survellience, and health care. Trump lied pretty much everytime he opened his mouth. And now we have Genocide Joe who lies every bit as easily as Trump, but with better manners.
So - tell me again... why you believe that any administration is beholden at any point to actual citizens?
You have been propagandized into believing that Republicans are banning books. No books have been banned (I hereby admit that I fell for this story initially as well), so perhaps you could look into that further.
Well at least you admit that both parties do it. Dems worse at the present moment IMHO but that could change. Politics is about power and that is going to entail lying or being creative in using information.
Taibbi definitely understands that history didn't start with the current Congress and that Republicans in the past (and most assuredly in the future) will use the same tactics as the current Dems if given the chance.
The House is not where the power is. It’s in the Administrative State, nominally under Biden, but that could change. We have government by urban professionals, who probably go Democrat now for the most part, but I think that largely irrelevant to the “power” mindset. They could switch from “Save the Planet” is holy to religious fundamentalism for their virtue signaling, but would still act the same way they do now.
I think you are wrong about the 'urban professional' thing - and about whether they go Democrat for the most part; the Federalist Society holds great sway over our judiciary, and our courts from municipal - federal have quietly moved really far right, as has much of our military and military leadership. And - Democrats no longer stand for what they once stood for, virtue signaling aside. We have two pro-war, neoliberal, anti-worker parties who think most of the citizens (I mean 'consumers') are mostly a waste of air.
I hope I am wrong on that score, but don’t think I am. Once the Democrats get full power (they’re strongly massaging the abortion issue to that end), we will see a lot more of those urban professionals in the court system, including the Supreme Court. The Administrative State is already chuck-full, and are anxious to go full bore with their social engineering plans.
Someone we all know wrote a book called “Insane Clown President” which really catches what Trump is all about. Their push to get rid of him isn’t so much because he is nuts, but because he’ll probably try to fire the lot. Which is when the Constitution will be formally suspended. But I don’t think he will get elected.
Guv'ment by urban professionals? Hey, I seen that Jim Jordan and Clay Higgins fella and both them Boebert and Taylor-Greene gals and in my opinion theys all county fair material.
Like the Republican consensus of the Patriot Act? Of PNAC? Of enormous tax cuts for the donor classes? Or how about the bipartisan consensus for the genocide we are watching roll out before our very eyes? Or for pretty much EVERY war that benefits Booz Allen / Raytheon / Bechtal / Halliburtan?
Bill, on exactly what are you basing your idea that congress is filled with people who care about anything except getting and holding onto power? Is it because one party has shown themselves to be substantially better on delivering a living wage, holding the powerful to account, or making sure that the lives of our children are better than ours? Is it because one party, is less slavish when it comes to pleasing their donors?
Every Democrat except Russell Feingold voted for the Patriot Act, three Republican Congressmen did the same. The only call I hear for genocide is the sweet ditty From the river to the sea. I’m guessing that is on your Spotify playlist.
I absolutely applaud the republicans who are supportive of Taibbi's and Shellenberger's work. I will also say they appear to be *very* unpopular in their own party. That's just from the outside looking in. I don't have a lot of confidence in the republican congress as a whole, but there are some that give me hope.
Which side calls for censorship depends on current events. It's been mostly Republicans calling for any pro-Palestinian / anti-Israel speech to be censored. Why? Because they're all beholden to AIPAC.
The Republicans are far from perfect on this issue. However, it is the Republicans who are introducing legislation to shutdown the Censorship Industrial Complex and they are getting no support from Democrats. Until this changes Democrats do not deserve our vote. Only consequences at elections will change their minds.
"We delivered significantly more evidence for the Censorship Industrial Complex than in March. And therein lies their real objection: Democrats don’t want to talk about this because they know they are guilty."
The Republicans may very well try to play the censorship game if given the chance, but they don't and won't ever have control of all institutions that can ensure censorship. That's the difference between the Democrats and Republicans - the Democrats possess the ability to control Government, social media, Hollywood, news media, etc. Republicans can only capture one of those institutions.
That could be true now, but not necessarily permanent. It’s more evidence for the Party of Evil, vs. the Party of Stupid. It’s no evidence of one or the other having any moral high ground.
Why is this relevant? Because anyone who thinks adhering to the Republicans will be a morally improved situation is bound to either be deceived or deluded. I’ll probably tend Republican for a while, only because they’re out of power (thin House majority is not being in power; abortion issue to soon torpedo that majority).
No they won't. The whole point of being a Republican these days is to dismantle the whole corrupt progressive establishment, drive a stake into it's heart, and drop its corpse down a deep mine shaft.
...and then to rebuild a corrupt regressive establishment. They ALL are owned by the SAME people, and as long as Citizens United stands, they all will be.
Are you sure it's not to lie, cheat, and steal their way to power and once there, get down to some serious American fascist governing? That's what I hear on the streets, anyway.
I disagree. The narrative that “they are all the same” is a trick to induce apathy. As Matt and Walter discussed on the podcast this week, Republicans don’t have the kind of numbers or influence within the the administrative state and other institutions as the Democrats. Government, media, and NGOs are overwhelmingly populated by Democrats. Just look at the voter registration numbers for D.C. or surveys of big tech and NGO employees. As long as the professional/managerial class is dominated by Democrats, they will organically control these institutions by sheer force of numbers. And the censorship-industrial complex was developed to keep their favored candidates in power.
Even if it were true that they WANTED to be as bad, the Dems are herd animals, and the Republicans lack that characteristic, so their motivations don't propagate into universal action like you see with the Democrats at every level of govt.
How does one "organically" control anything or anybody? What's your problem with conventional control? It's less healthy, sure, but it gets the job done.
No. Not really. Why would they give power back to the left. Constitutionalist don’t go for central control by big government. Of course predicting any future outcomes is a fools game.
Shut down the federal government almost entirely. Sue, sue, and sue some more to take down the bureaucracy. Pare it down to actual constitutional levels. The further away power gets, the more corrupt it becomes. If power can't be decentralized and sent back to the states, we will undoubtedly become a fascist dictatorship. We're almost there.
When the Democrats talk about abolishing the Electoral College, this is exactly what they are hoping to prevent (...the return of decentralized states rights.)
Oh, yes, one of the "We are a Republic not a Democracy" boys. Be interesting to research the right-wing chud who coined it and thought it a clever propaganda talking point. My guess it was an amateur working out of his grandma's basement. And the right-wing moron who first muttered it and gave it legs in the haze-bound Rightmosphere. A distinction without a difference, but I'm sure that fact irritates you.
What's it to you anyway? You and your schoolmates clearly aren't interested in either concept.
Here's a little Jefferson for you, schoolboy.
"...One way to understand that idea was articulated by Jefferson himself way back in 1816, when he wrote: "We may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition."
"It is hard to imagine a better statement of the two concepts as they may be comingled and act in concert."
Republicans are not perfect but some Republicans are holding hearings to expose the attacks on the First Amendment. Some Republicans have proposed HR 140 to attack the problem. What are Democrats doing to attack the problem?
It’s not disagreeing, it’s “having incorrect thought”. We used to have “dictatorship of the proletariat”; we now have dictatorship of the affluent professional.
Americans all need to wake up to this truth. If there has ever been a matter worth protesting in the streets it’s this. Our freedom of speech is crucial to our freedom. All the talk about dis- or misinformation is ridiculous in my opinion.
People lie. As a Christian you know that there’s probably no one who hasn’t lied. No one is going to stop that in others, so their attempt is to control it isn’t possible, IMO. Just another tool to try to control using their lies! You nailed it & said it well!
Bravo. Clear and to the point with echos of the great Carlin.
Censorship is one big club, and we ain’t in it.
Matt has become one of the great free speech warriors of our time. It's why I first subscribed to him and will continue to do so, even though we disagree on many other issues.
This completely. I’m big on anarchism, for gods sake, but I recognize free speech makes a fair playing field for all.
Plus, I might be wrong! Censorship kills that.
"Plus, I might be wrong! Censorship kills that."
Thee are 5 words I use All The Time. "But..I..Could...Be...Wrong."
'When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, sir?'
John Maynard Keynes
Now I am NO Big Fanboy of him (being to he right of Attila The Hun)...But...Ya know.
“I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m saying I disagree with you”.
And how dare you.
Yeah, but as the penalties get more severe for crossing the line into Verboten Thought Land deodorant & incontinence liner manufactures will find themselves in an avalanche-like financial windfall.
Do you have something against capitalism buddy?
I don't think these people go far enough.
They should have started by banning all nouns & then just moved on from there.
By now we'd all be speaking in emojis.
Or grunts.
& clicks.
Think of how a language comprised entirely of grunts & clicks would make Joe & his vice principal Kamala so much more appealing.
The possibilities are endless.
same!
Correction with the greatest respect to Phisto Sobanii.
I have followed Matt for a number of years, he has never wavered from “free speech”... NEVER!!!
I apologize for the emphasis; what happened was the transformation of his audience. Let me correct my statement... the audience didn’t transform, it was a swapping out of audiences.
Prior to Matt (and the many others engaged including all the people at “Public”) uncovering and publishing the “X Files” Matt was “labeled “leftist” and a threat to society. OK, that’s a bit over the top but the “right” didn’t care for his outstanding body of work.
The man is anything but HYPOCRITICAL, he willingly continues to espouse the Constitution under different circumstances. Go back 10 years (just to establish a distance time) and read his articles and discover his unrelenting consistency.
For full disclosure, I am not related to Matt.
Absolutely. And free speech allows you to disagree with him. I am sure Matt would not want it any other way.
I was at that George Carlin show!! We all thought it was a joke. How true it was.
So was George Carlin! What are the odds?!
I’m jealous of you. Ha!
It’s a small elitist club that we have been excluded from
As Carlin said about the elites and the corporations, and the people that pretty much govern this country “it’s a very small club, and you ain’t a member!“
Great statement, especially the point about how common everyday folks don't have any say in what they can and cannot read! The professional class elites were also the ones working at home on their laptops during the pandemic, collecting a full paycheck, dictating policy, and silencing anyone who disagreed with the pandemic rules and vaccination mandates.
I sat in numerous Zoom meetings, with corporate people at home, while
I had to be on the front lines handing customers. It's was and still is maddening. As a result, now I just go to work and do the bare minimum and leave. I have ZERO investment in the success of my company and don't really fucking care about the handjob that is corporate America. I just trade time for money.
Similar situation. In 2022 I volunteered at a MAJOR National Park. I recall the Park’s senior leadership conducting staff meetings with the Rangers who were interacting with thousands of Park visitors each day. The leadership was working from home because of Covid. Chateaux Generalship at its finest.
And they probably thought themselves heroic for staying home. Their service to the masses.
Foxhole Normans.
Now I want to binge watch season four, Blackadder.
There comes along that inevitable, awful day when each one of us realizes that it has all been a rigged casino. And the sooner, the damn better.
Where the House -- and the Senate -- always wins.
And on the very next day...
"Nicaraguan police said Friday they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government."
https://resistthemainstream.com/pageant-director-accused-of-rigging-contests-as-part-of-plot-to-overthrow-goverment/?utm_source=newsletter2
Is there any scheme so stoopid & hairbrained that the CIA or some other US 3-letter agency won't try it to destabilize foreign governments? People wonder why The Pentagon refuses to say where their money goes. It lines the pockets of terrorists worldwide.
12/04/23: Intentionally, doubtful (but not impossible); unintentionally due to cronyism-promotions, entirely possible. 2023 Pentagon probably a mirror image of the rot that pervaded the Soviet military in the late 1980s-early 90s.
So what we are left with is the concept of personal integrity and personal growth. Our employer, the faceless corporation, does not have to be right or good, but we do. How we accomplish that is the path of life, for sure, and the end goal is our individual humanity. I get that we trade time for money -- it is nice to live indoors and feed your family properly -- we only need to guard ourselves against the encroachment of corporate soulessness while we are doing it.
Free speech is vital to our escape from the international "elitist" corporate fascist CCP style hyperreality central banking criminal financiers are attempting to impose on the world. (Davos: "Americans must accept limits on free speech.") But, how about their insane asylum belief in the right to seize the bank accounts and destroy the livelihoods and careers of anyone considered a threat to their criminality?
Reality: Capitalism and communism are dead because criminal capitalist/communist perps murdered them. The "greatest upward transfer of wealth in human history" stunted the upward mobility of common people and gutted social/economic systems across the globe. DNC/EU/WEF/CCP/Davos fascism is interested in (as available in China) uneducated subsistence wage throw away labor and, unfettered exploitation of Planet Earths natural resources without consequence. Again!! Same old jackboot. New shine.
These congressional hearings prove that free speech is under assault. (European EU/WEF policy, arrest and censorship has its peoples in revolt.) The real purpose of the corporate fascist/"woke" elite alliance is to prevent the American national dialogue needed to produce solutions and aide the Republic's recovery from the globalist fascist looting and gutting of its economy and industry. (Calls to silence Substack are getting louder.)
DNC/Globalist/Davos is vicious and violent. Consider: The early on DNC conflation of crime with revolution. The encouraged un-prosecuted murder and violence of the riots. The EU style flooding of America with unvetted illegals to further cultural/social/economic division. DNC/Soros political operatives refusing to prosecute crimes against citizens. And, why would rigged game capitalists remain silent when billions in merchandise is being openly looted from their stores and outlets? Or, the realpolitik. Car jacking, dope and spikes, s#!t in the streets, burning freeways, collapsing bridges and the train wreck of the week. CAPITAL HAS STOLEN YOUR LABOR, LIFE AND CAPITAL AND ABANDONED AMERICA!! The effort to further destroy and undermine the American middle class continues apace. Is or is there not a criminalization of the free citizen underway? And of course the DNC/University DEI wink and nod go ahead to assault Jews and white people at random without fear interference or arrest.--And guess what? The American tax payer is funding it all.
This a little too spot on....
May I ask just who is calling to silence Substack?
Sorry to be less specific. As I remember, Johnathan Katz at THE ATLANTIC, something like Substack has a Nazi problem. Malcolm Gladwell? Some MSN sources? After this weeks Congressional hearings it would be hard to doubt. But yes--lets stay honest. :)
“guard ourselves against the encroachment of corporate soulessness” is a perfect description of/prescription for the dynamic we’re up against. Like, how are any of our fam of we the people supposed to make Citizens United sexy enough to finally demand: No means No?
I'm more concerned about the Fed Government than I am about the corporations. Of course the corporations are in bed with the Feds, I get it. But only the Feds can arrest me, send the IRS to my door, etc.
And in the end we are the corporations. We are its employees, its leaders, its investors. We is they is refrain a sage person taught me a long time ago. We need to take stock of what we have done with the legacy handed us by the founding fathers and the greatest generation. We were handed a perfect blueprint and have erected a false facade in its place. We the people need to buck up and engage.
Yeah, not to cite an old saw but this never gets old. Walt Kelly said it all decades ago in "Pogo". . . "We've seen the enemy and it is us."
I’m a high school social studies teacher. Some prick isn’t gonna tell me, or my students, what they can or cannot think.
Free thought or GTFO.
Phisto, cheers to you for what you do for our kids and for society. Keep on.
Thank you. Doing what I can.
We need more like you in education. Thanks for your bravery in hanging in there in the school system.
Thanks. I'm fortunate to have come late to the party (I missed COVID) and landed at an out of the way, rural district that seems relatively un-tainted.
In any case, I'll keep on keeping on.
I hope you don't mind if I occasionally make a few suggestions along the way. No obligation, of course.
Go for it. We made each other laugh once.
:P
God Bless you.
Can or cannot read (as well as think)? Is your school or district using re-written history books, or banning books? Was slavery merely an apprenticeship? Were the twitter files released to Matt,Bari, et al cherry picked by Musk to show left censoring right? Matt gets invited by Jordan’s committee, why? What’s their agenda? I use this summary a lot -- You want to be free to say, think and do what you want to say, think and do, and you want me to be free to say, think, and do what you want me to say, think, and do.
Not sure what your point is.
Neither is he.
100% agree. I strive for this mightily.
John Taylor Gatto made the same point in his Magnum opus, The Underground History of American Education.
That's classical liberalism. Otherwise known as liberal arts and nothing wrong with it at all. Shows well roundedness despite some dumb knuckledragger who thinks it's "not a democracy, a republic only" you know thses morons; anyway, him saying your well roundedness amounts to shit cause he can turn a wrench quick and maybe, just maybe his fat ass can shoot and shoot.
Did you have a stroke while typing this? Do we need to call 911 for you?
That's your schtick eh? Getting on people you don't know about things you probably care less about. Get a life you fucking homo
As opposed to your brilliant comment that boils down to "hur dur rednecks stupid me smart lolfmao". Get a life indeed.
It is possible to keep your political beliefs AND teach a broad perspective of history based on truth.
Absolutely would enforce that rule.
BLM, LGBTQ+ flags have NO business in schools.
Same with the 10 Commandments.
Same with Ukrainian or Israeli or Palestian flags.
EVERY student should be welcome. NONE put above every other.
Teach history or get out of the classroom.
Agreed. A 6th caveat as a former social studies teacher
Past atrocities/bad actions do NOT justify present policy decisions. Any policy decision should be made and evaluated on it’s present merits, for present circumstances. As a history professor at Ohio State told me 30 years ago “I’m a Democrat but that doesn’t have anything to do with Genghis Khan”!
What about solicitations directed at students announcing internship openings with the local Chamber of Commerce?
Seems pretty clear.
Keep that shit outta the classroom.
So, I would agree that they can be free to express their political beliefs when teaching adults, but not free to enforce it as the only right answer.
I majored in philosophy and one of the professors in my dept (that I had at least one class with every semester for several years) would enforce her worldview on her students by way of grades. If your paper supported her worldview, A+, no red marks. If you contradicted her worldview, very harsh grading measures, marked down for every argument she could poke a hole in, B-, C+. Students quickly learned to play her game for a grade. That's not great teaching in my opinion.
Another prominent professor in the same department taught from every side of the argument. She kept us on our toes in class because she would always come up with a counter-argument, no matter what side we were on. NOBODY knew what she really, personally believed because she was so good at showing us how to see every side of an argument. She was incredible, and I learned so much from her.
Your personal beliefs as a teacher/professor are irrelevant. Teach the students *how* to think critically and form their own beliefs.
How do they become adults?
Given the absolute clownshow level of ignorance being exhibited on college campuses these days, it's very clear that "adult" students need MORE history and LESS "political" indoctrination.
Teach a wide variety of political beliefs, when they are relevant to your lesson.
If the student doesn’t hold them, they will run into them.
Since iron sharpens iron, I encourage steel manning arguments whenever possible.
Me too! It horrifies me to think anyone would propagandize students. It’s not your life they’re going to lead. It’s their life.
In the end, I remember my hero Bonhoeffer’s view: find truth and serve it.
And having their food and other essentials delivered to their home by the great unwashed.
That was maddening as well. Our kids were able to deliver food and cashier at grocery stores, but not go to school!!
Yes! Here in Seattle it’s nauseatingly obvious
Indeed!
Yes, the “essential” class. As distinct from the “nonessential” class who had their gyms and parks closed, their jobs ended, while liquor stores and weed stores were somehow still “essential” during the pandemic.
Playgrounds and parks closed, strip clubs open. Hollywood movie sets open with full catering spreads, mom and pop restaurants closed. Big box stores open, small local shops closed.
The treatment of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was like the canary in the coal mine for me. The man exuded integrity and knew something was amiss.
Actually it is a tiny club of condescending arrogant "progressive" elitists, and you ain't in it.
There's nothing progressive about censorious authoritarians. And the past few weeks have taught us that most of the self-identified "right wing" defenders of free speech were immediately ready and willing to censor speech critical of the foreign country Israel... if i were you I'd wake up and discard the partisanship.
Al, disagree. The institutional take over by the left is obvious. The power imbalance they now project is undeniable. Who do you think is funding and pushing the censorship industrial complex. It’s not Hillsdale or the Federalist. Of course over time authoritarians can change their colors. And now it’s predominantly blue.
"The institutional take over by the left"
- You guys are all so desperate to debase every formerly meaningful political term... you'd probably get on better with the gender ideology activists who want to totally re-write the english language than you think you would.
How many times does one have to re-iterate the obvious fact that believing women can have winkies doesn't make you "left"? These are wealthy, privileged, economically right wing people who aren't in favor of worker's rights, democracy or freedom of speech... y'know, the three pillars of the left? Sheesh.
Al, you’re wrong again. It’s the left that debases words and strangles all standard meaning out of them. It is also an obvious fact that without institutional take over we’d never hear about any of this crap which is supported by the left; anti-free speech, CRT, DEI, Covid and the Censorship Industrial complex. It is what is brother. Time to put on your big boy pants and accept reality. People who love freedom need to band together. But the enemy needs to be called out for who they are. And it is the authoritarian fascist left.
If you're an authoritarian fascist, you're not what used to be called the Left.
Just because you call them the Left, doesn't mean the fit the traditional meaning of the term.
Imagine if you will, that the ideals you espouse are referred to as Leftist ideals. Would you still believe in those ideals? Or does retaining your "Right" or "Conservative" label matter more?
Right and Left have switched positions.
Referring to the corporate-loving, authoritarian bastards of the contemporary Democratic Party as the Left is just ignorant.
For those who say that the Democrats no longer represent the “left”, that right and left have switched positions: have you given any thought to why authoritarians would infiltrate the Democrats?
If you were the Nazis of America, and you wanted to take control of America, how could you do it? You know nobody will vote for Nazis. Therefore, you will need to infiltrate one of the major parties. But which one?
The one that believes in limited government and personal responsibility? Or the one that believes in a powerful government that can control much of life (for equity and the common good, of course!)?
The authoritarians chose the party that best suited the objectives of control. Leftist philosophy hangs out a neon sign: If you crave power, and have a charming, persuasive personality, we have a position for you. Sociopaths welcome.
I see leftist as authoritarians in they seek to control the vast majority by an elite few. I see democrats as liberals which in the past has meant support of free speech, association, religion, and economic liberty. The left want to centralize power, control thought, actions, and thus create the equity in society they deem best. You tell me is that the historic Democratic Party or a leftist cult that has usurped the Democratic Party.
Left just means opposing the right.
The term is not descriptive of any type of policies, except for the time when it was coined, perhaps, in which case right were monarchists and nobody is saying today that the American right wants a king.*
* Insane projective assertions that all conservatives are somehow authoritarian to the contrary
"It's an obvious fact..." Then again, it might be the authoritarian fascist Right. Time will tell, one imagines.
Authoritarian fascist are of the left. I guess an alien could rise up
This is assuredly a left wing phenomenon, just beyond weird you cannot accept that.
The idea that the right in America is pushing this is just abject nonsense,. Period.
What was the Right's response to the Dixie Chicks? To Merrick Garland? To Colin Kapernick? To Bud Light or Disney? To Obama or Biden?
How is that different than the Left's response to Matt Taibbi? To Brett Kavanaugh? To Dave Chappelle? To Hobby Lobby or Home Depot? To Bush or Trump?
It's not a Left/Right thing. Both do it.
It's a nonsensical, tribal thing.
I say fuck the tribe thing.
I'm aiming for the moral/ethical thing.
Still love the Chicks, Taibbi, and Dave Chappelle.
The rest can fuck off for all I care.
Sounds like you and Uncle Elon ought to pair up and climb into one of his Silver Ghost Death-Star pickups and get your Thelma and Louise on.
Antifa and the DSA are against free speech as well. Are they not the real left either? Is there any true left?
Short answer?
Nope.
Not in America.
no true Scotsman fallacy
That's ridiculous, but of course you know that. Or are you also one that believes "Real communism has never been tried! "
There is no discernibly organized group in the U.S. operating under the rubric "Antifa." That Antifa is a monolithic organization of cutthroat leftists is a 3-year-old meme-cum-bogeyman propagated by professional right-wing propagandists and fed to the gullible true-believers.
What Antifa really is: an organizing slogan and concept, mainly---deployed randomly and periodically by small cohorts of unaffiliateds on the left who share a deep antipathy towards explicitly fascist groups in America. Namely White Nationalists, White Supremacists, Christian Nationalists, American Nazis, Ku Kluxers, etc.
They get ink from there MSM when trouble hits the streets, providing a compelling foil to the various groups of right-wing meatheads who are doing most of the street hazing.
There is no discernibly organized group in the U.S. operating under the rubric "White Nationalists", "White Supremacists", "Christian Nationalists", etc.
Do you want to stop playing silly word games?
They are just thugs who like going out on the street and pretend they are fighting "facism" by causing trouble and being rowdy. Similar to the Jan 6 protesters, a role playing exercise.
Oh no, I must have used a feldspar keyword and summoned the demon from his slumber. Yeah, you're right Rep Nadler, Antifa is just an idea and not an organization that has representatives who run their Twitter accounts, create fliers and posters to advertise their "direct actions", print their flags to fly at their riots, provide matching shields...
Interesting debate between you two, because you're dancing around the actual sides in this fight and they ain't red or blue. The enemy of the great un-washed are the rich and powerful. Hopefully one day, the bulk of America will stop treating them as demi gods, and see them for what they are - profoundly psychologically damaged and disconnected from reality.
Prediction: One day, if humanity survives, humans will understand money to be as harmful to a healthy society as heroin or crack.
Money is a neural abstraction, a representation of power and resources. It isn't the money that's the problem, it's the centralization of power and resources. The original idea of the US was a federal government with limited power, but that has been tossed aside in favor of an all powerful bureaucracy.
Agreed. Money is a neural abstraction, just like heroin is. And yes, the reason they both exist is to maintain power and control while giving citizens some kind of neural escape mechanism so they don't grab pitchforks and torches. Eventually however, the rich and powerful become so disconnected they do dumb things that endanger the money supply (and by extension the heroin supply), then out come the pitchforks and torches... and history repeats itself.
Your political science is a bit rusty.
"Money is a neural abstraction." Yes, and what a neural abstraction it is.
Money's not the problem....
Greed is.
Yep. I always have to laugh at the outrage toward the Sam Bankman-Fried and the Elizabeth Therano types. We have a system that just cannot seem to reward greed enough, and people are shocked that the greediest motherfuckers among us rise to the top of that system. What a surprise.
Money is greed in abstract form.
There is no "censorship industrial complex." It's a collective fever dream of the Racket News illuminati induced by a few substack "independent" opportunists.
Get real.
Yep. Vasily Grossman wrote "Stalingrad" and "Life and Fate" a two-part story (the "War and Peace" for WWII).
There you have Stalin's USSR against Hitler's Nazi Germany.
What you see is that authoritarian police states run by mad men can derive from either communist or capitalist economic systems.
Arguing over "left v right" is missing the point. What we hate is not related to the economic system but rather is a more universal threat.
That's what Matt is fighting here.
Hitler was a socialist. He was no friend of capitalism or democratic freedoms.
Not arguing. This current censorship is partisan and is being run by the Democrats/left. It needs to be called out for what it is.
It's all about the Benjamins baby (Franklin and Netanyahu) and they rule BOTH sides of the aisle.
"Progressive" in 2023 means "ruthless 1890s robber baron," only much worse, because the 1890s RBs didn't have the electronic means of controlling the media that the fascist-progs have today; nor did the 1890 RBs pretend that they were doing anything "beneficial" for mankind.
Get a grip.
It doesn't "mean" that, but people like Hillary Clinton and possibly yourself would very much like us to CONFUSE it with that.
Your state of confusion started a long, long time before our paths ever crossed.
A truly "I am rubber, you are glue" level response, my ideological young friend.
How dare I duel with such a splendid, original intellect?
The thing is: they aren’t “progressives” AND now that the infrastructure is set, both wings of the uniparty are free to use it.
💫
This work merits a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Would that we had a President who would award it to the whole Twitter Files Team.
Hopefully, historians who write about this era will recognize "The Twitter Files" as the beginning of the end of all this woke nonsense, assuming history itself doesn't end
That would first require a functioning President, so will have to wait at least 13 months.
In 13 months, Newsom will have better functioning word salads that the CIC will lap up..
Dead on 100% Thanks Matt
The self-aggrandizing paternalism of these clowns offends almost as much as the censorious “work” they have chosen to perform.
I am a simple carpenter ( good one) and live in a water side “Science Town “ i.e. Woods Hole MA. Every week the local tree killing news rag, The Enterprise, features local scientists and educators that constantly claim that we will all be dead within five years if we don’t address the issue of Climate change right now. A major first step in there eyes to save our water source is “urine diversion” requiring additional plumbing in all new homes and businesses. I keep telling them that I have been pissing in the back yard for 65 years and I get no credit for doing my part. Class warfare?
Urine disagreement, that's all.
I find it quite funny that for the last 4 decades the climate activists have been screeching, "Earth will become uninhabitable within 10 years if we don't reverse climate change now!"
How do we shutdown the Censorship Industrial Complex?
Stop voting for Democrats until they support legislation to shut it down.
As someone mentioned above, the Republicans will do exactly the same thing.
I'm not sure how you can say that. From where I sit, its been the republican-led house that has given Matt and Michael, two died-in-the-wool liberal democrats, a platform to speak, while the demoncrats have been labelling them as 'conspiracy theorists'.
This bespeaks a woeful ignorance of history - it’s even ignorant of current events. The Republicans are already calling for suppression of speech and information- they just don’t currently hold the levers ( but they will shortly). Teachers in the US in some states must call evolution ‘only a theory.’ Books are banned. Adult women are unable to receive best practice medical advice. History must be taught in a manner that upholds patriotism. University tenure has become a thing of the past, absolutely obliterating academic freedom. It is absurd to me that any adult can honestly believe that Republicans aren’t equally likely to use these tools - it’s like you have entirely forgotten the journalists who “suicided” while reporting on Reagan, that Assange is in prison for reporting on Iraq, or the nice men in dark suits who visited private citizens when they objected to the war on terror.
Every word of this is utter bullshit. Deciding the state curriculum of state schools is not “banning” anything. California is the only state that passed any laws telling doctors they aren’t allowed to tell their patients true information regarding COVID if it contradicts the state.
You’re just a partisan idiot that knows nothing beyond the last MSNBC bumper sticker you read.
Have you been watching any actual news? The rank and file of both parties started calling for censorship over Israel. While I am sure there may be some good-faith actors involved in this, they are few, far between - and ultimately do what is demanded of them by their donors.
The patriot act and mass surveillance was ushered in by Republicans and the PNAC crowd (Wolfowitz, Cheney et al)—— and was continued by the Dems. Bidens WH is filled with the exact same ghouls who ran Bush’s WH.
The cabal of security state and big money interests that run our country do not change from administration to administration. The owners and ultimate interests of MSNBC and Fox are more or less the same. And their trick at this point is to silo us into this absurd and deadly partisanship over what is essentially unimportant so we can believe that someone we live in a Republican Democracy because we have strong emotions about culture war bullshit.
As to what I said above, none of it was “bullshit” and I sure as fuck don’t get my news from sock puppets like Rachel Maddow.
You're misinformed and glaringly ignorant of the subject to which you speak. Republicans and the Right are banning all sorts of books, ideas, and thoughts that run counter to their homogenized vision of WhiteChristianville.
For example: the phony fascist hate group "Ain't Gay If It's a Three-Way" Moms For Liberty. These fascist, hypocritical bitches never met a book they couldn't burn or ban. Most of them strike me as never meeting a book that they could read. But that's for another day. And Republican-controlled state legislatures are racing to see who can out-fashy and out-ban one another with radical revisionist legislation. Come on. Get hep. Do some research.
And how 'bout them racy Florida Zieglers? Moms For Liberty and a Whole Lot More!
Explain how Moms For Liberty are a "fascist" group. Seriously. Do you even know what the word means?
"adult women". nothing to do with covid
Do you support HR140?
https://congress.gov/118/bills/hr140/BILLS-118hr140ih.pdf
Wow.
I'm sorry you have been so propagandized. Since you're commenting here I assume you have read some of Taibbi's articles. Why then ignore their content?
Are you talking to me Burt? I have followed Taibbi since he was a baby reporter. And Hedges. And Mate. And Greenwald - and pretty much all the rest. I also read BOOKS. BIG BOOKS. And I follow politics and political movements carefully, and I know history well - not just the history we are fed in school - but the history of politically and global movements. Now, why is it that partisans always think people who don't agree with them are 'propagandized' whereas they themselves are not.
We are all heavily propogandized all the time. That any adult human being believes anything a politician says - especially because they belong to your preferred party - is mostly absurd. Especially given our collective life experiences of being lied to about everything all the time by whichever party is in office.
LBJ lied us into a war. Nixon lied us deeper into a war. Ford doesn't count, and when Carter tried to fight back against the deep state, Bush stole the election on Reagan's behalf. Reagan's administration lied about everything, including arms for hostages, trickle-down economics, and the blood bath in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. Clinton lied to us about nearly everything, and pretty much pushed through the completion of Reagan's anti-worker, pro-globalists, Neo-liberal agenda. Bush Jr lied us into war after war, and Obama lied about the bail-out, the security state, mass survellience, and health care. Trump lied pretty much everytime he opened his mouth. And now we have Genocide Joe who lies every bit as easily as Trump, but with better manners.
So - tell me again... why you believe that any administration is beholden at any point to actual citizens?
You have been propagandized into believing that Republicans are banning books. No books have been banned (I hereby admit that I fell for this story initially as well), so perhaps you could look into that further.
Well at least you admit that both parties do it. Dems worse at the present moment IMHO but that could change. Politics is about power and that is going to entail lying or being creative in using information.
Taibbi definitely understands that history didn't start with the current Congress and that Republicans in the past (and most assuredly in the future) will use the same tactics as the current Dems if given the chance.
The House is not where the power is. It’s in the Administrative State, nominally under Biden, but that could change. We have government by urban professionals, who probably go Democrat now for the most part, but I think that largely irrelevant to the “power” mindset. They could switch from “Save the Planet” is holy to religious fundamentalism for their virtue signaling, but would still act the same way they do now.
I think you are wrong about the 'urban professional' thing - and about whether they go Democrat for the most part; the Federalist Society holds great sway over our judiciary, and our courts from municipal - federal have quietly moved really far right, as has much of our military and military leadership. And - Democrats no longer stand for what they once stood for, virtue signaling aside. We have two pro-war, neoliberal, anti-worker parties who think most of the citizens (I mean 'consumers') are mostly a waste of air.
I hope I am wrong on that score, but don’t think I am. Once the Democrats get full power (they’re strongly massaging the abortion issue to that end), we will see a lot more of those urban professionals in the court system, including the Supreme Court. The Administrative State is already chuck-full, and are anxious to go full bore with their social engineering plans.
Someone we all know wrote a book called “Insane Clown President” which really catches what Trump is all about. Their push to get rid of him isn’t so much because he is nuts, but because he’ll probably try to fire the lot. Which is when the Constitution will be formally suspended. But I don’t think he will get elected.
Guv'ment by urban professionals? Hey, I seen that Jim Jordan and Clay Higgins fella and both them Boebert and Taylor-Greene gals and in my opinion theys all county fair material.
When the Republicans eventually regain power, they may do just the same thing.
Some probably will, but some won’t. The Democrats have politburo like consensus. Name one dissenting voice?
Like the Republican consensus of the Patriot Act? Of PNAC? Of enormous tax cuts for the donor classes? Or how about the bipartisan consensus for the genocide we are watching roll out before our very eyes? Or for pretty much EVERY war that benefits Booz Allen / Raytheon / Bechtal / Halliburtan?
Bill, on exactly what are you basing your idea that congress is filled with people who care about anything except getting and holding onto power? Is it because one party has shown themselves to be substantially better on delivering a living wage, holding the powerful to account, or making sure that the lives of our children are better than ours? Is it because one party, is less slavish when it comes to pleasing their donors?
Every Democrat except Russell Feingold voted for the Patriot Act, three Republican Congressmen did the same. The only call I hear for genocide is the sweet ditty From the river to the sea. I’m guessing that is on your Spotify playlist.
Dissenting from what?
It was Cheney/Bush who obliterated Constitutional Rights to privacy and free speech.
Both parties are power hungry bastards with no ethics or moral compass.
There may be individual members doing good work (looking at you, Rep Jordan!) but they are few and far between.
Republicans should only vote for Republicans who loudly support HR140. See below.
Why limit the voters to Republicans?
Agreed. Good point.
I absolutely applaud the republicans who are supportive of Taibbi's and Shellenberger's work. I will also say they appear to be *very* unpopular in their own party. That's just from the outside looking in. I don't have a lot of confidence in the republican congress as a whole, but there are some that give me hope.
"...I don't have a lot of confidence in the republican congress as a whole..." Really being unnecessarily pessimistic here.
Which side calls for censorship depends on current events. It's been mostly Republicans calling for any pro-Palestinian / anti-Israel speech to be censored. Why? Because they're all beholden to AIPAC.
The Republicans are far from perfect on this issue. However, it is the Republicans who are introducing legislation to shutdown the Censorship Industrial Complex and they are getting no support from Democrats. Until this changes Democrats do not deserve our vote. Only consequences at elections will change their minds.
https://congress.gov/118/bills/hr140/BILLS-118hr140ih.pdf
The only problem is there is no "Censorship Industrial Complex."
"We delivered significantly more evidence for the Censorship Industrial Complex than in March. And therein lies their real objection: Democrats don’t want to talk about this because they know they are guilty."
https://public.substack.com/p/dogma-and-arrogance-behind-democrats
The Republicans may very well try to play the censorship game if given the chance, but they don't and won't ever have control of all institutions that can ensure censorship. That's the difference between the Democrats and Republicans - the Democrats possess the ability to control Government, social media, Hollywood, news media, etc. Republicans can only capture one of those institutions.
That could be true now, but not necessarily permanent. It’s more evidence for the Party of Evil, vs. the Party of Stupid. It’s no evidence of one or the other having any moral high ground.
Why is this relevant? Because anyone who thinks adhering to the Republicans will be a morally improved situation is bound to either be deceived or deluded. I’ll probably tend Republican for a while, only because they’re out of power (thin House majority is not being in power; abortion issue to soon torpedo that majority).
Hollywood?
No they won't. The whole point of being a Republican these days is to dismantle the whole corrupt progressive establishment, drive a stake into it's heart, and drop its corpse down a deep mine shaft.
...and then to rebuild a corrupt regressive establishment. They ALL are owned by the SAME people, and as long as Citizens United stands, they all will be.
Are you sure it's not to lie, cheat, and steal their way to power and once there, get down to some serious American fascist governing? That's what I hear on the streets, anyway.
This would have been a perfect end to Matt's speech! The metaphor is chilling and clear.
I disagree. The narrative that “they are all the same” is a trick to induce apathy. As Matt and Walter discussed on the podcast this week, Republicans don’t have the kind of numbers or influence within the the administrative state and other institutions as the Democrats. Government, media, and NGOs are overwhelmingly populated by Democrats. Just look at the voter registration numbers for D.C. or surveys of big tech and NGO employees. As long as the professional/managerial class is dominated by Democrats, they will organically control these institutions by sheer force of numbers. And the censorship-industrial complex was developed to keep their favored candidates in power.
I'm old enough to remember Cheney/Bush and the media complicacy in controlling the narrative about the Iraq War. Patriot Act ring a bell?
Republicans are just as bad as Democrats.
Even if it were true that they WANTED to be as bad, the Dems are herd animals, and the Republicans lack that characteristic, so their motivations don't propagate into universal action like you see with the Democrats at every level of govt.
Oh, thanks for sharing that Chinese fortune cookie political science wisdom.
Lol.
Look up Reagan's 11th Commandment.
NeverTrumpers and all the administration "resistance" members were presumably unavailable for comment.
lol yourself
How does one "organically" control anything or anybody? What's your problem with conventional control? It's less healthy, sure, but it gets the job done.
No. Not really. Why would they give power back to the left. Constitutionalist don’t go for central control by big government. Of course predicting any future outcomes is a fools game.
Shut down the federal government almost entirely. Sue, sue, and sue some more to take down the bureaucracy. Pare it down to actual constitutional levels. The further away power gets, the more corrupt it becomes. If power can't be decentralized and sent back to the states, we will undoubtedly become a fascist dictatorship. We're almost there.
When the Democrats talk about abolishing the Electoral College, this is exactly what they are hoping to prevent (...the return of decentralized states rights.)
I believe it's about majority rule and the democratic principle of every vote is an equal vote.
If only we didn’t have that pesky Constitution, we could bask in the glow of mob rule.
Republic, dickhead.
Not a majority rule democracy.
Majority morons don't get to rule, sorry.
Oh, yes, one of the "We are a Republic not a Democracy" boys. Be interesting to research the right-wing chud who coined it and thought it a clever propaganda talking point. My guess it was an amateur working out of his grandma's basement. And the right-wing moron who first muttered it and gave it legs in the haze-bound Rightmosphere. A distinction without a difference, but I'm sure that fact irritates you.
What's it to you anyway? You and your schoolmates clearly aren't interested in either concept.
Here's a little Jefferson for you, schoolboy.
"...One way to understand that idea was articulated by Jefferson himself way back in 1816, when he wrote: "We may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition."
"It is hard to imagine a better statement of the two concepts as they may be comingled and act in concert."
It's Sunday, so no quiz forthcoming.
The Republicans are doing the same thing. Look at how they've called for any pro-Palestinian / anti-Israel speech to be censored.
Republicans are not perfect but some Republicans are holding hearings to expose the attacks on the First Amendment. Some Republicans have proposed HR 140 to attack the problem. What are Democrats doing to attack the problem?
This is all so purposeful. Our free speech right is something our government no longer believes in. They are making "disagreeing" a crime.
It’s not disagreeing, it’s “having incorrect thought”. We used to have “dictatorship of the proletariat”; we now have dictatorship of the affluent professional.
The dictatorship of the proletariat requires that the Nomenklatura be in charge of it.
Really excellent speech. I hope someone in that dysfunctional congressional body will listen
Congress doesn't listen to anybody but themselves and their donors. It's all a show.
There was a time when letters from constituents had a measurable effect on legislators’ votes.
Tony Benn's five questions concerning power:
1. What Power Have You Got?
2. Where Did You Get It From?
3. In Whose Interests Do You Exercise It?
4. To Whom Are You Accountable?
5. How Can We Get Rid Of You?
Well done, Matt.
Fantastic. One of your very best. Bravo!
Americans all need to wake up to this truth. If there has ever been a matter worth protesting in the streets it’s this. Our freedom of speech is crucial to our freedom. All the talk about dis- or misinformation is ridiculous in my opinion.
People lie. As a Christian you know that there’s probably no one who hasn’t lied. No one is going to stop that in others, so their attempt is to control it isn’t possible, IMO. Just another tool to try to control using their lies! You nailed it & said it well!
Excellent!! It has been and continues to be a class war.