Update: Callin Discussion With Glenn Greenwald at 3:00 p.m. EST
www.racket.news
UPDATE: Had to send out a new message, since the previous one contained an erroneous link and also left out the main event: old friend Glenn Greenwald is going to be joining me for the first hour. Should be a great discussion. Come by at 3:00 PM EST.
After running a pair of items this week on the same theme — an interview with Paul Thacker, the British Medical Journal author whose article was deemed true but “missing context” by Facebook, and Matt Orfalea’s mashup of the “lab leak” conspiracy theory madness from our recent past — I thought today might be a good day for a Callin discussion on the ongoing efforts at narrative-policing in the media sphere. This goes on as the White House and the Surgeon General have begun pressuring Spotify to “do more” about misinformation (they seldom name the actual misinformation), and the campaign to clamp down on alternative media in general has grown more intense. I know I’ve hit this theme before, but today I want to dig into some of the background leading up to this moment.
If you can make it, click here to join Glenn and me at 3:00 p.m.
Great discussion so far. Glenn is KILLING IT explaining how the social media companies are being controlled by the government, which is a violation of the First Amendment.
Joe Biden's Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, during an interview with MSNBC, suggested that censoring Joe Rogan would help curb the flow of misinformation surrounding covid. This is akin to the mob stopping by your Italian restaurant to admire the décor, then proclaiming it would be a shame if something happened to it.
When corporations take their direction from government, there’s a word for that. It’s fascism. Not fake “Oh no Trump is a dictator” fascism, but honest-to-goodness fascism that says if you don’t hand over a wad of cash, something just might happen to your lovely little restaurant.
Remember that over the past few years, Democrats have been threatening all sorts of actions against Facebook and other social media companies. Set against this backdrop, the threat is clear: You do what we want or we destroy you.
I cancelled my sub to Glenn on the anniversary of his move to substack. He has found a niche in which his fame, adulation and significance grew by feeding well-spiced red meat to people who get a kick out of hating and feeling superior to Team Blue and PMC. It's a variation on Hate Inc. His business is schismogenic. His criticisms of Team Blue/PMC are valid. I just no longer want to spend my money and brain cycles on so much one-sided negativity on a political cleavage that I believe serves the status quo very well and is counter-productive to my aspirations. I still believe in the political power of a populist/reformist agenda based on solidarity against ruling elites and this demands solidarity across the obsolete L/R and D/R divide.
Those were superb and refreshing insights, including professional jealousy and a measurable class element in the mainstream’s condescension and paranoia about Rogan. “Not our kind of people”.
There's a reason they refuse to identify any specific alleged misinformation. The want to chill all free speech. Everyone must second guess EVERYTHING they say because Biden and his henchmen may identify you as an enemy of the people.
Isn't this interesting? Here are two journalists, who used to have some credibility as part of the democratic and progressive 'left" but now are lost in a morass of false equivalency and bogged down in blind spots.
Either one or both of them expressed today a feeling of being "more pessimistic" in the last 5 years. How about asking your readers and listeners the following question? Do you feel pessimistic or optimistic after seeing and participating in the huge mobilization of voters in 2020 of all colors, nationalities, and backgrounds who went to the polls in the middle of a pandemic to remove a racist and white supremacist president and his corrupt party from power? Maybe that wasn't too important to the two of you, but I am damn sure that it was important to those Black women in Georgia who turned out in massive numbers to elect their first African American senator, and to the Navajos and Utes in Arizona who turned the state blue. Now it is those same groups who are living in the extreme and present danger
of physical attacks and of having their voting rights diluted and limited by Republicons in order to gain control of Congress and the White House again.
We have a political system of lesser evils, and the very imperfect Democrats are obviously the lesser evil on a variety of issues: womens' rights, immigration reform, environmental protection, clean
energy, reforming the tax structure, union, and labor rights and I could go on and on....
The T-RUMP crime family got into power for many reasons, but one of them was that some Democratic and independent voters who should have known better bought the bogus line that there is no difference between the two parties. Because of this ignorance and naivete, we have a Supreme Court today which will deprive millions of women of a fundamental human right. The damage that was done in the last 4 years will be felt for generations. It could have been avoided. Thank you.
1/ The entire business model of the internet is clickbait. It really is that simple.
2/ The Democrats have yet to figure out why solidly Democrat West Virginia became solidly Republican West Virginia in the political wink of an eye.
3/ Trump is more much more effect than cause, a salesman/entertainer who is an excellent fit for a society that values American Idol, The Apprentice, likes, recommends, clicks, influencers, etc. over substance.
In the summer of 2020 I started reading lots of local papers (online.) I had realized that the national press across the entire political spectrum all had a specific agenda designed to appeal to a very specific demographic. At the same time, local papers had to appeal to whomever was around in order to stay in business, an invariably more diverse group. I had six Montana papers I followed. (Fewer now.) While both before and after the election the national media was saturated with stories about every real or imagined Trump fart and every real or imagined reaction to the real or imagined fart, in Montana, in the heart of Trump country, there was rarely even a mention of Trump in the local papers.
Summing up: every bit of online media with a national focus absolutely adores Donald Trump. He is their meal ticket, a clickbaiter's wet dream.
God what a tedious bunch of twits the media-tech-industrial complex has become. Fabricating monsters and demons out of almost nothing, then cowering in fear or attacking with a murderous and guiltless impunity. The great angels of God laying waste to the enemies of all that’s true, just and right. That’s the mind image. The reality is worse than the ugliest stereotypes of totalitarian thought regimes. Not the reality of those regimes, but the cartoons awash with darkly cynical humor and presumed superiority drawn back when the USA was the USA and largely believed in its own sacred principles.
The “complex” is a cynical joke, devouring the nation, and run by children who never grew up. Everything is dangerous, everything is a threat, everything is a risk of “harm.” Even God is dead. And in the place of God is “narrative”. You pray to the narrative and the narrative brings life — a life of cowering, financial grift, narcissistic preening, virtue signaling and cashing in. If you sin against the narrative you are deplatformed, denigrated, denounced and hopefully, in the minds of the narrative’s self-appointed saints, destroyed.
Narratives are words and the word is God, the Bible says. But “the narrative” is not the Logos of John of Patmos, the great Greek luminescent knowing that comes from individuation and awareness, it’s a pose, a stance toward reality that frames so narrowly, so self-servingly that it’s almost a lie but without the conscious fabulation of a lie. It’s a myth, blind and reductive, an atavistic form of devolution backwards and downwards into the Saurian group mind. It’s an unconscious and instinctive blind lust for power and control, and it parades under a skin of pretension that’s translucent in direct proportion to the viewer’s consciousness.
History will never judge the individual because almost none rise to visibility that history can see. But consciousness, the true Logos, will judge in its time, and when it does it will be privately in the mind at first and then publicly as a form of withering shame. Today’s narrative worshippers will be “brought to justice” by the natural light of mind that shines everywhere but nowhere the eye alone can see. They don’t see now but then they will. They should understand now that grace is ascension from the grip of demons. Because that is what they will need from “the other” that they now demonize and seek to destroy however they can to be forgiven for what they are now doing and for what they have done. And it won’t come easily.
I appreciate the discussion, but can't you mention someone besides Carlson and Rogan?
Caitlin Johnston, Scott Ritter, theSaker, Pepe Escobar, John Kiriaku, Ray McGovern, Op-Ed News, Consortium News, (the last two for very different perspectives that I totally endorse). Jimmy Dore maybe?
Facebook lost 1 million subscribers and its stock price dropped by 25% today.
WRT Covid, where is a report from -any- of the 6 "major" studies being conducted on Ivermectin and other treatments for Covid? I caught it at the beginning of December and immediately contacted the UofMN study several times using each of the three ways to join their study. I heard nothing.
These studies have been on-going much longer than it took to grant EUA to the mRNA studies.
Is the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt anti-Semitic or Outrageously Hypocritical?
In July 2020, The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) adopted definitions of “racism” which excluded most Jews as possible targets of racism, Each of its definitions limited racism to actions against “People of Color.” Until a day ago, the ADL’s first definition was:
“Racism: The marginalization and/or oppression of PEOPLE OF COLOR based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.” (Caps added)
Then, on Monday, January 31, 2022, Whoopi Goldberg adopted the ADL’s definitions of racism in discussing the Holocaust, saying that it was an example of “man’s inhumanity to man” and “not about race.” Ms. Goldberg was immediately attacked and one of her loudest critics was Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League. All Whoopi did was agree with the ADL! Talk about grandiose hypocrisy!
BREAKING NEWS! Within the last day or so, the ADL has changed its definition of racism to:
Racism (interim definition): Racism occurs when individuals or institutions show more favorable evaluation or treatment of an individual or group based on race or ethnicity.
Obviously, the ADL changed its definition of racism because so many Jews started to scream and holler about the absurd definitions of racism being limited to only “people of color,” which exclude most, but not all, pre-War II Jews and most of today’s American Jews.
Did Greenblatt own up to his role? No! This is a serious moral failing. His organization is the one which set forth new definitions of racism according to the new Wokerism. Now Greenblatt wants to play the good guy role and pretend to help Whoopi. Here’s what Greenblatt said to CNN’s Chris Lemon on Tuesday night (Feb 1,2022)
“We sometimes have people in public places who can say clumsy things about race or faith or gender. I don’t believe in cancel culture. I like the phrase that my friend Nick Cannon uses. We need ‘counsel culture,’”
WTF? The person who needs counseling in Integrity 101 is Greenblatt. When Whoopi Goldberg was under fire for adopting the ADL definitions, Greenblatt threw gasoline on the fire, maintaining that "The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people—who they deemed to be an inferior race."
Let’s Look at the ADL’s New “Interim” Definition
The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith started September 1913 and it now has only an interim definition of racism? And is it ever a bizarre one.
Racism now is not treating people badly but is treating one group more favorably than another group. That means all Affirmative Action programs are racist, but genocide is not. I guess we can see why it is an interim definition.
Why didn’t Greenblatt admit the ADL’s role and apologize to Whoopi in public and why did he not say in public that the ADL changed the definition which got Whoopi into trouble?
Geenblatt is Playing Us for Fools
The first definition of racism has been changed, but the ADL’s absurd 3rd definition remains the same.
“Systemic Racism: A combination of systems, institutions and factors that advantage white people and for PEOPLE OF COLOR, cause widespread harm and disadvantages in access and opportunity. One person or even one group of people did not create systemic racism, rather it: (1) is grounded in the history of our laws and institutions which were created on a foundation of white supremacy;* (2) exists in the institutions and policies that advantage white people and disadvantage people of color; and (3) takes places in interpersonal communication and behavior (e.g., slurs, bullying, offensive language) that maintains and supports systemic inequities and systemic racism.
“* In the above definition, the term “white supremacy” refers to the systematic marginalization or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges people who identify as white. It does not refer to extremist ideologies which believe that white people are genetically or culturally superior to non-whites and/or that white people should live in a whites-only society.”
Although the definition is close to incoherent a couple aspects seems clear.
(1) It only applies to people of color and thus excludes most American Jews. Thus a murdering Jews in a synagogue is not based on racism. Does it become racism if a dark skinned Sephardic Jew is killed?
(2) The other notable feature is that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution on which our nation is founded are racist. The ADL’s second aspect of American racism is: “grounded in the history of our laws and institutions which were created on a foundation of white supremacy.” I guess Greenblatt has an edition of the Declaration of Independence which says “White people and only white people have inalienable rights.”
Matt writes, "...the campaign to clamp down on alternative media...."
For all practical purposes, there is no alternative media. Unlike the Sixties (essentially mid-'60s through late '70s), what he is calling "alternative media" exists almost entirely online and thus dependent on the "goodwill" of mega-corporations. The minute so-called alternative media becomes a genuine threat to the profits and control of corporate America, it can be and will be closed off. The alternative press of fifty years ago did not depend on corporations, and though it had to fight Fed (and sometimes more local) efforts to intimidate printers, advertisers, and distributors, as well as the people who produced the papers, it nonetheless stuck to its guns (sometimes literally of necessity) and maintained a way to express, publicize, and organize a broad oppositional movement.
1/ The entire business model of the internet is clickbait. It really is that simple.
2/ The Democrats have yet to figure out why solidly Democrat West Virginia became solidly Republican West Virginia in the political wink of an eye.
3/ Trump is more much more effect than cause, a salesman/entertainer who is an excellent fit for a society that values American Idol, The Apprentice,, likes, recommends, clicks, etc. over substance.
Any chance you could discuss the global monetary reset that's scheduled for the weekend of the February 22nd? It's pretty clear from the numbers they're going bankrupt everyone and bailout themselves again.
Also. Prepare for the valentine's day massacre... 👀 Yes I'm serious and it's pretty obvious if you know where to look.
I'm hoping to call in today. Not sure this crowd (i.e. commenters on Matt's Substack) will appreciate this reference/link, but I've been getting a lot out the "Decoding the Gurus" podcast. Aside from the usual IDW suspects they cover, they've done very good episodes on Rogan (pre-Malone/McCullough) as well as the Malone/McCullough episodes specifically. They also just put out a short(er) one on Rogan's Insta "apology," but I believe it's only available for Patreon supporters. For my money, this pair of podcasters (Chris, an Irish anthropologist who lives in Japan and Matt, an Australian pysch professor) not only do a very good job "decoding" the rhetoric of their subjects, but Chris is pretty damn funny.
Just so people don't miss this exchange of ideas. Clearly, it should be noted that one of the obvious problems with the Taibbi and Greenwald followers, as you can see below, is that they love to disagree and deny what has already been shown conclusively in case filings and court records going back for years. Then they respond with Republicon talking points with little, if any, evidence. It's hard to take them seriously.
Jdalbey 9 hr ago
Trump? So someone that wants jobs to stay in the USA is a racist? Trump was a wage earners revolt from the oligarchy
2Reply
Nick Kehrlein1 hr ago
he said that so people would vote for him, he didn't actually do anything towards that. the china tarriffs were ineffective and the only other thing he did was give money to rich people. None of it addressed the root cause of why the jobs are offshored in the first place. Ironically what would need to happen, policy that ensured jobs couldn't be offshored, would be labeled "communism" if it were done by anyone else.
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Jdalbey1 hr ago
I think he tried but from day one both sides hated him.
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Kehrlein1 hr ago
I think it’s best to judge politicians by what the do rather than what they vaguely mention. Trump clearly cares only about himself and does not care one bit for the working class. Even his tax cuts missed the working class, he only gave them to their bosses
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Jdalbey1 hr ago
Disagree
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Jack MudryWrites Jack’s Newsletter ·7 hr ago
If that's all you know about Don the CON'S racism and corruption, then you are part of the problem. T-RUMP is part of the oligarchy and anybody who believes that he's not is naïve and totally misinformed. BTW, the vast majority of people of color are wage earners and they DID NOT vote for the CON. Thank you.
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Jdalbey1 hr ago
Disagree
Reply
Jack MudryWrites Jack’s Newsletter ·just now
You can disagree all you want, but the facts are the facts. He comes from a wealthy father who was a real estate magnate who subsidized him at every turn and rescued him from a number of failures, but couldn't rescue him from all his financial disasters. David Kay Johnson, Pulitzer prize winning journalist, has written extensively about Don the CON and research his 5 bankruptcy filings and all the suits against him and the millions of $$$ he has paid in fines. This is part of an extensive public record, so you can deny it all you want but that just shows your total lack of credibility. As for the tax cuts, the vast majority of money saved by taxpayers went to the upper 1% of income earners like T-RUMP, who was the only
President who refused to reveal his tax returns. Finally, I said that the vast majority of people of color are wage earners(very easy to verify) and they did not vote for the predator in chief. No experts or analysts dispute that. So, all in all, your silly and empty answer of "disagree" is just posturing by someone with no knowledge or expertise, just puffery. Go back to school !
The protest in Canada is about the right to protest not the protests themselves. Her in Quebec we are over 85% for the right to protest and we are 85% in support of our government. This is not the USA. We are a democracy it is our government it does not belong to corporations. In Canada corporations have the same rights as rocks and toilet tissue. 85% of our truckers support both the government and the right to protest.
This is what press freedom looks like. It is rather empirical.
Listening in (no Apple product) Could someone ask for comments on the emerging theme of couching the censorship argument within the "publisher/platform" argument. It seems to me that there is an intellectual slight of hand here: inverting court precedent giving private companies the right to moderate content into an obligation to do so. The FT editorial board made this argument today, arguing that Spotify needed to moderate disinformation, ironically in a piece that repeated the "horse dewormer" line.
I tried to listen to you and Bret Whazizname on Bari's podcast.
You did good, but that motherfucker rolled over you, and monopolized the first hour by a mile.
No, I don't think it's Bari's job to rein you two in; you're both grownups, right?
Here's the thing...
You have an amazing command of language when you write. Debating's not really in your wheelhouse. I hope you're not beating up yourself too much over it (I'll put $ on you having done so).
The fact is Brett Whoziz (I know what his last fuckin' name is, I just wanna dis him) is more experienced in this arena than you are. Or maybe more naturally gifted. He failed utterly to address directly a single point you raised; instead he deflected like he was on the bridge of The USS Enterprise battling Klingons.
You're pushing 50 (yeah, I know you're over 50, but either way you're a kid to this old fart, k? lol). You don't need to develop this skill set.
It's not that Whatchamacallit's all that good, or that he made better points; he just dominated the conversation. Shit, it was so reminiscent of Maher. (Yeah, I'm a fan of yours...)
Greenwald woulda made this chump cry (if Bretty had the balls to engage him; but I'll bet he'd punk out). Just remember: Glenn's trained in that shit, okay?
None of your points in that 1st hr (I hadda turn it off) were answered nor diminished. You did a good job in that department.
I think the world's a better place for you doing what you do. Which is good, b/c ol' Brett and his half-assed (tho' ubiquitous) perspectives make it a harder place to live in every time he opens his mouth or writes some half-assed shit.
You're a good guy doing good work. And what you're doing here on Substack is fucking important in so many ways.
hey matt. this seemed like a good place to drop this topic. I have included a twitter link below. in the last couple of hours several twitter accounts of folks in the Fantom NFT space have been shut down without warning, reason or regard. a piece on this would be informative, and at this point, I think necessary.
Hopefully either you or Glen are digging into the Ukraine/Russia thing. I am avoiding most mainstream media because I don't trust a thing the say as the mouth piece of the propaganda machine. As much as censorship matters to me, I ask that you tell me whether to care about the hysteria my friends and coworkers are speaking about, or if this is fear mongering. Keep doing the work you do.
I’m sure many of us here are keeping an eye on the Canadian trucker’s protest. I read on Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity site, which I respect, a lengthy guest post from Canadian subscriber about the situation. He cited the use of crisis communication firms by politicians there to aggressively shape public perception and suspected it would be used against the truckers. The commenter questioned the authenticity of polling data used to give impression of a public bias in favor of the politician/govt position cited as in media coverage.
I had never considered that — naive as I am. I don’t know if that’s possible (or so common as to be cliche). But wanted to note it in case others and/or MT view it as a possible trick in the bag of govt-media propaganda.
Evidently the trucker protest seems to have a lot of grassroots support, but it’s hard to quantify that support. Polling data would be one way, but whether published poll data is true or simply fabrication is not clear to me. Obviously any polling firm can publicize polling data results, so there’s no “barriers to entry” preventing accurate polling, assuming a polling firm is motivated. They may not be if they view going against mainstream messaging as deleterious to their business interests. Maybe this issue would merit scrutiny by interested journalists? I don’t know, but leave it here just for consideration, since polling data is often used in political and cultural reporting.
I left Chicago 15 years ago and returned to mon payee. Fifteen years ago Quebec's revolution had already occurred and Quebec had decided on a social democracy and a free press. Quebec is a secular humanist liberal democracy. It is amazing to me how little America has done to adapt to the revolutionary changes taking place.
Gilles Vigneault has asked to be taken off Spotify
Do not want Social Media to be my news source. Do check it until I break the habit. FB is and always has been postcards and magazine articles to flip through.
IS IT CHRISTMAS?!?!??!
Great discussion so far. Glenn is KILLING IT explaining how the social media companies are being controlled by the government, which is a violation of the First Amendment.
---------
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/censors-gonna-censor
Joe Biden's Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, during an interview with MSNBC, suggested that censoring Joe Rogan would help curb the flow of misinformation surrounding covid. This is akin to the mob stopping by your Italian restaurant to admire the décor, then proclaiming it would be a shame if something happened to it.
When corporations take their direction from government, there’s a word for that. It’s fascism. Not fake “Oh no Trump is a dictator” fascism, but honest-to-goodness fascism that says if you don’t hand over a wad of cash, something just might happen to your lovely little restaurant.
Remember that over the past few years, Democrats have been threatening all sorts of actions against Facebook and other social media companies. Set against this backdrop, the threat is clear: You do what we want or we destroy you.
I cancelled my sub to Glenn on the anniversary of his move to substack. He has found a niche in which his fame, adulation and significance grew by feeding well-spiced red meat to people who get a kick out of hating and feeling superior to Team Blue and PMC. It's a variation on Hate Inc. His business is schismogenic. His criticisms of Team Blue/PMC are valid. I just no longer want to spend my money and brain cycles on so much one-sided negativity on a political cleavage that I believe serves the status quo very well and is counter-productive to my aspirations. I still believe in the political power of a populist/reformist agenda based on solidarity against ruling elites and this demands solidarity across the obsolete L/R and D/R divide.
Those were superb and refreshing insights, including professional jealousy and a measurable class element in the mainstream’s condescension and paranoia about Rogan. “Not our kind of people”.
Please kindly consider using a different platform since Callin seems to be incapable of providing any support for Android or PC.
I want to cry because all of this justifies what I have been saying for the last four years or so.
There's a reason they refuse to identify any specific alleged misinformation. The want to chill all free speech. Everyone must second guess EVERYTHING they say because Biden and his henchmen may identify you as an enemy of the people.
Any looking for an unbiased assessment of the whole COVID debacle ~ check out JOHN Campbell from the UK. Google him. 2+ million followers now.
Isn't this interesting? Here are two journalists, who used to have some credibility as part of the democratic and progressive 'left" but now are lost in a morass of false equivalency and bogged down in blind spots.
Either one or both of them expressed today a feeling of being "more pessimistic" in the last 5 years. How about asking your readers and listeners the following question? Do you feel pessimistic or optimistic after seeing and participating in the huge mobilization of voters in 2020 of all colors, nationalities, and backgrounds who went to the polls in the middle of a pandemic to remove a racist and white supremacist president and his corrupt party from power? Maybe that wasn't too important to the two of you, but I am damn sure that it was important to those Black women in Georgia who turned out in massive numbers to elect their first African American senator, and to the Navajos and Utes in Arizona who turned the state blue. Now it is those same groups who are living in the extreme and present danger
of physical attacks and of having their voting rights diluted and limited by Republicons in order to gain control of Congress and the White House again.
We have a political system of lesser evils, and the very imperfect Democrats are obviously the lesser evil on a variety of issues: womens' rights, immigration reform, environmental protection, clean
energy, reforming the tax structure, union, and labor rights and I could go on and on....
The T-RUMP crime family got into power for many reasons, but one of them was that some Democratic and independent voters who should have known better bought the bogus line that there is no difference between the two parties. Because of this ignorance and naivete, we have a Supreme Court today which will deprive millions of women of a fundamental human right. The damage that was done in the last 4 years will be felt for generations. It could have been avoided. Thank you.
That was cool. Callers were great. ☎️ 💯
Compare and contrast Duck Duck Go & Google?
Two for the price of one! :)
Three things to keep in mind:
1/ The entire business model of the internet is clickbait. It really is that simple.
2/ The Democrats have yet to figure out why solidly Democrat West Virginia became solidly Republican West Virginia in the political wink of an eye.
3/ Trump is more much more effect than cause, a salesman/entertainer who is an excellent fit for a society that values American Idol, The Apprentice, likes, recommends, clicks, influencers, etc. over substance.
In the summer of 2020 I started reading lots of local papers (online.) I had realized that the national press across the entire political spectrum all had a specific agenda designed to appeal to a very specific demographic. At the same time, local papers had to appeal to whomever was around in order to stay in business, an invariably more diverse group. I had six Montana papers I followed. (Fewer now.) While both before and after the election the national media was saturated with stories about every real or imagined Trump fart and every real or imagined reaction to the real or imagined fart, in Montana, in the heart of Trump country, there was rarely even a mention of Trump in the local papers.
Summing up: every bit of online media with a national focus absolutely adores Donald Trump. He is their meal ticket, a clickbaiter's wet dream.
God what a tedious bunch of twits the media-tech-industrial complex has become. Fabricating monsters and demons out of almost nothing, then cowering in fear or attacking with a murderous and guiltless impunity. The great angels of God laying waste to the enemies of all that’s true, just and right. That’s the mind image. The reality is worse than the ugliest stereotypes of totalitarian thought regimes. Not the reality of those regimes, but the cartoons awash with darkly cynical humor and presumed superiority drawn back when the USA was the USA and largely believed in its own sacred principles.
The “complex” is a cynical joke, devouring the nation, and run by children who never grew up. Everything is dangerous, everything is a threat, everything is a risk of “harm.” Even God is dead. And in the place of God is “narrative”. You pray to the narrative and the narrative brings life — a life of cowering, financial grift, narcissistic preening, virtue signaling and cashing in. If you sin against the narrative you are deplatformed, denigrated, denounced and hopefully, in the minds of the narrative’s self-appointed saints, destroyed.
Narratives are words and the word is God, the Bible says. But “the narrative” is not the Logos of John of Patmos, the great Greek luminescent knowing that comes from individuation and awareness, it’s a pose, a stance toward reality that frames so narrowly, so self-servingly that it’s almost a lie but without the conscious fabulation of a lie. It’s a myth, blind and reductive, an atavistic form of devolution backwards and downwards into the Saurian group mind. It’s an unconscious and instinctive blind lust for power and control, and it parades under a skin of pretension that’s translucent in direct proportion to the viewer’s consciousness.
History will never judge the individual because almost none rise to visibility that history can see. But consciousness, the true Logos, will judge in its time, and when it does it will be privately in the mind at first and then publicly as a form of withering shame. Today’s narrative worshippers will be “brought to justice” by the natural light of mind that shines everywhere but nowhere the eye alone can see. They don’t see now but then they will. They should understand now that grace is ascension from the grip of demons. Because that is what they will need from “the other” that they now demonize and seek to destroy however they can to be forgiven for what they are now doing and for what they have done. And it won’t come easily.
I appreciate the discussion, but can't you mention someone besides Carlson and Rogan?
Caitlin Johnston, Scott Ritter, theSaker, Pepe Escobar, John Kiriaku, Ray McGovern, Op-Ed News, Consortium News, (the last two for very different perspectives that I totally endorse). Jimmy Dore maybe?
Facebook lost 1 million subscribers and its stock price dropped by 25% today.
WRT Covid, where is a report from -any- of the 6 "major" studies being conducted on Ivermectin and other treatments for Covid? I caught it at the beginning of December and immediately contacted the UofMN study several times using each of the three ways to join their study. I heard nothing.
These studies have been on-going much longer than it took to grant EUA to the mRNA studies.
WHY?
They are losing control of the narrative and they hate that, so by eliminating any narrative they won't lose control. What could go wrong?
Is the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt anti-Semitic or Outrageously Hypocritical?
In July 2020, The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) adopted definitions of “racism” which excluded most Jews as possible targets of racism, Each of its definitions limited racism to actions against “People of Color.” Until a day ago, the ADL’s first definition was:
“Racism: The marginalization and/or oppression of PEOPLE OF COLOR based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.” (Caps added)
Then, on Monday, January 31, 2022, Whoopi Goldberg adopted the ADL’s definitions of racism in discussing the Holocaust, saying that it was an example of “man’s inhumanity to man” and “not about race.” Ms. Goldberg was immediately attacked and one of her loudest critics was Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League. All Whoopi did was agree with the ADL! Talk about grandiose hypocrisy!
BREAKING NEWS! Within the last day or so, the ADL has changed its definition of racism to:
Racism (interim definition): Racism occurs when individuals or institutions show more favorable evaluation or treatment of an individual or group based on race or ethnicity.
Obviously, the ADL changed its definition of racism because so many Jews started to scream and holler about the absurd definitions of racism being limited to only “people of color,” which exclude most, but not all, pre-War II Jews and most of today’s American Jews.
Did Greenblatt own up to his role? No! This is a serious moral failing. His organization is the one which set forth new definitions of racism according to the new Wokerism. Now Greenblatt wants to play the good guy role and pretend to help Whoopi. Here’s what Greenblatt said to CNN’s Chris Lemon on Tuesday night (Feb 1,2022)
“We sometimes have people in public places who can say clumsy things about race or faith or gender. I don’t believe in cancel culture. I like the phrase that my friend Nick Cannon uses. We need ‘counsel culture,’”
WTF? The person who needs counseling in Integrity 101 is Greenblatt. When Whoopi Goldberg was under fire for adopting the ADL definitions, Greenblatt threw gasoline on the fire, maintaining that "The Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people—who they deemed to be an inferior race."
Let’s Look at the ADL’s New “Interim” Definition
The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith started September 1913 and it now has only an interim definition of racism? And is it ever a bizarre one.
Racism now is not treating people badly but is treating one group more favorably than another group. That means all Affirmative Action programs are racist, but genocide is not. I guess we can see why it is an interim definition.
Why didn’t Greenblatt admit the ADL’s role and apologize to Whoopi in public and why did he not say in public that the ADL changed the definition which got Whoopi into trouble?
Geenblatt is Playing Us for Fools
The first definition of racism has been changed, but the ADL’s absurd 3rd definition remains the same.
“Systemic Racism: A combination of systems, institutions and factors that advantage white people and for PEOPLE OF COLOR, cause widespread harm and disadvantages in access and opportunity. One person or even one group of people did not create systemic racism, rather it: (1) is grounded in the history of our laws and institutions which were created on a foundation of white supremacy;* (2) exists in the institutions and policies that advantage white people and disadvantage people of color; and (3) takes places in interpersonal communication and behavior (e.g., slurs, bullying, offensive language) that maintains and supports systemic inequities and systemic racism.
“* In the above definition, the term “white supremacy” refers to the systematic marginalization or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges people who identify as white. It does not refer to extremist ideologies which believe that white people are genetically or culturally superior to non-whites and/or that white people should live in a whites-only society.”
Although the definition is close to incoherent a couple aspects seems clear.
(1) It only applies to people of color and thus excludes most American Jews. Thus a murdering Jews in a synagogue is not based on racism. Does it become racism if a dark skinned Sephardic Jew is killed?
(2) The other notable feature is that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution on which our nation is founded are racist. The ADL’s second aspect of American racism is: “grounded in the history of our laws and institutions which were created on a foundation of white supremacy.” I guess Greenblatt has an edition of the Declaration of Independence which says “White people and only white people have inalienable rights.”
Matt writes, "...the campaign to clamp down on alternative media...."
For all practical purposes, there is no alternative media. Unlike the Sixties (essentially mid-'60s through late '70s), what he is calling "alternative media" exists almost entirely online and thus dependent on the "goodwill" of mega-corporations. The minute so-called alternative media becomes a genuine threat to the profits and control of corporate America, it can be and will be closed off. The alternative press of fifty years ago did not depend on corporations, and though it had to fight Fed (and sometimes more local) efforts to intimidate printers, advertisers, and distributors, as well as the people who produced the papers, it nonetheless stuck to its guns (sometimes literally of necessity) and maintained a way to express, publicize, and organize a broad oppositional movement.
Three things to keep in mind:
1/ The entire business model of the internet is clickbait. It really is that simple.
2/ The Democrats have yet to figure out why solidly Democrat West Virginia became solidly Republican West Virginia in the political wink of an eye.
3/ Trump is more much more effect than cause, a salesman/entertainer who is an excellent fit for a society that values American Idol, The Apprentice,, likes, recommends, clicks, etc. over substance.
And then they came for me.
Two giants that I will miss because I have an Android. If Call In can remedy this in the next 37 minutes, I'd love to participate.
Any chance you could discuss the global monetary reset that's scheduled for the weekend of the February 22nd? It's pretty clear from the numbers they're going bankrupt everyone and bailout themselves again.
Also. Prepare for the valentine's day massacre... 👀 Yes I'm serious and it's pretty obvious if you know where to look.
Watch the Nasdaq it'll be green soon.
Love both your work. You'll love mine...
I'm hoping to call in today. Not sure this crowd (i.e. commenters on Matt's Substack) will appreciate this reference/link, but I've been getting a lot out the "Decoding the Gurus" podcast. Aside from the usual IDW suspects they cover, they've done very good episodes on Rogan (pre-Malone/McCullough) as well as the Malone/McCullough episodes specifically. They also just put out a short(er) one on Rogan's Insta "apology," but I believe it's only available for Patreon supporters. For my money, this pair of podcasters (Chris, an Irish anthropologist who lives in Japan and Matt, an Australian pysch professor) not only do a very good job "decoding" the rhetoric of their subjects, but Chris is pretty damn funny.
https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm
AWESOME!!!!
I listened to the recording, this was fantastic Matt. More of Glenn and others please.
Just so people don't miss this exchange of ideas. Clearly, it should be noted that one of the obvious problems with the Taibbi and Greenwald followers, as you can see below, is that they love to disagree and deny what has already been shown conclusively in case filings and court records going back for years. Then they respond with Republicon talking points with little, if any, evidence. It's hard to take them seriously.
Jdalbey 9 hr ago
Trump? So someone that wants jobs to stay in the USA is a racist? Trump was a wage earners revolt from the oligarchy
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Nick Kehrlein1 hr ago
he said that so people would vote for him, he didn't actually do anything towards that. the china tarriffs were ineffective and the only other thing he did was give money to rich people. None of it addressed the root cause of why the jobs are offshored in the first place. Ironically what would need to happen, policy that ensured jobs couldn't be offshored, would be labeled "communism" if it were done by anyone else.
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Jdalbey1 hr ago
I think he tried but from day one both sides hated him.
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Kehrlein1 hr ago
I think it’s best to judge politicians by what the do rather than what they vaguely mention. Trump clearly cares only about himself and does not care one bit for the working class. Even his tax cuts missed the working class, he only gave them to their bosses
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Jdalbey1 hr ago
Disagree
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Jack MudryWrites Jack’s Newsletter ·7 hr ago
If that's all you know about Don the CON'S racism and corruption, then you are part of the problem. T-RUMP is part of the oligarchy and anybody who believes that he's not is naïve and totally misinformed. BTW, the vast majority of people of color are wage earners and they DID NOT vote for the CON. Thank you.
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Jdalbey1 hr ago
Disagree
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Jack MudryWrites Jack’s Newsletter ·just now
You can disagree all you want, but the facts are the facts. He comes from a wealthy father who was a real estate magnate who subsidized him at every turn and rescued him from a number of failures, but couldn't rescue him from all his financial disasters. David Kay Johnson, Pulitzer prize winning journalist, has written extensively about Don the CON and research his 5 bankruptcy filings and all the suits against him and the millions of $$$ he has paid in fines. This is part of an extensive public record, so you can deny it all you want but that just shows your total lack of credibility. As for the tax cuts, the vast majority of money saved by taxpayers went to the upper 1% of income earners like T-RUMP, who was the only
President who refused to reveal his tax returns. Finally, I said that the vast majority of people of color are wage earners(very easy to verify) and they did not vote for the predator in chief. No experts or analysts dispute that. So, all in all, your silly and empty answer of "disagree" is just posturing by someone with no knowledge or expertise, just puffery. Go back to school !
The protest in Canada is about the right to protest not the protests themselves. Her in Quebec we are over 85% for the right to protest and we are 85% in support of our government. This is not the USA. We are a democracy it is our government it does not belong to corporations. In Canada corporations have the same rights as rocks and toilet tissue. 85% of our truckers support both the government and the right to protest.
This is what press freedom looks like. It is rather empirical.
https://www.latribune.ca/2022/02/03/envoyer-larmee-a-ottawa-nest-pas-dans-les-cartes-de-justin-trudeau-photosvideos-0846d7e8822f97bb10263a63976a9570
How much more blatant can they be?
I wish folks will cite dates of these censorship events. Also enough with the comments callers - how about some questions?
Listening in (no Apple product) Could someone ask for comments on the emerging theme of couching the censorship argument within the "publisher/platform" argument. It seems to me that there is an intellectual slight of hand here: inverting court precedent giving private companies the right to moderate content into an obligation to do so. The FT editorial board made this argument today, arguing that Spotify needed to moderate disinformation, ironically in a piece that repeated the "horse dewormer" line.
I hope you see this, Matt...
I tried to listen to you and Bret Whazizname on Bari's podcast.
You did good, but that motherfucker rolled over you, and monopolized the first hour by a mile.
No, I don't think it's Bari's job to rein you two in; you're both grownups, right?
Here's the thing...
You have an amazing command of language when you write. Debating's not really in your wheelhouse. I hope you're not beating up yourself too much over it (I'll put $ on you having done so).
The fact is Brett Whoziz (I know what his last fuckin' name is, I just wanna dis him) is more experienced in this arena than you are. Or maybe more naturally gifted. He failed utterly to address directly a single point you raised; instead he deflected like he was on the bridge of The USS Enterprise battling Klingons.
You're pushing 50 (yeah, I know you're over 50, but either way you're a kid to this old fart, k? lol). You don't need to develop this skill set.
It's not that Whatchamacallit's all that good, or that he made better points; he just dominated the conversation. Shit, it was so reminiscent of Maher. (Yeah, I'm a fan of yours...)
Greenwald woulda made this chump cry (if Bretty had the balls to engage him; but I'll bet he'd punk out). Just remember: Glenn's trained in that shit, okay?
None of your points in that 1st hr (I hadda turn it off) were answered nor diminished. You did a good job in that department.
I think the world's a better place for you doing what you do. Which is good, b/c ol' Brett and his half-assed (tho' ubiquitous) perspectives make it a harder place to live in every time he opens his mouth or writes some half-assed shit.
You're a good guy doing good work. And what you're doing here on Substack is fucking important in so many ways.
hey matt. this seemed like a good place to drop this topic. I have included a twitter link below. in the last couple of hours several twitter accounts of folks in the Fantom NFT space have been shut down without warning, reason or regard. a piece on this would be informative, and at this point, I think necessary.
https://twitter.com/southardww/status/1491224286526590982?s=20&t=UvmpGK8_uNPiyys5e2V8pg
Hopefully either you or Glen are digging into the Ukraine/Russia thing. I am avoiding most mainstream media because I don't trust a thing the say as the mouth piece of the propaganda machine. As much as censorship matters to me, I ask that you tell me whether to care about the hysteria my friends and coworkers are speaking about, or if this is fear mongering. Keep doing the work you do.
I’m sure many of us here are keeping an eye on the Canadian trucker’s protest. I read on Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity site, which I respect, a lengthy guest post from Canadian subscriber about the situation. He cited the use of crisis communication firms by politicians there to aggressively shape public perception and suspected it would be used against the truckers. The commenter questioned the authenticity of polling data used to give impression of a public bias in favor of the politician/govt position cited as in media coverage.
I had never considered that — naive as I am. I don’t know if that’s possible (or so common as to be cliche). But wanted to note it in case others and/or MT view it as a possible trick in the bag of govt-media propaganda.
Evidently the trucker protest seems to have a lot of grassroots support, but it’s hard to quantify that support. Polling data would be one way, but whether published poll data is true or simply fabrication is not clear to me. Obviously any polling firm can publicize polling data results, so there’s no “barriers to entry” preventing accurate polling, assuming a polling firm is motivated. They may not be if they view going against mainstream messaging as deleterious to their business interests. Maybe this issue would merit scrutiny by interested journalists? I don’t know, but leave it here just for consideration, since polling data is often used in political and cultural reporting.
Still limited to Apple only?
I left Chicago 15 years ago and returned to mon payee. Fifteen years ago Quebec's revolution had already occurred and Quebec had decided on a social democracy and a free press. Quebec is a secular humanist liberal democracy. It is amazing to me how little America has done to adapt to the revolutionary changes taking place.
Gilles Vigneault has asked to be taken off Spotify
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G551bmF4AhA
Do not want Social Media to be my news source. Do check it until I break the habit. FB is and always has been postcards and magazine articles to flip through.
You guys are doing great work. Thank you!
Sound like a good one!
https://nakedemperor.substack.com/