Perhaps you are right. At least she mentioned him. I hope Caitlin (and everyone else!) took/takes the time to listen to all of Dr. Robert Malone's 3 hour interview on the Joe Rogan show. It's probably the most important video content of this decade.
Just because he created something, it doesn't mean he's right about everything or even right regarding the use of the creation. Lots of creators turn out to be wrong about the use of their creations all throughout history. Defending his freedom of speech does not give way to tacit approval.
It always starts with weirdos and cranks that nobody in their right mind actually supports, or even really wants to defend. It starts with folks like Alex Jones.
But that is not where it ends. And of course the alphabet agencies use front organizations to do their dirty work.
While I have a lot of reservations about Malone and the information he puts out, I'm not all that much more prone to believe Fauci.
Puts me into a quandary since who am I suppose to believe? I've "researched" the issue(s) as best I can. I just come away confused. Confirmation bias is really hard to ignore.
For anyone who really wants to explore Fauci’s (or Bill Gates') credibility, I recommend the book, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (the late Senator RFK’s son). There’s a reason this is the number one seller on Amazon right now. People across the globe are waking up.
But beware: the depth of the corruption and depravity described is exceptionally dispiriting. The criminality RFK, Jr. describes is so monstrous, it literally rivals or exceeds the worst crimes of any previous tyrant of any previous century.
The current gang of democrats have embraced all the Bush-era war criminals, have embraced the racist butchers of Israel for decades, so why not the evil of a Fauci or a Gates? The truth is, both major parties are irredeemably corrupt.
I'd remembered seeing Dr. Malone (who didn't appear particularly sociopathic that day) on Jimmy Dore and so I wanted to refresh my memory about what he had said. I found a link to a Twitter account which was quoting him. On pressing the link I was informed: "This account has been suspended", illustrating Caitlin's point pretty well.
While what I've read about Malone, more or less agrees with your characterization, he has a lot of people who truly believe in him and they dig up all kinds of (not at all clear) evidence in support of him. (Mostly links with indistinct titles that seem meaningless that are published on the NIH web site, which in itself is meaningless.) Then they say "SEE!"
Then there's the FLCCC which (looking at their slick web site) is obviously making money selling Ivermectin (which is no judgement on whether or not Ivermectin is effective) but their acolytes nearly universally declare that Ivermectin is being suppressed by Big Pharma for profits totally ignoring the FLCCC profits. Of course, articles I consider to be "rational" that point out Ivermectins failures are pooh-poohed with references to Uttar Pradesh, totally ignoring the fiascos in other parts of the world.
Dore (and Joe Rogan) are just conduits for information. He does his best to fact check. Yes they've certainly taken a side that is against Fauci, but if one does fact checking on Fauci, there are plenty of sordid events that are backed up with solid evidence just as there are plenty of "Comet Pizza" fabrications. His determination to cut back isolation time to 5 days and the reasoning he gave sounds like quibbling to me. FWIW: Dore's "Covid Money Talks with Dylan Ratigan" were the very best in exposing the corruption in Congress when they passed the CARES act last year which has directly lead to the explosive growth of billionaire control over America's money.
So, we should be able to turn to a "trusted news source" and they should be able to tell us the "truth", but the WaPo and NYT have become propaganda outlets (or more correctly have purged all reliable reporting on any subject from their pages) and the few "news sources" that are reliable (Matt Taibbi, Consortium News, Schearpost) are overwhelmed with "other news". Taibbi with the Loudon County fiasco (Highly recommend it) and CN with Assange.
In the end we're stuck with which "sociopath" to believe -- Malone or Fauci.
(I've greatly simplified the confusion over just Covid, let alone the dozens and dozens of other issues we should be tracking. Like the coming war with Russia in Ukraine -- although Biden and Putin are talking today so...)
I abhored Fauci from the beginning because of all his mercenary and unethical oversight regarding AIDS. He is just a social climber and opportunist. I see little credible in any of these people. I just let my own experience and decades of reading guide me, and if it quacks like a duck, it is duck. I had a friend who I had to cut off, she has had a lifetime of falling for every quack while she herself is a quack naturopath. So, when she is pushing something, you know it is unhinged!!! The problem with Ivermectin is that it might be sometimes a good addition to the protocols, but it is not a CURE like so many want to make it out to be.
Fauci: didn't know a thing about him until Covid. His BS about how it is OK to cut isolation to 5 days... well, BS.
Ivermectin. The FLCCC is making a killing selling that stuff. Not as much as Big Pharma is with their vaccines, but enough that they'll be able to go to all the Broadway Plays -- something that I'll never, ever be able to do even once.
The point here is what Caitlin is discussing, and that is my attempt to do just what you suggest becomes an impossible task when it is met with censorship. Whether Dr. Malone is or is not a sociopath is a separate issue.
It could be that Malone and Icke were canned because just as many people reported them as they have followers. Malone is an Ayn Randian opportunist. Icke is worse. I think some one else posted something that was accurate about how we encourage the sociopaths, it is endemic to the greed and vanity in a commercial capitalist culture. The loud unhinged extremes do make it impossible to find sane common ground.
the best thing people can do is boycotting whatever the rich and powerful cabal try to sell to us, from jabs to gadgets, from insurance policies to bridges.
stop participating in their rigged institutions, stop contributing to their fraud, stop volunteering to kill and die for their interests.
start growing, making, sharing, repairing, recycling, conserving, and simplifying. start building alternative communities, independent of the ruling institutions.
No one is interested in that. I tried for decades, even tried to start a cohousing transition towns project. Turns out only drug addicts and con artists show up at your door. Reminds me of when i did OWS camp for 2-3 weeks, the community of tweakers took over and most were Ron Paul Libertarian conspiracy Ayn Randian sorts. Unfortunately I was on night and food duty.
I would imagine it's the same reason no one talks about the real emotional and mental health costs entailed in lockdowns and isolation, as if there are none.
Countries that have had actual lockdowns like China and New Zealand who have largely been free to live a normal life with no mandates for the last couple years would never choose what we have in the US.
This article could not be more personally timely, for both covid-19 and censorship have been central to my conversations of late.
My DNC-addled family member was trying to tell me that there is no connection between the democratic party and on-line censorship; that what has occurred is merely advertisers putting economic pressure on corporations -- pretty much business as usual as far as he's concerned.
Long story short, after a bit of futile go-around, his inner authoritarian finally came out and he said the Internet is a cesspool and that sites SHOULD be censored.
Well, that didn't take long.
He claims Trump and the republicans represent some extra threat level because they're undermining the very foundations of the republic, but he remains willingly blind to the very real threat that democratic-led censorship poses.
Anyone who endorses censorship has lost the debate before even one word is spoken. That this remains unclear is a testament to the powers of mind control, subtle and otherwise.
I've noticed this particularly among the faux left. It's like they actually become triggered if their assumptions are challenged in any way, much as a religious fanatic might react. It's truly bizarre. Of course, you can't discover you own false assumptions if you never allow them to be questioned, or go out looking for other voices yourself if the idea of doing so is repellent. So censorship becomes a means of self-protection.
The simple answer going around is that Trump broke liberals' brains, but as to what that actually means and why it apparently happened, I'm mystified.
"Of course, you can't discover you own false assumptions if you never allow them to be questioned, or go out looking for other voices yourself if the idea of doing so is repellent."
I suspect, as apparently you also do, that such people most emphatically do not want to question their assumptions.
Funny, as so much leftist self-image is tied up in their supposed openness, their freedom from tradition and authority and all that.
Unless it's one of their sacred cows. Then they go off the deep end.
Me, I am a cat. I walk by myself and all places are alike to me, and I consider team and tribe to be short-circuits that prevent clear thinking.
"leftist self-image" What the ... is that suppose to mean?
You put a broad swath of people who might have different opinions than yours into this derogatory category that upon analysis means nothing. It's like your speaking a secret language that only you understand.
that Trump was a traitor working with Putin, and a racist. Libs were so unhinged on RussiaGate and other nonsense, anything that would deflect from Neoliberals. So much so that they, with the help of MSM, allowed BLM, Antifa, and every tweaker and pyromaniac to rule the streets for what seemed to be never ending riots, looting, and pyres.
Trump was indeed a traitor, but it was Israel, not Putin, that was the cause of it. Russiagate was indeed an unhinged DNC plot. Trump himself said that Israel should rightfully control our congress, so screw him and anyone who supports such an unAmerican jackass. The right criticized Obama for all the wrong reasons and the democrats did the same thing with Trump.
This still doesn't really answer my question as to why it seemed to happen so quickly.
LMAO, it escalated quickly!. There is no end to Trump's crimes and misdemeanors, but the Neolibs had their own strategic narratives. In about the 70s, I used to joke that Israel was the 51st state. Sounds like Trump brought that alive. He pushed all the buttons and the RussiaGate story took hold. I had a roommate at the time who would not STFU about it. I kept telling her, it is not what it seems, Hillary fabricated this, and it is hurting Bernie too. It just fell on deaf ears. I guess because Democracy Now was telling her.
I think 2016 was the first election I recall that any criticism of one candidate would automatically trigger the assumption that you were 100% for the other one. I had to constantly correct people that I thought both were horrible, and still do. But boy, do people love their little camps, and the media bubbles that prop them up.
I don't think I could disagree with this statement to any greater degree. Trump and those on the right casually refer to the current batch of censorship and corporate news-backing democrats as the "radical left," which is beyond laughable. I refer to them -- pejoratively and accurately -- as the faux left, which is certainly how they behave. How my doing so "protects the Trumpers" is something you're going to have to explain to me.
Surely you know by now I am trying very hard to negotiate some kind of middle path because I don't want to become part of the chorus screaming at the 'other side' (which is so incoherently defined that often people on what I consider to be the 'same side' end up yelling at one another).
Now, if we limit our debate solely to Caitlin's title: Silicon Valley Should Not Restrict Public Discourse About Covid Measures Which Affect Everyone -- I don't think we can say this is a Left/Right; Libtard/Trumper; Radical Left(faux left)/Trumpeter; whatever issue. But using these labels we disassociates Silicon Valley from the censorship.
Silicon Valley is a subset of the Oligarchy.
When I think of (for example) Pierre Omidyar, I don't think Democrat/Republican or Left/Right. I think of that asshole who (along with Zuckerberg, Case, Ellison, etc) is buying up all the property in the Hawaiian Islands and converting it into his own private fiefdom. These guys are Oligarchs -- I call them "The Plantation" on Hawaii. They contribute to whichever politician can be bribed to give them whatever it is they want at that moment. Look at Biden's ARP and BBB, they talk about how it is all "for the people" and "infrastructure" even though a majority of both bills benefit the Oligarchy in some way. And the press hypes it up so much that a Defense Bill of nearly $1T goes by without notice.
Bezos controls the WaPo, he hires reporters who will print what he wants to read. Rachael Maddow has sold her soul for a comfortable life in NYC pushing Russiagate and anti-Trump baloney for a decade now. Fox News has done the same thing on the "other side". This is just the Oligarchy throwing out red meat to the ignorant to divert them from whatever other issue is going on. And there are dozens and dozens (maybe hundreds and hundreds) of other issues. Saying it is the "Left" that is promoting censorship just covers up the fact that it is the Oligarchy that is actually doing it. Consider which "side" is trying to censor CRT and/or Evolution rather than Covid. Let's talk about Abortion for a second. All of these secondary, and stupid, issues distract us from Guantanamo, Julian Assange, and the war that is about to break out in Ukraine. Blaming the Left or the Right just keeps us from seeing the man behind the curtain (Wizard of Oz) -- the Oligarchy.
Likewise it is appropriate to point out that TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is a disease suffered by the Democrats and their supporters. Russiagate is a complete fraud. (you can't say "Left" here because the Democrats aren't really what I'd consider to be "Left".) Maybe Obamainiacs? Biden Fools? But (for example) not "shitlib" since I have no idea what that means. I see it used by both the DSA and by Trump supporters. You may have an idea of what you think it means, but that would be the same as if both of us looking at a color (for instance) and me calling it Chartreuse while you call it Rose. We're both looking at the same thing but using different labels to define that same thing and we then "go to war" with one another over a derivative that is absolutely meaningless.
To sum up: We have to choose our labels more carefully.
The problem is the Oligarchy, not the people who disagree with us.
I only disagree with your characterization that this attitude is limited to Democrats or so-called "shit-libs" (when the term liberal has been so muddied it has become meaningless) or "the Left" (another meaningless political label).
I'm not at all using labels that might be considered opposite to the above (Republican, right)
OTOH, Trumpeters, they are in a class by themselves -- that totally correlates with anti-vaxxers. But that's the same kind of class that the "Russiagaters" are in. Neither "class" is capable of rational discussion.
In the end it is to the benefit of the Oligarchy that we scream and yell at one another. I would propose that we work hard to identify the specific Oligarch who are promoting this dissension so that we might unite against them.
"I've noticed this particularly among the faux left..." since that's where my interactions have taken place. Your assumption that I'm excluding the right from this behavior is just that.
I agree that the oligarchs just love us screaming at each other instead of at them, but this is one more thing I failed to get my family-member to see.
You might ask yourself why you failed. IMHO it is because of the labels you used which he thought describe him. Not saying I'm right, but am saying that has been my experience. It takes a lot of "both sides" talk to finally get someone to realize you aren't telling them they don't know what they're talking about. They surely do know. The problem is the words they use and the labels they use have meanings that are meaningless. You have to grind it down to nothing and then start over from the bottom up.
"In a corporatist system of government, corporate censorship is state censorship." Spot on, Caitlin. Corporations are created by government when it approves the corporation's charter. They are born of government, the original "public-private partnership." As such, they act in lieu of government and should be subject to the same laws that restrict government.
The charter grants the shareholders limited immunity for debts and torts created by the corporation. Shareholder liability is limited to the value of their stock holdings. No matter how heinous the crime, no matter that the shareholder knew or should have known about the crimes and stopped them, not even dividends received during the criminal activity can be clawed back. Thus, corporate limited liability granted by government gives shareholders license to exploit other biological human beings, causing them damage that will never be compensated. The existence of private corporations is an injustice that must one day end.
I think it is important to remember that because of systemic decay we are already so fucked that even trying to censor for noble purposes will be infected with corruption and mistrust. I personally think Malone is sociopath who has deliberately misled many people to slow and painful deaths and done damage to society as a whole, as have the Koch-funded Great Barrington Declaration. That's what happens when you cultivate a society that rewards con-artists and psychos at the systemic level, and without social cohesion or humane values these people come out of the woodwork during a crisis. It's the seeds planted by a sociopathic capitalist society that values people like Ayn Rand. Rationally, muzzling him at this point will probably be very counterproductive, especially when there are also liars and con artists within the more establishment pro-vax, pro-COVID policy camp who ALSO bend to big business and money (see recent CDC rule on returning to work after 5 days).
What we actually need is a stronger socialist society where there aren't massive economic interests in conflict with human life and health, and an information system that doesn't create chaos, mistrust, paranoia and brainwashing all at the same time. As for America and it's orbit though, we are fucked. If we come to the point of limiting intellectual discourse, it means that everything else has already failed and removing one voice won't make anyone wiser.
I read THE PASSION OF AYN RAND, and I watched the movie. Highly recommend. Also, one of her McCarthyite contemporaries, Roy Cohn, highly recommend CITIZEN COHN, movie and book.
We can have socialism (or many other systems) any time people want it. The choice is ours. The problem is that too many people do not want it -- they want a boss, a great leader. We can also have alternatives to Twitter and Facebook. Again, somebody has to want them and do something about it.
Exactly WHAT has CDC, WHO, or any of the media got RIGHT since Nov 17, 2020? In NYC, Cuomo, Trump & de Blasio murdered 35K (as NASDAQ equities rebounded >80% in 5 months!) by, "Just go on about your business as normal!" Basically, everything media tells us we believe has been cherry picked lies; forking us all to Catastrophe Capitalism's COVID feeding frenzy. Now, we're ALL infected by our sick kids. Their hospitalizations jumped >400% as FDA is about to gavage us all new mutagenic or genetically manipulated convalescent plasma horrors as a nation of virtual share-cropping guinea pigs, squealing maskless into each other's terrified faces.
"Silicon Valley" is actually the communication arm of the Pharma industry. So, this essay a petition to them, requesting that they halt their advertising and public relations efforts. Isn't it?
The more I read your articles, the more you come across as a plant. You had me going for a while. I actually thought you were a refreshing leftist take. But instead you're some sort of libertarian/Russian/agitator/antivaxxer/troll.
Actually, Silicon Valley should not be determining what opinions we hold on any subject, any more than AT&T should have cut off our phone service if we said we opposed President Johnson's Vietnam war policies.
What should be happening is an enforcement of the Sherman Act and treat Google and Twitter as 21st century utilities serving the public interest. Neither Mark Zuckerberg or Nancy Pelosi should be determining what I can and can not say over these monopolistic platforms.
Well said, Caitlin! Thank you for speaking up for Dr. Malone.
She's not speaking up for Dr. Malone.
Perhaps you are right. At least she mentioned him. I hope Caitlin (and everyone else!) took/takes the time to listen to all of Dr. Robert Malone's 3 hour interview on the Joe Rogan show. It's probably the most important video content of this decade.
Just because he created something, it doesn't mean he's right about everything or even right regarding the use of the creation. Lots of creators turn out to be wrong about the use of their creations all throughout history. Defending his freedom of speech does not give way to tacit approval.
It always starts with weirdos and cranks that nobody in their right mind actually supports, or even really wants to defend. It starts with folks like Alex Jones.
But that is not where it ends. And of course the alphabet agencies use front organizations to do their dirty work.
While I have a lot of reservations about Malone and the information he puts out, I'm not all that much more prone to believe Fauci.
Puts me into a quandary since who am I suppose to believe? I've "researched" the issue(s) as best I can. I just come away confused. Confirmation bias is really hard to ignore.
For anyone who really wants to explore Fauci’s (or Bill Gates') credibility, I recommend the book, “The Real Anthony Fauci,” by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (the late Senator RFK’s son). There’s a reason this is the number one seller on Amazon right now. People across the globe are waking up.
But beware: the depth of the corruption and depravity described is exceptionally dispiriting. The criminality RFK, Jr. describes is so monstrous, it literally rivals or exceeds the worst crimes of any previous tyrant of any previous century.
The current gang of democrats have embraced all the Bush-era war criminals, have embraced the racist butchers of Israel for decades, so why not the evil of a Fauci or a Gates? The truth is, both major parties are irredeemably corrupt.
I'd remembered seeing Dr. Malone (who didn't appear particularly sociopathic that day) on Jimmy Dore and so I wanted to refresh my memory about what he had said. I found a link to a Twitter account which was quoting him. On pressing the link I was informed: "This account has been suspended", illustrating Caitlin's point pretty well.
Malone, like Dr Judy, is a sociopath and opportunist. Do some background. Dore should have.
While what I've read about Malone, more or less agrees with your characterization, he has a lot of people who truly believe in him and they dig up all kinds of (not at all clear) evidence in support of him. (Mostly links with indistinct titles that seem meaningless that are published on the NIH web site, which in itself is meaningless.) Then they say "SEE!"
Then there's the FLCCC which (looking at their slick web site) is obviously making money selling Ivermectin (which is no judgement on whether or not Ivermectin is effective) but their acolytes nearly universally declare that Ivermectin is being suppressed by Big Pharma for profits totally ignoring the FLCCC profits. Of course, articles I consider to be "rational" that point out Ivermectins failures are pooh-poohed with references to Uttar Pradesh, totally ignoring the fiascos in other parts of the world.
Dore (and Joe Rogan) are just conduits for information. He does his best to fact check. Yes they've certainly taken a side that is against Fauci, but if one does fact checking on Fauci, there are plenty of sordid events that are backed up with solid evidence just as there are plenty of "Comet Pizza" fabrications. His determination to cut back isolation time to 5 days and the reasoning he gave sounds like quibbling to me. FWIW: Dore's "Covid Money Talks with Dylan Ratigan" were the very best in exposing the corruption in Congress when they passed the CARES act last year which has directly lead to the explosive growth of billionaire control over America's money.
So, we should be able to turn to a "trusted news source" and they should be able to tell us the "truth", but the WaPo and NYT have become propaganda outlets (or more correctly have purged all reliable reporting on any subject from their pages) and the few "news sources" that are reliable (Matt Taibbi, Consortium News, Schearpost) are overwhelmed with "other news". Taibbi with the Loudon County fiasco (Highly recommend it) and CN with Assange.
In the end we're stuck with which "sociopath" to believe -- Malone or Fauci.
(I've greatly simplified the confusion over just Covid, let alone the dozens and dozens of other issues we should be tracking. Like the coming war with Russia in Ukraine -- although Biden and Putin are talking today so...)
I abhored Fauci from the beginning because of all his mercenary and unethical oversight regarding AIDS. He is just a social climber and opportunist. I see little credible in any of these people. I just let my own experience and decades of reading guide me, and if it quacks like a duck, it is duck. I had a friend who I had to cut off, she has had a lifetime of falling for every quack while she herself is a quack naturopath. So, when she is pushing something, you know it is unhinged!!! The problem with Ivermectin is that it might be sometimes a good addition to the protocols, but it is not a CURE like so many want to make it out to be.
Fauci: didn't know a thing about him until Covid. His BS about how it is OK to cut isolation to 5 days... well, BS.
Ivermectin. The FLCCC is making a killing selling that stuff. Not as much as Big Pharma is with their vaccines, but enough that they'll be able to go to all the Broadway Plays -- something that I'll never, ever be able to do even once.
The point here is what Caitlin is discussing, and that is my attempt to do just what you suggest becomes an impossible task when it is met with censorship. Whether Dr. Malone is or is not a sociopath is a separate issue.
It could be that Malone and Icke were canned because just as many people reported them as they have followers. Malone is an Ayn Randian opportunist. Icke is worse. I think some one else posted something that was accurate about how we encourage the sociopaths, it is endemic to the greed and vanity in a commercial capitalist culture. The loud unhinged extremes do make it impossible to find sane common ground.
the best thing people can do is boycotting whatever the rich and powerful cabal try to sell to us, from jabs to gadgets, from insurance policies to bridges.
stop participating in their rigged institutions, stop contributing to their fraud, stop volunteering to kill and die for their interests.
start growing, making, sharing, repairing, recycling, conserving, and simplifying. start building alternative communities, independent of the ruling institutions.
No one is interested in that. I tried for decades, even tried to start a cohousing transition towns project. Turns out only drug addicts and con artists show up at your door. Reminds me of when i did OWS camp for 2-3 weeks, the community of tweakers took over and most were Ron Paul Libertarian conspiracy Ayn Randian sorts. Unfortunately I was on night and food duty.
it has to happen "organically", i suppose, not as part of the institutions that we want to boycott and replace with alternatives.
And then Obama "screwed you to the wall"!
Perhaps those Ron Paul guys were FBI "informants"?
Just being paranoid.
No, they were the real deal, i had misfortune of camping in front of the county courthouse with them. It was a very degrading experience.
Why is no one talking about the consequences of mega dosing with monoclonal antibodies and cortisone?
I would imagine it's the same reason no one talks about the real emotional and mental health costs entailed in lockdowns and isolation, as if there are none.
Countries that have had actual lockdowns like China and New Zealand who have largely been free to live a normal life with no mandates for the last couple years would never choose what we have in the US.
Hell, I live here and I didn't choose it.
This article could not be more personally timely, for both covid-19 and censorship have been central to my conversations of late.
My DNC-addled family member was trying to tell me that there is no connection between the democratic party and on-line censorship; that what has occurred is merely advertisers putting economic pressure on corporations -- pretty much business as usual as far as he's concerned.
Long story short, after a bit of futile go-around, his inner authoritarian finally came out and he said the Internet is a cesspool and that sites SHOULD be censored.
Well, that didn't take long.
He claims Trump and the republicans represent some extra threat level because they're undermining the very foundations of the republic, but he remains willingly blind to the very real threat that democratic-led censorship poses.
Anyone who endorses censorship has lost the debate before even one word is spoken. That this remains unclear is a testament to the powers of mind control, subtle and otherwise.
"Anyone who endorses censorship has lost the debate before even one word is spoken."
Of course. What are they so afraid of?
I've noticed this particularly among the faux left. It's like they actually become triggered if their assumptions are challenged in any way, much as a religious fanatic might react. It's truly bizarre. Of course, you can't discover you own false assumptions if you never allow them to be questioned, or go out looking for other voices yourself if the idea of doing so is repellent. So censorship becomes a means of self-protection.
The simple answer going around is that Trump broke liberals' brains, but as to what that actually means and why it apparently happened, I'm mystified.
"Of course, you can't discover you own false assumptions if you never allow them to be questioned, or go out looking for other voices yourself if the idea of doing so is repellent."
I suspect, as apparently you also do, that such people most emphatically do not want to question their assumptions.
Funny, as so much leftist self-image is tied up in their supposed openness, their freedom from tradition and authority and all that.
Unless it's one of their sacred cows. Then they go off the deep end.
Me, I am a cat. I walk by myself and all places are alike to me, and I consider team and tribe to be short-circuits that prevent clear thinking.
"leftist self-image" What the ... is that suppose to mean?
You put a broad swath of people who might have different opinions than yours into this derogatory category that upon analysis means nothing. It's like your speaking a secret language that only you understand.
Do you not know what self-image means? "Leftist "?
that Trump was a traitor working with Putin, and a racist. Libs were so unhinged on RussiaGate and other nonsense, anything that would deflect from Neoliberals. So much so that they, with the help of MSM, allowed BLM, Antifa, and every tweaker and pyromaniac to rule the streets for what seemed to be never ending riots, looting, and pyres.
Trump was indeed a traitor, but it was Israel, not Putin, that was the cause of it. Russiagate was indeed an unhinged DNC plot. Trump himself said that Israel should rightfully control our congress, so screw him and anyone who supports such an unAmerican jackass. The right criticized Obama for all the wrong reasons and the democrats did the same thing with Trump.
This still doesn't really answer my question as to why it seemed to happen so quickly.
LMAO, it escalated quickly!. There is no end to Trump's crimes and misdemeanors, but the Neolibs had their own strategic narratives. In about the 70s, I used to joke that Israel was the 51st state. Sounds like Trump brought that alive. He pushed all the buttons and the RussiaGate story took hold. I had a roommate at the time who would not STFU about it. I kept telling her, it is not what it seems, Hillary fabricated this, and it is hurting Bernie too. It just fell on deaf ears. I guess because Democracy Now was telling her.
I think 2016 was the first election I recall that any criticism of one candidate would automatically trigger the assumption that you were 100% for the other one. I had to constantly correct people that I thought both were horrible, and still do. But boy, do people love their little camps, and the media bubbles that prop them up.
Again, "Faux Left" is a pejorative label that protects the "Trumpeters" from being recognized as just as fanatic. I'm not saying they aren't.
I don't think I could disagree with this statement to any greater degree. Trump and those on the right casually refer to the current batch of censorship and corporate news-backing democrats as the "radical left," which is beyond laughable. I refer to them -- pejoratively and accurately -- as the faux left, which is certainly how they behave. How my doing so "protects the Trumpers" is something you're going to have to explain to me.
Surely you know by now I am trying very hard to negotiate some kind of middle path because I don't want to become part of the chorus screaming at the 'other side' (which is so incoherently defined that often people on what I consider to be the 'same side' end up yelling at one another).
Now, if we limit our debate solely to Caitlin's title: Silicon Valley Should Not Restrict Public Discourse About Covid Measures Which Affect Everyone -- I don't think we can say this is a Left/Right; Libtard/Trumper; Radical Left(faux left)/Trumpeter; whatever issue. But using these labels we disassociates Silicon Valley from the censorship.
Silicon Valley is a subset of the Oligarchy.
When I think of (for example) Pierre Omidyar, I don't think Democrat/Republican or Left/Right. I think of that asshole who (along with Zuckerberg, Case, Ellison, etc) is buying up all the property in the Hawaiian Islands and converting it into his own private fiefdom. These guys are Oligarchs -- I call them "The Plantation" on Hawaii. They contribute to whichever politician can be bribed to give them whatever it is they want at that moment. Look at Biden's ARP and BBB, they talk about how it is all "for the people" and "infrastructure" even though a majority of both bills benefit the Oligarchy in some way. And the press hypes it up so much that a Defense Bill of nearly $1T goes by without notice.
Bezos controls the WaPo, he hires reporters who will print what he wants to read. Rachael Maddow has sold her soul for a comfortable life in NYC pushing Russiagate and anti-Trump baloney for a decade now. Fox News has done the same thing on the "other side". This is just the Oligarchy throwing out red meat to the ignorant to divert them from whatever other issue is going on. And there are dozens and dozens (maybe hundreds and hundreds) of other issues. Saying it is the "Left" that is promoting censorship just covers up the fact that it is the Oligarchy that is actually doing it. Consider which "side" is trying to censor CRT and/or Evolution rather than Covid. Let's talk about Abortion for a second. All of these secondary, and stupid, issues distract us from Guantanamo, Julian Assange, and the war that is about to break out in Ukraine. Blaming the Left or the Right just keeps us from seeing the man behind the curtain (Wizard of Oz) -- the Oligarchy.
I'm not saying that there aren't times that these labels apply. For example the correlation between being an anti-vaxxer and a Trump supporter is quite high. Thus I think the use of a derogatory label (Trumpeter) is appropriate when viewing Gaba's charts (look at them all) on vaccine effectiveness. https://acasignups.net/21/12/30/cutting-chase-yes-more-trump-voters-have-likely-died-covid-biden-voters-no-it-likely-wont
Likewise it is appropriate to point out that TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is a disease suffered by the Democrats and their supporters. Russiagate is a complete fraud. (you can't say "Left" here because the Democrats aren't really what I'd consider to be "Left".) Maybe Obamainiacs? Biden Fools? But (for example) not "shitlib" since I have no idea what that means. I see it used by both the DSA and by Trump supporters. You may have an idea of what you think it means, but that would be the same as if both of us looking at a color (for instance) and me calling it Chartreuse while you call it Rose. We're both looking at the same thing but using different labels to define that same thing and we then "go to war" with one another over a derivative that is absolutely meaningless.
To sum up: We have to choose our labels more carefully.
The problem is the Oligarchy, not the people who disagree with us.
In my circles we call it the Regressive Left, and there is nothing LEFT about it. It is just an IDpol parade of competing grievances.
I only disagree with your characterization that this attitude is limited to Democrats or so-called "shit-libs" (when the term liberal has been so muddied it has become meaningless) or "the Left" (another meaningless political label).
I'm not at all using labels that might be considered opposite to the above (Republican, right)
OTOH, Trumpeters, they are in a class by themselves -- that totally correlates with anti-vaxxers. But that's the same kind of class that the "Russiagaters" are in. Neither "class" is capable of rational discussion.
In the end it is to the benefit of the Oligarchy that we scream and yell at one another. I would propose that we work hard to identify the specific Oligarch who are promoting this dissension so that we might unite against them.
"I've noticed this particularly among the faux left..." since that's where my interactions have taken place. Your assumption that I'm excluding the right from this behavior is just that.
I agree that the oligarchs just love us screaming at each other instead of at them, but this is one more thing I failed to get my family-member to see.
You might ask yourself why you failed. IMHO it is because of the labels you used which he thought describe him. Not saying I'm right, but am saying that has been my experience. It takes a lot of "both sides" talk to finally get someone to realize you aren't telling them they don't know what they're talking about. They surely do know. The problem is the words they use and the labels they use have meanings that are meaningless. You have to grind it down to nothing and then start over from the bottom up.
"In a corporatist system of government, corporate censorship is state censorship." Spot on, Caitlin. Corporations are created by government when it approves the corporation's charter. They are born of government, the original "public-private partnership." As such, they act in lieu of government and should be subject to the same laws that restrict government.
The charter grants the shareholders limited immunity for debts and torts created by the corporation. Shareholder liability is limited to the value of their stock holdings. No matter how heinous the crime, no matter that the shareholder knew or should have known about the crimes and stopped them, not even dividends received during the criminal activity can be clawed back. Thus, corporate limited liability granted by government gives shareholders license to exploit other biological human beings, causing them damage that will never be compensated. The existence of private corporations is an injustice that must one day end.
I think it is important to remember that because of systemic decay we are already so fucked that even trying to censor for noble purposes will be infected with corruption and mistrust. I personally think Malone is sociopath who has deliberately misled many people to slow and painful deaths and done damage to society as a whole, as have the Koch-funded Great Barrington Declaration. That's what happens when you cultivate a society that rewards con-artists and psychos at the systemic level, and without social cohesion or humane values these people come out of the woodwork during a crisis. It's the seeds planted by a sociopathic capitalist society that values people like Ayn Rand. Rationally, muzzling him at this point will probably be very counterproductive, especially when there are also liars and con artists within the more establishment pro-vax, pro-COVID policy camp who ALSO bend to big business and money (see recent CDC rule on returning to work after 5 days).
What we actually need is a stronger socialist society where there aren't massive economic interests in conflict with human life and health, and an information system that doesn't create chaos, mistrust, paranoia and brainwashing all at the same time. As for America and it's orbit though, we are fucked. If we come to the point of limiting intellectual discourse, it means that everything else has already failed and removing one voice won't make anyone wiser.
Whoa! “Sociopaths” rule.
Love that Ayn Rand especially. Totally emotionally healthy person and did so much for the common person.
Ayn Rand is unimportant, unless you like bloviation.
I liked Ayn Rand's books. What I got out of them doesn't come close to what so-called "intellectuals" say I was suppose to get out of them.
OTOH, what I know about Rand as a person -- she's kind of disgusting.
I read THE PASSION OF AYN RAND, and I watched the movie. Highly recommend. Also, one of her McCarthyite contemporaries, Roy Cohn, highly recommend CITIZEN COHN, movie and book.
We can have socialism (or many other systems) any time people want it. The choice is ours. The problem is that too many people do not want it -- they want a boss, a great leader. We can also have alternatives to Twitter and Facebook. Again, somebody has to want them and do something about it.
Exactly WHAT has CDC, WHO, or any of the media got RIGHT since Nov 17, 2020? In NYC, Cuomo, Trump & de Blasio murdered 35K (as NASDAQ equities rebounded >80% in 5 months!) by, "Just go on about your business as normal!" Basically, everything media tells us we believe has been cherry picked lies; forking us all to Catastrophe Capitalism's COVID feeding frenzy. Now, we're ALL infected by our sick kids. Their hospitalizations jumped >400% as FDA is about to gavage us all new mutagenic or genetically manipulated convalescent plasma horrors as a nation of virtual share-cropping guinea pigs, squealing maskless into each other's terrified faces.
https://scheerpost.com/2021/12/29/experts-warn-mercks-fda-authorized-covid-pill-could-create-breeding-ground-for-mutant-viruses/
https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/4/14/21247112/memo-ordering-nyc-schools-to-keep-virus-cases-quiet-probed
https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/MassDisablingEvent?src=hashtag_click
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211223/Omicron-has-enhanced-infectivity-that-is-only-weakly-neutralized-by-vaccination-or-prior-infection.aspx
"Silicon Valley" is actually the communication arm of the Pharma industry. So, this essay a petition to them, requesting that they halt their advertising and public relations efforts. Isn't it?
The more I read your articles, the more you come across as a plant. You had me going for a while. I actually thought you were a refreshing leftist take. But instead you're some sort of libertarian/Russian/agitator/antivaxxer/troll.
Actually, Silicon Valley should not be determining what opinions we hold on any subject, any more than AT&T should have cut off our phone service if we said we opposed President Johnson's Vietnam war policies.
What should be happening is an enforcement of the Sherman Act and treat Google and Twitter as 21st century utilities serving the public interest. Neither Mark Zuckerberg or Nancy Pelosi should be determining what I can and can not say over these monopolistic platforms.
This is "schadenfreude", which is the reason so many found the 'Don't Look Up!' movie so hilarious.
Hmmm... didn't think calling out "schadenfreude" was cause to delete your comment. I found the movie hilarious.