Unlike we evil oppressive conservatives, the left believes that freedom of speech is sacrosanct.
Neil Young doesn't though. See, Neil Young learned that Spotify hosts Joe Rogan's podcast. Joe says stupid things about Covid. So in a huff, Neil threatened to pull his music from Spotify if they didn't ban Joe's podcast. You know... censor him. When Spotify chose freedom of speech, Neil boycotted away. This has since brought other leftist cranks out the woodwork like Joni Mitchell, the smarmy Harry and Meghan Sussex to join the demand for censorship, and "freedom champion" Apple (statement does not apply in China) is exploiting it to try to gain customers from Spotify.
I find it disturbing that an actual artist who I'm pretty sure has repeatedly used the idea of freedom of speech to justify all sorts of rotten things would now be pushing for censorship. I seem to remember him ranting about the evil "Republicans" (led by Joe Biden) when they put labels on music, for example - they called it censorship even though it didn't ban anything. Well, Neil defends himself by claiming that Rogan is spreading "disinformation" and thus should be stopped. But that's how freedom of speech works. Freedom of speech isn't about defending only popular speech or accurate speech or approved speech. It protects speech. And it sure as heck isn't about allowing only speech with which Neil agrees.
And don't get me wrong, I don't like Rogan and I think he's a menace. But so is Neil Young and so are so many other people. Movies promote gun violence and I think are responsible for why so many dumbasses use guns to settle disputes. Progressives are pushing hugely damaging lies about race and discrimination, gender and climate. Should we start banning those?
Some leftists, like Joy Behar know that freedom of speech is dogma but aren't going to stay out of a good pogrom, so she claims that while she doesn't believe Spotify should ban (read: censor) Joe Rogan, she encourages people to contact Spotify and let them know they are angry that they would host Rogan. To what purpose? To lead to his being banned. See her mental gymnastics? I don't support killing, but I encourage people to throw lots of stones.
It's always funny to me how the left wants to shut down debate. They talk about freedom and claim that freedom of speech is our most fundamental right. In fact, they still use the idea of "silencing" fill-in-the-blank as the most evil crime that conservatives commit (apart from "racism" and, Heaven help you, actual racism). But they never extend that right to people they don't like.
Look at cancel culture. Say the wrong thing and the left wants you erased. Or consider political correctness, the father of cancel culture. It was premised on the idea that if you could keep people from expressing ideas, those ideas would vanish. Thus, it sought to make it unacceptable to express politically incorrect thoughts. Mention that a suspect was black and you were racist. Mention that girls are different from boys and you're a sexist. There were a vast number of truths that were suddenly verboten. Then you had speech codes on colleges (bastions of freedom of speech) to silence "triggering thoughts" in the twisted name of "promoting" free speech by limiting it to only acceptable thoughts. You have the (re)invention of thought crimes where the prosecutor's view of your motive somehow makes the crime you commit a whole new crime. Better say smile during you next beatdown. Of course, there are the classic thought police of the Soviet and Chinese systems as well, and the secret police of "Democratic Socialist" states. The banning of books with the wrong words and wrong ideas. And so on... and so on.
It never seems to end, just the intensity and what is being suppressed. Welcome to the thought police Neil. Old man, look at you now.
Neil Young doesn't though. See, Neil Young learned that Spotify hosts Joe Rogan's podcast. Joe says stupid things about Covid. So in a huff, Neil threatened to pull his music from Spotify if they didn't ban Joe's podcast. You know... censor him. When Spotify chose freedom of speech, Neil boycotted away. This has since brought other leftist cranks out the woodwork like Joni Mitchell, the smarmy Harry and Meghan Sussex to join the demand for censorship, and "freedom champion" Apple (statement does not apply in China) is exploiting it to try to gain customers from Spotify.
I find it disturbing that an actual artist who I'm pretty sure has repeatedly used the idea of freedom of speech to justify all sorts of rotten things would now be pushing for censorship. I seem to remember him ranting about the evil "Republicans" (led by Joe Biden) when they put labels on music, for example - they called it censorship even though it didn't ban anything. Well, Neil defends himself by claiming that Rogan is spreading "disinformation" and thus should be stopped. But that's how freedom of speech works. Freedom of speech isn't about defending only popular speech or accurate speech or approved speech. It protects speech. And it sure as heck isn't about allowing only speech with which Neil agrees.
And don't get me wrong, I don't like Rogan and I think he's a menace. But so is Neil Young and so are so many other people. Movies promote gun violence and I think are responsible for why so many dumbasses use guns to settle disputes. Progressives are pushing hugely damaging lies about race and discrimination, gender and climate. Should we start banning those?
Some leftists, like Joy Behar know that freedom of speech is dogma but aren't going to stay out of a good pogrom, so she claims that while she doesn't believe Spotify should ban (read: censor) Joe Rogan, she encourages people to contact Spotify and let them know they are angry that they would host Rogan. To what purpose? To lead to his being banned. See her mental gymnastics? I don't support killing, but I encourage people to throw lots of stones.
It's always funny to me how the left wants to shut down debate. They talk about freedom and claim that freedom of speech is our most fundamental right. In fact, they still use the idea of "silencing" fill-in-the-blank as the most evil crime that conservatives commit (apart from "racism" and, Heaven help you, actual racism). But they never extend that right to people they don't like.
Look at cancel culture. Say the wrong thing and the left wants you erased. Or consider political correctness, the father of cancel culture. It was premised on the idea that if you could keep people from expressing ideas, those ideas would vanish. Thus, it sought to make it unacceptable to express politically incorrect thoughts. Mention that a suspect was black and you were racist. Mention that girls are different from boys and you're a sexist. There were a vast number of truths that were suddenly verboten. Then you had speech codes on colleges (bastions of freedom of speech) to silence "triggering thoughts" in the twisted name of "promoting" free speech by limiting it to only acceptable thoughts. You have the (re)invention of thought crimes where the prosecutor's view of your motive somehow makes the crime you commit a whole new crime. Better say smile during you next beatdown. Of course, there are the classic thought police of the Soviet and Chinese systems as well, and the secret police of "Democratic Socialist" states. The banning of books with the wrong words and wrong ideas. And so on... and so on.
It never seems to end, just the intensity and what is being suppressed. Welcome to the thought police Neil. Old man, look at you now.
Andrew, the lefts push for censorship and the whole woke moral panic is a major part of what pushed me away from Democrats and the left in general.
ReplyDeleteIts ridiculous to me how the left have gone so far into silencing differing opinions over the last decade. When I was growing up the moral panic censorship seemed to be pushed more by the GOP… overall the religious right seemed to be the masters of censorship. Now its mostly the DNC pushing the moral panic woke crap.
In hindsight I think I just overlooked the lefts censorship, they were just as censor happy in the past as they are now… The left just used to be much more covert about it. Now they have become so brazen it is impossible to ignore.
The left are open about their quest for silencing the opposition under the guise of stopping “hate” or “misinformation”. What pisses me off is they are *FAR Left* marxists themselves; and as a result they have come to the conclusion that anyone right of center is alt-right or a conspiracy theorist. Heck the left are now claiming center-independents like me are “right wing”… In fact they are even trying to castigate liberals like Bill Mauer as right wing lol.
I believe the woke left will fail because of crap like this. You cant constantly contradict yourself and use double standards and still expect to be taken seriously. Top that with the fact that their current “art” is just rehashed unimaginative trash… over all I don't think we are losing much with Niel Young, Peter Frampton & like minded jerks going full woke.
Personally I’m back & forth on JRE… A few of the podcasts are good but it is mostly just silly stuff they discuss honestly… but I don't find him or his podcast to be particularly harmful. On the other-hand, the lefts reaction to JRE and trying to cancel counter viewpoints via lies (calling him a nazi) are very harmful and furthers our already deep divide.
-Kyle
Hi Kyle,
ReplyDeleteFirst, sorry for the delay responding. Blogger wouldn't let me comment yesterday. Today, it does... for no apparent reason.
The left has always been into censorship throughout history. I think it's the collectivist (read: herd) instinct which cannot tolerate dissent because it is premised on subverting individuality for groupthink. Add in that much of what the left wants flies in the face of basic human nature or requires the acceptance of things that can easily be proven to be false, and you get a kind of desperation to stop anyone from openly debating their points because they can't hold up.
What shocks me is the degree to which the American left has gotten downright evil on this. The old left was into name calling. Then came political correctness, which seemed more dangerous. But even political correctness only threatened to criticize you and maybe "unfriend" you (in modern thinking). But the woke left really has gone hardcore and now tries to destroy anyone who doesn't toe the line. Death threats, threats to family members, trying to get people fired, destroying livelihoods are all routine things now, as is an increasing push to criminalize thought and wipe out the ability to offer defenses. That's Nazi/Commie territory.
Bill Maher is a great example of a guy who is slowly learning that the new left is not the left of old.
I don't think we're losing much with Neil Young either.
Don't get me started on the Religious Right. They almost destroyed conservatism, the same way the wokes are destroying the left now.
On Joe Rogan, I see him as just a podcaster. People should not be getting medical advice from an actor turned commentator. But they do. Good for them.
Hey Andrew, no worries! I agree on all your points, the cancel culture that the woke left wallow in is just nasty. They go after individuals in uniquely personal ways via social media… it really is a woke left specific tactic and its insidious & evil as you say.
ReplyDeleteAside from some exceptions, cancel culture is not practiced by classic liberals, centrist, libertarians or the conservative right… the rest of the political spectrum just practices boycotts against groups they vehemently disagree with. On rare occasion you may see a case of an individual being targeted by other political groups. However its just nowhere near as prevalent as it is from the leftoids.
The lefts justification for cancel culture is just predicated on lies.
Only good news is these idiots really are a circular firing squad, and as the purity spiral continues, the leftoids will eat each other via cancel culture. Screw them, they get what is coming to them.
Like we discussed in a previous article, the woke left is a religion… they really do mirror the religious right of the 90’s / Bush era.
-Kyle.
This is why I hate the media. There are articles at Yahoo and Variety breathlessly claiming that Neil Young caused Spotify's stock to fall by $4 billion. Hurray for the sanity of censorship!
ReplyDeleteOf course, that's nonsense. The stock was actually up during the period. It fell today because of something that happened in the 4th Quarter, which is before the Young situation happened.
This is pure economic ignorance. Anyone with even a smidge of knowledge of stocks would know that. But Variety and Yahoo apparently don't know that. So why should we trust them on anything else?
Kyle, I'll talk about those articles soon. They were a really insightful dissection of the whole issue, pointing out that basically everything wokism is based on is provably false.
ReplyDeleteI find it amazing that the left can be on a censorship spree in every arena, and then without missing a beat, flip out when a handful of parents in a blue school district suggest that, just maybe, outright pornography isn’t appropriate in a K-12 environment.
ReplyDeleteOn cancel culture: I had a mild argument with a woke left acquaintance (a former friend that joined the woke religion).
ReplyDeleteThis person knows my stance on cancel culture and how I believe cancel culture is mostly practiced by the woke left.
Well earlier today this person tried to make a rebuttal by sighting the example of none other than Whoopi Goldberg!
His argument is Whoopi Goldberg is being “cancelled” by the right over her comments on the Holocaust. For one, Whoopi has been *suspended*; not fired. However even if she is fired, she will be fired by ABC & to be frank she earned it. She herself supports firing people based off their rhetoric, why should it not apply to her?
If anything this just exposes a double standard. Imagine if a right winger had said what she said about Jewish people? We’ve seen what the left would do: They would be be plastered across every legacy media front page as an example of Republican hate.
But since Whoopi is a leftoid she just gets a suspension.
I tried explaining how he was wrong and that Whoopi is a terrible example for his argument… It didn't go well lol. He swore me off as a MAGA Chud lol.
Yea, no love lost there.
-Kyle
Kyle, You are absolutely right on Whoopie.
ReplyDeleteFirst, they only suspended her. In fact, it comes across more like they sent her to bed without supper rather than anything else -- they want her to think about what she's done. Then all is forgiven. Not cancelled.
Secondly, they did even that reluctantly, which is common on the left. Both Cuomo went on for months after their wrongdoing was admitted. Andrew was finally kicked out. The CNN brother was only finally suspended and then fired when the pressure became too much. Jeffrey Toobin at CNN was caught masturbating on zoom and was only suspended after intense pressure and then later fired. Most leftists are given lots of chances to see if the storm blows off. And if they repent, all is forgiven. Conservatives are crucified at first opportunity. So bias.
Third, the left is the one getting her. Hannity actually defended her. The people calling for her head are people like the ADL, who are on the far left. And it is leftist ABC that made the decision.
I'm not saying some on the right aren't enjoying the irony and calling for her head as she had done so many times, but it is the left's anger to which ABC is reacting -- they don't care about people on the right.
If she was a Republican, the left would be requiring this scandal to be taught in schools as an example of Holocaust denial by American conservatives.
Kyle,
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how woke people live in an alternate reality, isn't it? You see it all the time, not just with this Whoopi thing, but this is so illustrative. All the players are on the left: Whoopi, her detractors, and her defenders. The right is completely sidelined. Yet, all agency is attributed to the right.
The funny thing is, you can tell from surfing the commentary that not everyone on the left is yet on the same page about the whole episode. They only know two things: that something went wrong, and that the right is responsible. It's a default assumption!
We can all relax, folks. It turns out this had nothing to do with censorship, it's only Neil Young exercising his "right of association"... by trying to deny Spotify and Rogan their right of association.
ReplyDeleteOther gems: it's not about cancel culture because Rogan is too big to fully cancel. So failure means you never attempted.
And: "Young, meanwhile, left Spotify not with a cry for Rogan to be canceled but a demand to be released from the platform." In other words, it's not cancelling if you just wanted them banned instead of cancelled. Uh... what?
I love the finish too: "Americans love to fight about freedom of speech, but we don't as often talk about freedom of association". That's because the left HATES freedom of association because (1) it means granting right to work and making unions voluntary, (2) every form of affirmative action violates it, and (3) it allows businesses and churches to support conservative candidates. So we don't talk about that one...
Here's the oblivious article: "It's not about censorship, in other words. It's about freedom of association."
Great point Andrew, this is a good example of the left canceling one of its own, double standards and all. Its the circular firing squad I spoke of earlier happening in real time! Cant say I feel bad for her, she still probably wont receive 1/10th the backlash that a non woke leftoid would.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, you said it! Its a woke left world over there where even fairly liberal people are just too “right wing” for them. It’s honestly funny in a lot of ways… however these wackos are running many of our institutions into the ground, while justifying extreme violence on everyone that are not onboard with their crap. So over all they just end up making me mad with all their contradictions & warped world views.
Andrew, that article is a salt mine lol. They failed to cancel JRE so they now have to reshape the world to fit their failing narrative. Idiots.
-Kyle