36 Comments

“ I didn’t Read too far beyond the opening salvos”

Perfect. No notes. You are clearly a free thinker.

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Oct 30Edited

What a ridiculous premise this article is written on.

Rogan's open forum discussion allowed the truth of the pandemic to be discussed when NOBODY else was allowing it. People were LITERALLY DEPLATFORMED for questioning the mainstream narrative, which ended up being false and almost everything Rogan questioned helped uncover the conspiracy.

The lab-creation / leab leak theory, the efficacy and safety of the Covid vaccines, the Hunter Biden laptop story suppression, the suppression of truthful information by the Biden administration across all social media - these ALL ended up being lies supported by the Democratic party, and discussions were suppressed except for a few places like Rogan's show and then Twitter after Musk bought it.

Peter Daszak's "unanimous" false declaration through one of the most reputable medical science publications The Lancet? Supported by Dems, Fauci and Social Media and it ended up being a fabricated fiction, corrupting the reputation of The Lancet.

You people should be ASHAMED of yourselves for continuing to push lies and suppress truths while smearing people like Musk and Rogan with slanted opinion pieces which serve no other purpose than to denigrate good people.

And yes, the Hunter Biden laptop story suppression absolutely affected the outcome of the 2020 election. But don't investigate WHY it was suppressed. Don't question who was actually behind the lie.

Just blame the messenger who helped expose the lie. This is like Communist Russia all over again.

Ashamed of yourselves.

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Your post is full of half-truths and actual lies that you have learned from Rogan that have been debunked a gazillion times elsewhere and on this site before. But if you had some humanity or children of your own, you would be telling Rogan to be ashamed of himself for featuring Alex Jones, arguably the vilest human on earth, who made the lives of parents suffering from the worst imaginable tragedy into even more of a hell. That that is not discrediting for you speaks volumes about you. Since you are not profane or violent or personal, you are free to express your views here. Understand that you don't meet the basic criteria for being taken seriously, though.

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What does Jones’ vile behavior towards the Sandyhook families have to do with Twitter suppressing the Biden laptop story, or the debates about the lab leak or vaccines?

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Exactly how many is a "gazillion"? Your vehemence and partisanship detract from your position. I'm no Rogan fan, but the fact that that he platformed Jones doesn't inherently detract from anything else he does [and I agree it is shameful, but it's not dispositive of the content]. This is just another ad hominem attack, which has become increasingly common on this site IMHO. I used to find the Unpopulist a credible source of informed discussion, but the partisanship-bordering-on-TDS calls into question your credibility. Try returning to your roots of analyzing populism [which is not inherently authoritarian nor limited to the right of center nor inherently illiberal]. You're not doing yourself any favors with attacks on your readers.

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Great way to start a debate: with an ad hominem attack.

Whether you agree with Alex Jones or not is irrelvant. What is relevant is that if you want to vet what's true and what isn't you WILL NECESSARILY CENSOR THE TRUTH IN THE PROCESS.

The pandemic proved that, as the US Government was the single greatest source of misinformation during the entire pandemic.

I am a father to several amazing, educated children who are productive members of society. They're in law, science and medicine and strangely, they tend to agree with me more than disagree.

Which one of my claims is a half truth?

The lab leak theory is a viable claim that even half the US intelligence agencies believe to be possible but can't be proven fully without China's co-operation. But ALL evidence points in that direction. Ockham's Razor as well.

The Hunter Biden laptop story was absolutely suppressed and it was done so to interfere with the US election.

The Covid vaccines were NOT as safe OR as effective as we were led to believe. If they were, Pfizer wouldn't have tried to cover up their phase 3 trials for 75 years and people wouldn't have needed booster as soon as every 3 months in 2021.

The violation of the 1st amendment by coercing the public through social media? It's a record of the courts.

Peter Daszak's fabricated, 'unanimous support' statement through the Lancet in Feb 2020 that called everyone a conspiracy theorist, who believed the Lab Leak a possibility - only to be proven wrong and proven that Daszak was in a conflict of interest when that was written?

And the truth behind ALL of these stories were suppressed by the mainstream media and the Democrat led US Government. The only way these discussions happened was through Rogan initially and then through Twitter after Musk bought it.

Remember the shame and ridicule Rogan had to take for simply wanting to have the discussion, and for not bowing to censorship and media attacks - mostly perpetrated by the Democratic led house and it's lobbyists.

We owe people like Rogan and Musk more than we can ever repay. Without them we'd be living in the Dark Ages again.

Even Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Dorsey (Twitter) have publicly both apologized for their handling of these topics.

Which one of these are half truths? Try me and I'll back up every claim unequivocally.

Finally, as one other reader wrote: What does Alex Jones have to do with ANYTHING?

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If the Hunter Biden laptop was so bad, why have nearly two years of investigations in the House not produced an impeachment vote?

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So bad?

The Government suppressed, with intent, a truthful article and lied about it, and you want to weigh how bad it is?

Wow. How far the West has fallen.

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I'm pretty sure that House impeachment votes are not my standard of either accuracy or relevance. [For me, this only adds support to the view that the House is full of incompetent representatives.] Further, it seems to me that the seriousness of the laptop case has been amply demonstrated in court. Did it cost Trump the election in 2020? Who knows? But the suppression of the story definitely did not hurt Biden. There are a number of different viewpoints on just how important it might have been. But how could any of us want valid news suppressed in favor of a specific partisan political position?

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RD, have you ever thought about that "Communist Russia" was quite similar to right-wing populism today regarding views on institutions and freedoms?

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Oct 31Edited

I don't know how you can say this? My family is from behind the iron curtain and escaped it for the free West. Ask ANYONE who grew up from behind the Iron Curtain and they will tell you that it's being reformed again, only this time in the West.

The draconian measures on freedoms are being instituted by the Left, not by the Right.

Radical liberalism today is inherently authoritarian. It's intent is reliance on Government for intervention and support. It's ideology is completely counter to traditional Liberal beliefs of freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of movement.

If you get past the media construct of what "Liberals" stand for and what Trump stands for, and really start being objective, you'll see that the perception of each is the opposite of who the media tells you they are.

Go listen to Trump's speech on the Abraham Accords to Islamic heads of state, or listen to his interview with Rogan.

This is not the same man the media portrays him to be. The media is in on it, and this was proven by the pandemic, when they built an "information wall" around the truth so that nobody could pierce it.

I had friends who almost died from the Covid vaccine. They were in touch with the CDC and the FDA, and yet if they posted their account on Facebook it was taken down.

They weren't allowed to talk about it again until after Musk bought Twitter and the tide turned.

Now which Government more resembles the former Communist Russia?

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Well I know several people how grow up in former communist countries who are very authoritarian and far-right today. Your behaviour of trying to present Trump as some freedom fighter is so absurd and untrue. You should use better arguments instead of your experience. Also, you do not have to read the media only. Ever read any academic paper about Trump such as regarding authoritarian values?

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Copied from another post I made.:

Biden violated the 1st amendment of the constitution, censoring the Free Speech of Americans. It was stated by the courts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/08/5th-circuit-ruling-covid-content-moderation/

The media suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop before the 2020 election and it affected the outcome of the election.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-nyt-now-admits-the-biden-laptop

https://nypost.com/2024/10/30/us-news/fbi-tried-to-minimize-hunter-biden-laptop-bombshell-days-before-scoop-as-facebook-exec-warned-against-offending-dems/

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/article-on-joe-and-hunter-biden-censored

The vaccine mandates were ILLEGAL. These were overturned by several levels of Government.

https://law.stanford.edu/2022/01/20/a-look-at-the-supreme-court-ruling-on-vaccination-mandates/

The Democrat led media, including Biden himself were saying that if you got the shot, you wouldn't get Covid but the fact that the Covid vaccines were NOT AS EFFECTIVE AS WE WERE TOLD should be plain when you were told you would need 3-4 booster in 2021, and that effectively waned after 3 months AND that people who were vaccinated were still getting Covid. The majority of people in hospitals WITH COVID after the vaccination campaigns were vaccinated people. Do you need me to get the proof?

And they were not as safe as we were told, as proven by the record number of people who were affected by the vaccines. My children making up that cohort.

And Biden is obviously cognitively impaired, which is why the Dems dropped him as a hot potato as soon as his debate with Trump was over because they could no longer pretend he was not senile.

These are all acts of an authoritarian government.

How are you not appalled by any of these things and yet only focus on Trump, who did no such things the entire 4 years he was in office?

Ridiculous.

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So how about you read some media articles about Trump breaking different laws?

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Dude, you do not have to read the media. Read more research instead. Try out for example some academic or organisation as ACLU regarding Trump.

Regarding Covid, yes many mistakes were done by the Biden administration and the far-right as in Europe also wanted even harsher measures. Even there you are wrong about Trump because of his behaviour during Covid.

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You're going to have to articulate better what you're talking about rather than speak in generalities. I've been pretty specific.

Biden LIED TO THE PEOPLE. His administration censored the Free Speech of 350 million people.

He coerced 10's of millions into taking an experimental drug THEY DID NOT WANT TO TAKE through illegal mandates.

They are offering children mutilating sex change surgeries and drugs that permanently damage them so that if they change their minds later, they can't.

Do you not understand the long term ramifications of these acts?

Goodness, if Trump did ONE of these things the Left wouldn't let him live it down, but the Biden administration forced illegal measures and committed crimes against humanity against the American people and nobody on the Left cares.

They call Trump 'Hitler' for no reason, and Biden's administration is committing Hitler like atrocities in real time and nobody cares.

History will not look favorably on these people. It's horrific.

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Sadly, being "heterodox" is already as a synonym for "I am anti-left so I am pro-right collectivism"

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“…there’s no Democratic equivalent of Catturd…” Might be my favorite line regarding social media.

I’m not exactly sure how to respond to RD here (he or she wasn’t talking to me anyway), but I’ll assert here (and I’ll say it on Joe Rogan’s podcast too!) is that the Hunter Biden laptop “story” was actually 100% available on something that I think is called “the internet,” if you’ve heard of that. The “news” organization that wrote the story published it on their very own universally available website. If Twitter or other outlets felt it didn’t meet their rules, that didn’t mean that Catturd couldn’t find the story elsewhere with little difficulty. Suppression indeed.

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It was blocked for all of 48 hours on Twitter and Facebook, and the Streisand effect controversy around it made it the most well known artifact of the campaign.

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When people are labeled "paranoid conspiracy theorists" who have genuine concerns about very serious topics that directly affect their lives, and you then proceed to egotistically dismiss their concerns.... yeah of course they aren't going to trust those that are labeling and dismissing them. Of course they are going to be attracted to those who give them a voice and who validate their concerns.... and yet you just continue to invalidate and gas light the majority of America. Sorry it doesn't work anymore. America has spoken.

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Talk about mirror images! The author of this article touts his own brand of conspiracy theory. Liberalism is in a pickle, and this article merely adds to the brine!

In deriding "an alternative media community" that operates "under the guise of 'independent thought,' 'heterodoxy,' or 'classical liberalism',” the author casts his net far and wide. One might (or might not) wonder what he makes of a Bari Weiss or a Nellie Bowles, or (for that matter) an Andrew Sullivan. Or Musa al-Gharbi? (For good measure, perhaps I should try resurrecting the ghost of Tom Wolfe.)

But I don't need to work too hard in making my point here. For an even more exemplary practitioner of the author's craft, I can merely cite Joe Biden -- currently the nation's premier expert on "garbage." (I can't wait for a raft of academic studies to emerge backing him up!) Like Biden's notorious gaffe, this article isn't doing Trump's adversaries any favors.

(Want to add insult to injury? Try calling Puerto Ricans "queerphobic" for failing to identify themselves as "Latinx"!)

FWIW -- putting this in a broader context -- I'm getting sick and tired of "anti-authoritarians" who'd like to see us all living in a Brave New World that's run like a hospital -- with its rigid hierarchy and reliance on credentialed expertise, perhaps the most authoritarian sort of institution (other than the military) that humanity has yet devised. You can check out any time you like (once the lockdown is lifted), but you can never leave!

Now, THERE's a conspiracy theory that might really stick! ;-)

PS: Also see Ross Douthat, "Who Abandoned Liberalism First, the Populists or the Establishment? The Uncertain Future of 'Whole of Society' Politics"

https://static.nytimes.com/email-content/RD_sample.html?action=click&module=nl-index-see-the-latest

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Ross Dimwit a lolcow.

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I'm generally not a fan of Douthat, but (IMO) he's correct in this instance. Perhaps, however, I should defer to Antwan's more nuanced and astute analysis. ;-)

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Good article, and I agree with most of it, but I simply cannot abide the fantasy that the media was impartial and bias-free before Orange Clownius became president. Much has been written on this topic. This is my favourite piece:

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/hell-you-people-jonah-goldberg/

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Quite a few ballwashers in these comments...

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Are you denying that claims about Russian interference has influenced US elections?

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A better podcaster is Lex Friedman since he is at least able to resist opportunism

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That was funnier than any attempt at comedy Joe Rogan has ever done. Bravo!

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Boy, is this the same old shit. First, let’s get out of the way that Kamala-lala would be treated by Rogan in the exact same way, and would let her get away with howlers, just like all you “responsible” reporters. So that he didn’t fly in Trump’s face every time Trump exaggerated is if little import.

I will acknowledge that Rogan provides air for some pretty silly things, ideas and positions, and accords them an unnecessary amount of respect. But then, first out of the bellyaching gate is . . . You guessed it: Donald Trump! Problem is, the examples he used to tag and feather Rogan have the reverse effect, beclowning the author himself, because each outrageous conspiracy theory cites has

More than a Little truth propelling it. The vehemence with which the left defends the legitimacy of an Election they clearly monkeyed with is their biggest tell. They know that if they let it slip in the Slightest that they rigged the election through various (numerous) means, they’ll never live it down. It’ll be the end of the Democratic Party, because they nearly brought down a democratic country - in the least, they ruined popular trust in popular elections, and what once was a thoroughly satisfying experience has become marked by the dread of what the fuck they’re going to pull next. It’s like half a nation of Anthony Wieners - getting caught, vehemently denying it, pointing fingers elsewhere and demanding an investigation, all from way up on his fucking high horse. And then we come learn the obvious. He did it all along, and thought pomposity, partisanship and dishonesty could carry the day. We know how this story ends.

So I didn’t Read too far beyond the opening salvos because nonsense of this magnitude puts Me Off My supper. I’m going to stick by my assumptions, however, because it’s not like we don’t see the same shit day after day.

Joe Rogan is a harbinger of your future. We don’t listen to “authorities” as much nowadays because they have shit the bed so consistently, and all in the same goddamn direction. But you go right ahead . . .

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tldr

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So I sense a bit of jealousy for Him? Take in information and judge for yourself. Read between the lines. Look for motivations. Follow the money. Look for action and don’t believe the words. Look for consistency versus inconsistency of behavior and actions. Reconcile macro information with first hand experience, so when they don’t reconcile you know not to believe the macro information. Believe in yourself. Then you will be a leader.

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Shut up, Hinchcliffe.

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Love reading nonsense…

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