Joe Rogan is Definitely not “Right Wing”

As Glenn Greenwald tweets,

Only the US corporate media could take the person in this video, Joe Rogan, and claim he's a far-right figure. It happens in part because most of Rogan's critics never watch his show, but also because the media purposely lies and uses "far-right" to malign everyone they dislike.

It is mind-blowing how so many corporate media outlets characterize Joe Rogan "Right wing." They have either never listened to his show or they are out-and-out lying. I lean to the second possibilty. Journalistic malpractice. They do hate the growth of independent media, such as Rogan and Krystal and Saagar of Breaking Points.  Follow the link below to the Mashup video by Matt Orfalea:

Follow Greenwald's thread for the accusations that Rogan is "right wing." MSM would rather try to cancel voices challenging their corrupted narratives instead of working harder to earn the respect as providers of meaningful news.

When I posted this on FB, some people pivoted to calling Rogan a "racist," as though has has ever used the N-word as a slur (he hasn't on his podcast). Rogan used the N-word many times (for which he has now apologized), but never as a racial slur.

I responded to those who took this pivot:

Do you see any difference between discussing the "N" word and using as a hateful slur? Do you think that professors should be fired for using the N-word to teach the evils of slavery? I personally know of such cases. Do you get upset when you see Joe Biden using the N-word? He has used it (not as a slur). What about when Obama uttered the N-word? Mark Twain? Do you consider the N-word to have magic significance (like the word "Voldemort") that it hurts people even when it is used as a teaching tool for combatting racism. Do you believe in magic? Rogan is not racist in the least. If you doubt this, just try to find one clip where he has ever shown any bigotry toward people of color. You won't find it.

Show me one example of where Rogan "implies" that he is a "racist." You won't find it. How about comparing your false characterization to the "progressive" view that we need to wholesale lower and eliminate standards because black people can't cut it? That's REAL racism. See this video by Glenn Loury and John McWhorter.

Continue ReadingJoe Rogan is Definitely not “Right Wing”

The “Race” Endgame

Sam Harris appeared on stage with Scott Galloway to discuss many topics, including "race." I am using these scare quotes because I do not recognize "race" to be a reality-based category, but only an extremely toxic temptation for both well-meaning people and power-seekers. I'm convinced that from Day One, recognition of "race" was always a bad idea and it continues to be a bad idea that needlessly tears people apart, often causing physical violence and sometimes causing death. The concept of race has the scientific validity and reliability of astrology--both concepts are gross miscategorizations, attempts to silo complex human beings (and all human beings are complex) on the basis of immutable irrelevant characteristics. The less credence we grant this concept, the better, in my view. Here's what Sam Harris had to say about his view of the best endgame for the concept of "race."

The goal has to be to get to a society where we care less and less about the superficial differences between people. It seems to me patently obvious that there can't be a matter of caring more and more about these differences. [There are] people who were actually living in a post-racial society in the sense that they weren't they did not care about the color of anyone's skin or anyone's sexual preference or gender identity. There were many people living truly ethical lives having broken out of this this truly toxic past with respect to those forms of bigotry. They're getting pushed back. They're being told by this corner of the culture “No no no! It's too soon to say that. It’s always going to be too soon to say that you're post-racial or blind with respect to these differences among people. These differences have to be ramified. They have to be acknowledged. You as a white person have no standing with which to say anything about race.” That's madness. It's absolute madness.

The goal for us ethically and intellectually has to be to arrive at a time where we don't care about these things no more than we care about hair color. Just imagine if we were coming from a time where people had been discriminated against based on hair color. That would be totally perverse.

Continue ReadingThe “Race” Endgame

A Growing Collection: News Media Not Wanting Us to Know Important Things

I will be adding items to this list, apparently for a long time. I was provoked to create this list after reading Andrew Sullivan's collection of topics that the left-leaning news media works hard to not cover. I'll begin this list up here in a post and then continue adding items in the comments.

This list begins today, with this entry by Batya Ungar-Sargon coupled with this NYP article, "Journalists today aren’t muckrakers — they are defenders of the liberal elite":

[Added Dec 5, 2021]

They treat us like toddlers who are incapable of hearing the facts and coming to our own conclusions.

Glenn Greenwald:

In the last 18 months, US political discourse has been mass-censored over significant issues based on 2 lies:

1) The Biden email archive was "Russian disinformation."

2) The Science™ had proven COVID was zoonotic rather than from a lab.

Both lies led to widespread repression.

Continue ReadingA Growing Collection: News Media Not Wanting Us to Know Important Things

Democrat Media Goes Radio-Silent after Joe Biden Adopts Donald Trump’s Immigration Policy

The content of this thread following Glenn Greenwald's Tweet is exactly what we should expect to get more of as long as so many of us continue relishing two-party tribalism rather than engaging in nuanced heterodox thinking. Read the thread and you will find cheap theater staged by Rachel Maddow and AOC on this issue. Too many of us are working in overtime to score cheap political points instead of working to have meaningful discussions regarding complex issues. The HxA way would be a good start.  

Looking back  only 18 months . . .

Continue ReadingDemocrat Media Goes Radio-Silent after Joe Biden Adopts Donald Trump’s Immigration Policy

The Long Tradition of Dividing People Into Good People and Bad People

Matt Taibbi, writing about Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States:

No matter how interesting a book he or she is able to write, any author who admits to looking out at the world and seeing only “victims and executioners” needs psychological help. Unfortunately, Zinn in this respect turned out to be a pioneer, presaging a generation of comic-book thinkers who understand things in binary terms, forever preoccupied with cramming people in neat categories of oppressors and oppressed.

Such mental habits are the fashion now and will definitely put you in a bind on Thanksgiving. How can I eat turkey and stuffing with a smile, when Columbus massacred the Arawaks? When the English forced the Wampanoags off their land and made many convert to Christianity? When Lincoln told Horace Greeley, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it”?

How? Maybe because you’re more than three years old, and don’t need fairy tales to be real in order to enjoy dinner with family and a football game?

Taibbi's article is "Thanksgiving is Awesome: In reply to the haters. Happy holiday, everyone."

On a more serious note, I read Zinn's book when I was a teenager and it was a much needed shock to my system, given that I had, to that point, been exposed to a steady stream of textbooks and teachers who argued American Exceptionalism. I agree with Taibbi that both of these approaches are simplistic.

Continue ReadingThe Long Tradition of Dividing People Into Good People and Bad People