218 Comments

Long read, but well worth it. Glenn, your summation of how the Democrat Party has abandoned core tenets of the US Constitution should be required reading. Incredibly concerning that so many in the US see the Constitution as antiquated.

Expand full comment

Great article, but I'd like to see some exploration of how this same unholy alliance of corporate media, big tech and government intel agencies has been actively suppressing free speech not just in the are of political discourse, but in other areas as well, with science/medical reporting being the poster boy here.

The collusion of Big Pharma with Big Tech and the government public health agencies and the same Democratic Party stalwarts who are wetting their pants over Musk's acquisition of Twitter is as big a story as the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Wherever you stand on the issues, the whole handling of the Covid pandemic has been an economic, social, and public health disaster, and the fact that many reputable scientists and journalists have been muted or silenced for straying from the official CDC/NIHAID narrative is a disgrace which needs to be exposed.

My own personal relationship with the Democratic Party is now permanent ruptured. I was always skeptical of its prescriptions, but was generally supportive of many of its leaders and members because of what we all thought was a bedrock, fundamental commitment to free speech and a promotion of tolerance and diversity, not just of skin color, but of viewpoints. Now that the fig leave had fallen away.....so have I.

Expand full comment

GG and Matt T together again? It's Christmas on New Year's Eve!

Thanks to BOTH of you for being the best money I spend every year!

Expand full comment

I liked Matt Taibbi's observation that journalists used to relish "sticking it to the man." Today the corporate media are Toadies for the man. And they like sticking it to you. Wow. Things have changed.

Expand full comment

What happened was that liberals got the whip hand.

When they were the ones getting most of the censorship, they didn't like it so much.

Expand full comment

This article is so good that the Deep State shit- stirrers are working overtime to discredit it. You/we know who you are.

Expand full comment
Dec 31, 2022·edited Dec 31, 2022

One problem we, the free-speech advocates, are having is our continued dependence on the idea of accessible truth. We often advocate for free speech rights on the "when it's our turn" argument. But really, that explanation is vacuous, a deflection from the real problem.

We shouldn't protect free speech so that the "good guys" -- you know, the ones who supposedly "actually have the real truth" -- will always have the right to speak it. We should protect free speech because *all* content is, and always will be, a candidate for "truth". And *that's* the hardest pill to swallow.

I do think it's our Achilles' heel. If we don't get out beyond it, and get our heads straight on the impossibility of unimpeachable knowledge, we're doomed.

Expand full comment

The go to, "It's a private company and they can do what they want" argument; was only ever one of convenience, the liberal class never believed that.

Because just as soon a Musk took over Twitter they cast it aside like the old tattered coat that it was.

Expand full comment

Excellent monolog and great interview. But we're overlooking the real oppression -- freedom of speech is just a tool which is controlled by the use of force. They aren't interested in our speech, only their power to control our speech and every other aspect of your life. Sentimental poets and professional speakers like to dream that "the pen is mightier than the sword." It's not. The sword can destroy the pen, or the hand that wields it or the head that directs it, if we allow it. As we are. The dems did not acquire their power by speech, though it may have attracted a few simpletons, who their predecessors called useful idiots. They acquired power by force, and intimidation. Hiliary is widely believed to have killed her adversaries. The rampaging mobs that destroyed so many cities are all dem storm troopers. They're allowed to rampage at will because it supports the dem rise to power. We allow it because we are prisoners of our fears. Prisoners who speak up are still imprisoned. The only way to overcome them is not to whine, however poetically, but to react with greater force. As long as we hold our civility and propriety in greater regard than our freedom, we will lose all freedom to those who are less inhibited. At some point, we'll decide to fight back. Until them, we'll talk about our oppression, and the oppression will continue. Speech is just another word for surrender.

Expand full comment

I don’t know why you refer to these people as “left liberals”, they are not liberals at all. They represent the totalitarian “successor ideology” of progressivism, which wears the language and tropes of liberalism as a skin suit to confuse actual liberals into thinking they are on the same side while simultaneously subverting the pillars of liberalism -- tolerance, belief in free speech and due process, and the values of the Enlightenment generally.

Expand full comment

I make a two-sided ledger list of current political party positions I find repugnant, disgusting and dangerous.

The Democrat list is long. It includes the attacks on free speech, support of the corrupt deep state, COVID authoritarianism, wokeism and the clear racism contained within, war mongering, corporatism, defunding police, open borders, abuse of government power for politics, etc., etc., etc.,

My list for Republicans is two things... abortion bans beginning at conception, and failing to fight to stop the Democrats from doing all the previous.

Expand full comment

There is a simple reason the American Left has lost interest in freedom of religion and freedom of speech. They no longer have any religion, and they have nothing interesting to say, so they can’t imagine that systematic infringement of these rights could ever affect them.

Expand full comment

The Mainstream Media is committing Acts of Omission in their lack of attention to the Twitter Files.

The MSM is censoring again by failing to cover the Twitter Files with objectivity. That means that the Wikipedia entry for the Twitter Files was initially suggested to be deleted. It wasn't, due to some editors arguing that it remain. But coverage only permits MSM citations and if MSM doesn't cover a topic, the coverage is minimal.

Wikipedia is the #1 site in the world where people get information (like it or not) so having accurate coverage of the "Twitter Files "at Wikipedia is important.

To understand how Wikipedia works in real time you can read the Talk Page discussions at Wikipedia about the Twitter Files. You can see discussion of what reliable sources are here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Twitter_Files

Anyone can edit Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

Expand full comment

After all of the 'Big' stories of the last 6 years, from Russiagate, the Steele Dossier, Durham Investigation, Trumps tax returns and all the rest that the Media masturbated over, the Twitter Files is the only one that actually delivered the goods, and hopefully will continue to do so. All of the other stories were the definition of Nothingburgers.

Expand full comment

I really hate the use of the term "left-liberal". The trends noted here are real, and have long been the reason that I value your work, Glenn, but I'm not comfortable with any use of categories that large. I much prefer it when you stick to specifics instead of sweeping whole categories of people into one huge container.

Expand full comment

American left-liberals have rejected old, traditional values because they’re old and traditional.

Eventually they rediscover why those old values were- valuable.

Unfortunately a lot of pain is involved in the process.

Let’s hope they don’t have to relearn the entire lesson of the American Revolution.

Expand full comment