110 Comments

Bari Weiss is "conservative leaning!?" Have you ever read Common Sense? I follow pay for membership specifically because she's a freedom loving lefty that presents a view opposite traditional conservatism. She is almost literally the definition of "liberal leaning." We have to stop using "conservative" as the opposite of "leftist." the far left and the far right are exactly the same in ideology and exactly the opposite in beliefs. The ideological opposite of leftist is liberal...

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founding

I was going to write exactly the same comment. I love Bari and what she is doing, but she is quintessential left wing, just like Alex. But she is honest and forthright and that is good enough for me.

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So was I. I read both Bari and Alex, free speech is the hill that unites us all. Tell the truth and I will read it, and not attach a label.

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yes, completely agree. I really wish we could change how we talk about the "political spectrum." I look at it across two intersecting spectrums. There is ideology and there is belief structure within that ideology.

Left believes in categorization and control by biology (tribal warfare) and the right believes in categorization and control by religion. Modern "leftists" are actually far right - the commitment to the religion of woke is the determinant of a human's value. What we call the modern far right is actually the far left (ACTUAL white/black supremacists). In the middle is "liberalism" - your humanity is your value.

Overlapped on that is your belief structure. The woke, the catholic crusaders and the sunni's are all the same in ideology - your value is your commitment to the religion - but wildly different in beliefs.

We do everyone a massive disservice when we conflate these two. "Conservative" is a beliefs designation - and Bari isn't conservative, she's left of center belief wise, though likely very close to center given all she's finally opened herself up to learning - and what I believe Alex meant is that she's liberal in ideology (believes in individual liberty regardless of biology or religion) which makes her to the right (it's actually the left) of the "mainstream" position which is pretty far right today (if you don't do the religious ritual of vaccination you are removed from polite society, etc...)

Anyway - I hate that we conflate these two. The government/mainstream does it on purpose to ensure we can't have honest discussion on things like abortion (separate the ideology from the belief and then determine where we find compromise, or don't, on both continuums) and therefore stay divided, enabling them to concentrate more power - but we shouldn't play into it because we're being intellectually lazy

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Hooray! Someone who gets it. Us card-carrying liberals are not socialists, we're not conservatives, republicans or democrats, we're not even exactly libertarians. We're staunch defenders of individual rights, and if that means voting for a Donald Trump or a Ralph Nader in order to "throw a human Molotov cocktail" into the middle of the Washington DC elites who have been screwing us over for the last few decades, so be it!

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Dec 9, 2022·edited Dec 9, 2022

“We're staunch defenders of individual rights,,,” Points up the key difference between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives certainly believe in individual natural rights (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness) but also believe any rights beyond these three come with significant individual RESPONSIBILITIES attached - responsibilities which you cannot assign to others. Medical care is not a right, for example, because as soon as you make it so, you make the person required to provide it into a slave. Many other examples exist.

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Agreed! Social programs absolutely limit individual freedoms. They are compromises with risks and benefits. It's our responsibility to decide which ones are ultimately beneficial.

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Dec 10, 2022·edited Dec 10, 2022

My point is social “programs” also limit individual responsibilities. (I don’t need to give it to charity… Government will do it). This effect is corrosive on humanity and eventually destroys society. Therefore, social programs need to be extremely limited.

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The be honest I think we'd all be better off without most of them.

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People who rely on the government to replace their charitable giving are more than happy to vote to raise taxes on others to pay for it. When I point out that is not the same as giving yourself, it is virtue signaling with other people's money, they get angry.

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The problem with being a card-carrying liberal is with that label you're in association with a corrupt president whose destructive policies are destroying our nation.

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And the problem with being a conservative is that you're associated with the Cheneys, the Bushes, and the War on Terror. My friends revoked my liberal card because I admitted voting for Trump, so maybe those labels no longer apply.

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I'm afraid I can't accept your premise that those people are conservatives. They're merely never-Trumpers.

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I call them neocons.

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They professed to be conservatives. We now know they are progressives running as republicans.

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If you don't think kids should be sterilized you are now far right. You didn't get the memo?

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Please allow me to simplify this equation. What we're seeing is collectivism vs individualism. This is left vs right, east vs west. These are moral equivalents, not good vs evil. Collectivism embodies social ideology. This dynamic had always existed, but was somewhat buried under the surface, as the two ideologies enjoyed a relatively peaceful balance of power in this country.

Not anymore. An existential crisis has arisen pertaining to social ideology. The proliferation of addictive personal electronic devices has shifted the power dynamic (in the behavior/social realm, not political) from healthy social collectivism to dark, socially isolating hyper-individualism.

This is the ideological crisis driving the collectivist left insane. They feel it, but can't put their finger on it. They're suffering from acute ideological anxiety, and they're becoming quite destructive. This is a dangerous situation.

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We need to ditch the whole liberal vs conservative crap. It offers nothing but confusion. The dynamic we're seeing is not that complicated, although it's kind of heavy.

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This comment has provoked a lot of good discussion here. First, censorship and suppression of dissent is never a function of ideology or political or general social position. It's a function of being in power. The champions of free speech, dissent, and "truth to power" are always those out of power. Those in power get drunk on it and tend to suppress dissent. We're seeing that play out in textbook fashion now.

I've also come to appreciate that political position can't be plotted with only 1 dimension, ie left to right. It takes far more than 1, probably a lot more. It's just at any time, there is a prevailing "alignment", depending on what's important at the time, the major questions and divisions society is facing that allow that multi-dimensional space to sort of be projected onto a rough 1D line which we call left and right.

For example, back in the late '80s to the '90s, I used to like George Will (and similar), thinking we were pretty close together. Now, however, I realize how far apart I am from George Will. I always was, it was just those large differences in the large space didn't mean much at the time. Now they do, and we are worlds apart.

That's what we're all seeing now, writ large. We're all seeing, wow, this person I thought was so far apart from me is really close, and this person I thought I agreed with is very different.

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I agree that left vs right is a false or distracting axis. The important axis of political conflict is orthogonal to that: liberty vs tyranny.

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Transparency is the enemy of corruption.

Decentralization is the cure.

We need to demand both, relentlessly.

Are you a problem solver?

https://joshketry.substack.com/p/demanding-transparency-our-systems

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When most on the left are running further left at full clip, anybody not keeping up is gonna be 'conservatively leaning,' and anyone standing still will be of various degrees of 'far-rightness.'

So, in the language of a hypothetical lefty, Alex is technically correct.

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Had the same reaction!

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Love ya, Alex, but “conservative-leaning” is a mischaracterization.

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Conservative is relative. Compared to Alex maybe she's conservative.

Lib is relative, too. I'm probably more liberal than Atilla the hun. But not by much.

People should not be valued by their labels, but by their actions.

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Calling Bari's site conservative wreaks of jealousy from Alex, it's nothing of the sort. Not that there is anything wrong with conservative sites, I'm fairly conservative my self. I follow Bari Weiss and MT and GG specifically because I trust them to tell the truth and push back against the mainstream narrative. Could not care less about their politics.

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Twitter's top executives lied. They lied not just to users, but even to Congress, and it's now a proven certainty that the company acted on requests from political actors to suppress speech. That's a big fucking deal, no matter how much the mainstream media says otherwise.

https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/the-twitter-files

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Where are the indictments for all the Twatterati for lying to Congress?

Hearing nothing from the Leftist Dept of Just Us but silence.

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*crickets*

That's all I have been hearing for quite some time now. And those crickets are louder than the constant noise in my ears.

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CIA Director Clapper lied to Congress and nothing ever happened to him, so nothing will likely happen to them either

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founding

Jack Dorsey and his UnAmerican friends did this and I am certain it was not done for free. I'm sure they knew that they was going to be caught eventually in time. The legacy media is just as guilty because they are was lock in step with Jack Dorsey and Dorsey also lied to Congress more then twice. Again Alex Berenson, was right by saying that this is a far bigger story then talking about Uncle Joe Biden and his family. Most of us who have been around long enough to know that Uncle Joe Biden is trash.

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AJB, you're right, legacy media, big tech, and gov/FBI suppression is a giant story... but I firmly believe the Bidens are caught up in China pay-to-play, and Joe should be investigated for a variety of (what I see as) serious transgressions, such as selling China a million barrels of oil from our Strategic Reserve, Etc. Etc. (The "Etc's have piled up)

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Agreed - but whatever you do, DON'T settle on this one. I want to see these people on a stand in front of a jury - not a congressional committee who tosses softballs for fear of their own deeds coming out. As individuals.

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I suspect Elon Musk will do what he can to protect Dorsey from the worst of the blowback. If that was part of the price for acquiring Twitter, I'm okay with that.

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Well I’m not!

No more picking and choosing-all crooks should go to jail. This country was not designed to make excuses

for them to stay out of jail.

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To effect change, there are always some distasteful compromises which must be made.

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founding

I doubt that he should or will do what you say because that would make Musk look weak and like a Simpleton like Jack Dorsey who I am sure made millions to silence free speech.

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Both these guys are businessmen first, and I'm guessing they have big plans for Twitter - keep in mind that Dorsey didn't sell his shares. I'd speculate they're cooking up a scheme to compete with the international banking cartel. Call it Twitterpay.

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That's my belief too.

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To torture myself this weekend, I'm going to re-listen to Joe Rogan's podcast (3/4/19) with Jack Dorsey, Vijaya Gadde and Tim Pool. Tim was brought on to give examples of shadow banning and other censor tactics and for three hours Jack and Vijaya denied everything or said "we'll look into it and get back to you". He was extremely frustrated because they wouldn't acknowledge what everyone knew was true

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You're a stronger man than me! I could never put myself through that again. Dorsey, and especially Gadde, were unbearable.

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18 USC 241 makes it a crime when "two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person . . . in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States . . .."

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founding

Now do #META, #GOOGL, #YOUTUBE‼️‼️

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I find Bari Weiss to be HONEST. That is why I subscribe to her column. I also subscribe to your column for the same reason. Why clutter your writing with personal opinions? Conservative leaning NOT!

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Freedom lovers on both left and right need to put aside our differences and work to expose and reform our government and our institutions.

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Alex, any thoughts on the FBI mole who was somehow still in place?! Wonder how many more are still in the woodwork ...?

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Considering Operation Mockingbird; Twitter is probably the brainchild of the CIA

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No doubt they've infiltrated it. But lately the elites seem genuinely worried.

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Right. Musk is doing pretty well so far. Let's give him a chance. And be more careful about attacking people who are mostly on your side. Your earlier posts on Elon Musk were premature and unfair, as was your attack on Dr. Malone. Did not need to be nearly that harsh. Reminds me of Republicans shooting down our causes all the time because they are too busy being elitist and short sighted. But I appreciate your willingness to wait and see. I would imagine he's got a lot to do. Firing people like Baker, looking for and releasing this back information. Maybe he hasn't gotten new employees or been able to deal with individual accounts carefully yet.

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I never used Twitter until after the summer of love, where I followed Andy Ngo. The app itself was probably good in 2012, but it is pretty dated. Apparently Twitter was an intelligence operation for the lock us up and get rid of Trump crowd.

Btw. I think at some point there needs to be a real investigation in the Q anon story. Who or what groups were Q. Why was Q started right after Trump got in office? Why did it dry up after he left office? What was Twitters involvement? Something smells rotten in Denmark. Et etc. please feel free to link me to any articles or ideas in a reply. I am not buying the cover HBO documentary, too tidy for me. Based on the number of q accts on Twitt. The story does not add up.

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I see lots of "Jay was wrong so he deserved to be shadowbanned" nonsense on Twitter, yet not a single person seems to know that Sweden currently stands at the lowest excess deaths in Europe (and Asia), just recently taking the spot from Norway using 4 year average (OWID switched from using 4 year average in late 2021 to some opaque formula which undercounts excess deaths in many nations, notably South Korea which blew up in 2022).

Lazy Friday for me, so just reposting part of my discussion with one of YLE's prolific supporters where i dive into the data.

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/covid-19-in-china-and-global-concern/comment/10845511

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Thx Michael, this substack is filled with people like yourself, confirming things I've read or found to be true, but not trusting my own (average) intelligence to start yelling it from the rooftops, something I am actually pretty good at, and with a decent sized audience.

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Michael, I reread my Dec 9th comment and I hope it came off like the compliment to you that I meant. Thx again for the link

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I just got 7 days for this in response to a comment on Brinton: “Throw your dick in the trash; throw your tits in the dumpster; then call me toxic when I tell you to keep your drag show away from my grandkids.”

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Seven days? Be happy. Many people have gotten permanent bans yet in place for a lot less. A lot less.

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Yes, my account is suspended because in response to a BLM riot video where an old man was stopped in his car and got out with a bow and arrow, then beaten, I replied He should have brought a gun. I was told that's inciting violence. Not the rioters beating someone, not the people promoting that, I'm the one inciting violence.

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The person’s responsible for suppressing facts related to Covid treatments should be sued for wrongful death. They are the proximate cause of the public’s inability to make an informed consent decision!!

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I’m amazed at how similar Today is to the Black and White science fiction TV series “The Prisoner “ - Brainchild of Patrick McGoohan in the late 19 sixties

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1984!!! Not sure there is a better book for this time! We certainly have "government speak" coming out of the walls. Thank you, Elon Musk, for showing us George Orwell was right!

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Dec 9, 2022·edited Dec 9, 2022

Just watch no one be held accountable for ANY of it. It will be washed down and swept away by the very swamp that was complicit in ALL of it. Lot's of talk and rant and rave, but where is the ACCOUNTABILITY? Sure you will say "they will investigate" Yeah, let's see where our monies will be wasted again investigating leading to nothing of substance. Just sayin... The absolute #1 crisis in America is and has been ZERO accountability at almost every level of society now, but especially in the Pharma-Tech-Swamp-Media cartel.

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MSM coverage of The Twitter Files - 0% ABC, CBS, NBC. Thus, most Americans know nothing about this. The Biden admin controls almost all media (mainstream and social) and the Senate and Presidency, thus crickets. I expect the incoming Republican House to be consumed by infighting, so NOTHING will change.

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Anyone still 0% unaware is not reachable and doomed to the land of the galactically moronic

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