But these two factions are very well-capitalized. Pharma can bankroll private and public media outlets in perpetuity. And taxpayers will continue to subsidize public TV and radio. And NPR and PBS pledge drive pitch-people will repeatedly tell gullible prospective donors how important it is to support “independent” media that keeps them well-misinformed.
They do it because it works. They do it by relentless increment. They disorient, they frighten, then they take. When you wake up and push back, they give a little back, slide into the background, and wait for you to calm down. But you never get back 90% of what was usurped and it just normalizes such takings for next time. And there is always a next time.
Specialization is often a deception. Years of training, education, and study easily ensnare the mind into an arrogance built on the precipice of expertise. However, without continued study of other areas in which one is merely an apprentice or a novice, the mind’s sleuthing abilities become dulled. Worse, because of the status an expert tends to hold, others will project that expertise onto areas the expert has no knowledge — even when the expert will directly contradict that idea.
The draft of the IHR amendments and an accompanying draft Pandemic Agreement are both still under negotiation a month short of the intended vote at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in late May. Together, they reflect a sea change in international public health over the past two decades. They aim to further centralize control of public health policy within the WHO.
To some, Inman Grant is a hero, protecting children from online abuse, ridding the internet of revenge porn, and breaking new ground in leading a globally coordinated response to the problem of online hate. To others she is an e-Karen, a Censorship Commissar with a personal vendetta against Elon Musk, cynically exploiting multiple tragedies to lead a bureaucratic power grab and censor the speech of everyday citizens, both in Australia and globally. Both may be true.
The Face Behind Australia’s Censorship Push Continue Reading
On one side, we have the 200,000 or so leaders of thousands of important captured organizations. On the other side, we have 10 to 20 million citizens who’ve found each other in the alternative media. In the middle, we have a couple billion people who are oblivious to what’s really at stake.
Will the ABC course-correct with Williams at the helm? Now that trust in legacy media is at historical lows, the ABC’s partnership with TNI does little to assuage fears that the network has passed the point of no return.
The different sides in this war are not nation-states. Instead, Team Tyranny is a bunch of different business interests pushing what has become a giant multi-trillion dollar grift. And Team Freedom is ordinary people throughout the world just trying to return to the classical economic and political liberalism that drove human progress from 1776 until 2020.
I don’t remember it being a trait of the Left to work at the World Bank, the National Democratic Institute, and HSBC, intern at the Council of Foreign Relations, be a WEF young leader, or a fellow at the Atlantic Council, a NATO affiliated think-tank. Maher is what I call a Cosmopolitan Authoritarian – a cultural libertine that institutional power has anointed into the charmed circle.
This bizarre saga leaves one wondering: where is the looming threat of authoritarianism in Europe – in right-wing conservatives who gather in hotels to talk about the future of Europe, or in leftist activists and mayors who want their political adversaries silenced and “cancelled” before they even open their mouth?
During the Covid pandemic, the U.S. government spent billions of dollars on nearly 400 products intended to protect, diagnose, and treat hundreds of millions of people – all with the label “EUA” or “Emergency Use Authorization.” But what does EUA actually mean?
Somehow – call me naive – I just didn’t expect the New York Times to be all-in on the immediate establishment of the surveillance state and universal censorship by the “awesome” Deep State. But think of this. If the NYT can be fully captured by this ideology, and probably captured by the money that goes with it, so can any other institution. You have probably noticed a similar editorial line being pushed by Wired, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Salon, Slate, and other venues, including the entire suite of publications owned by Conde Nast including Vogue and GQ magazine.
Now We Are Supposed to Cheer Government Surveillance? Continue Reading
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