For years, U.S. officials and their media allies accused Russia, China and Iran of tyranny for demanding censorship as a condition for Big Tech access. Now, the U.S. is doing the same to TikTok.
Reprehensible, and/or criminal conduct - real, imagined or synthesized; is how they advance their never-ending demands for more power, more surveillance, and yet more powers of censorship.
How long? They can get it by subpoena today or by getting a friendly or two in positions of access at substack. That is to say it is already a risk.
People should be thinking about what personally identifying info they use on substack...do you want your personal email on the account? Should you find a payment method that is not personally identifying?
But at the same time we collectively need the courage to stand up and be public in opposition to this stuff.
Commenter 34, I share your concerns about our privacy/safety on this comment thread, but don't "they" already know everything they want to know about us? Can we really remain anonymous on this site?
Trying to "remain anonymous" is a fools errand. "They" already know about you. The issue is whether or not the publications and comments on Substack will be censored. Pay attention to that.
Even if you have anonymity on the server, there are all the middlemen -- the internet provider, your phone or PC, the routing company (e.g. Cloudflare). Cloudflare in particular has demonstrated the willingness to turn you in if asked by law enforcement, as they did during the "insurrection" protest on Jan. 6.
Basically you have to assume that you're being tracked all the time, and plan accordingly. I agree -- at some point, we have to just be courageous and stand up to these scum.
Agreed. Easier if you're older, like me. The truth in what you say is just heart breaking for all the younger folks who deserve a life that won't extract arbitrary punishment for non-compliance.
My generation got to be freaks and do and say and live much as they wanted. I suspect what we see now was coming even back then, but there was a moment of a few decades of liberation and somewhat widespread economy, fast advancement of civil rights and liberties, etc. A vital time.
Wow is it now depressing: the lack of diversity in views, art, expression, politics, hope, vision, etc. It's like we're half dead and hiding. Maybe we are.
The problem is that so many millennials and Gen Zers are in favor of this kind of censorship. Whether out of not connecting in person as you have Zoom and other 'virtual' connections, indoctrination at school or simply being naïve, they desire this.
Excellent point. I think there is hope because although younger generations need to relearn same lessons sometimes, there are fundamental inescapable truths.
We are already seeing the inescapable truth that going easier on criminals results in levels of crime that are broadly considered unacceptable. Those of us who saw it in urban US in 70s-90s knew, but the younger folks didn't until now.
There is a still to come a fuller relearning that censoring speech doesn't achieve the intended goal. No one has as much "truth" as they think and the censors block too many truths that the populace learns were wrong to block, and eventually the system must die because the people won't stand for it.
The younger generation seems to view "1984" as an amusing iteration of Disney's "Pinochio" but without all the "woke" points they seem to have a pathological craving for. I see Parents/School Boards/School Choice and someone (ANYONE) like Trump without his easily advertised flaws as a last hope (Not that it Matters, look at the "Biden Crime Family's" near Media Coronation coupled with their SOCIOPATHIC denial). How do we combat all this since we are now surrounded? How long before they destroy Musk and no one else will DARE to take his place or attempt what he has already done (ignored by the MSM, as an extra "kick in the pants" to Civil Libertarians everywhere)? Zelensky, the (laughably) pure "Defender of Freedom", used by Biden's Handlers, (Rice, Klain, Obama, Schwab Cabal, et al), as an excuse to drain the savings accounts of the hardworking USA Middle Class through their punitive taxes which they use to pay for the Russian/Ukraine War ... and then their skimming ... otherwise known as REDISTRIBUTION FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS TO THE ELITES, who will call this out? The EU is not paying anywhere near its share of military costs and neither is the UK. Donald Trump is found to be CORRECT once again ... but he will be hounded to the death for his honesty! And never remembered for his prophetic truths! NEVER :(
Until another, more radical, faction takes over, and these once-cutting edge gullible fools find themselves in the crosshairs of a new, even more vicious cancel mob.
This is precisely the kind of thing our constitution and form of government was designed to oppose and neutralize. By having contempt for it, as something created by old white men, the younger generation today has put themselves and the entire country in jeopardy.
No we’re not. Just the fact that you are on this thread proves that you aren’t. Look to the young. That’s always where new brilliant, vital ideas come from. They are our only hope. Fuck off Obe Wan Kenobe!
That is why we need a peer to peer Internet eventually... where info travels phone to phone rather than over central systems. Would be great for China especially already.
That's kind of the idea of Mastodon, a distributed Twitter-like blogging system. It's a crude user experience and has very few users as of yet; I doubt Twitter will be dethroned in the near future, assuming the new management can get their act together before it goes bankrupt.
Get their act together how, exactly. User participation and number of users has risen drastically since Elon took over, but corporations, obviously fearful
of the US IC, have cravenly pulled advertising. As Schumer publicly stated “Don’t mess with the intelligence community. They can screw you 6 ways from Sunday”.
Elon Musk’s dramatic release of internal communications regarding the 2020 election and so forth has spooked advertisers to be sure, but these are momentary things, already starting to disappear in the stream, and my guess is that advertisers will be back eventually. They can’t simply ignore a massive social media website like Twitter.
My courage. Come and get me. So I can see my ENEMY face to face ... the better to fight him/her/its/they/them and whomever ... all of these pronouns are merely arrows in the quiver of the "Deep State" Government Censorship ASSAULT! Easy to duck right now ... but what is next!
It's tedious, but possible. Keep in mind, that although the article does not emphasize it, one can register with a fake address as well as a fake name and a throwaway email address.
How to Use Prepaid Debit Cards for Anonymous Transactions
I do nothing fake. I am here. And I dare you to try to take me down. Someone has it have B**** even if I was born a Biological Woman ... my Cojones are much larger than most real or even "fake" men (who aren't men at all, unless you mistakenly count aesthetic enhancements as changes to DNA. I do not! Anyone has the 1A right to call themselves whatever they want but Science is Science! PERIOD!
I recommend, "Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance" by Julia Angwin. Somewhat dated, but still useful.
You are looking at my "real name." I do not duck or hide! I am an American Citizen. I expect to be treated as such. Let them come. I am waiting for them!
They are worried about reach, not speech. So a few people here and there yelling to a few thousand people is no concern, like annoying preachers on soapboxes. But when they sway people away from the dominant imperialist narrative actions are taken. Ultimately, neuter dissidents like Chompsky pre-80s. Eventually, they’ll be accepting and promoting government lies: 9/11 and no election interference by deep state. And as facts come out by Wikileaks and Greenwald types, they will be marginalized. They will keep you in fear and maximizing the manufacturing of your consent. Nothing is new. The lies against Japan to rally is to war against them, still remains mostly unknown. Stephen Ambrose who showed the real history of WWII prior to 1988, reversed himself when showered in deep state money and put in charge of New Orleans D-Day museum.
How did Osama die, according to Aquino? How did Aquino die?
The least needed people are in the highest demand. Meanwhile, homeless highschool dropouts who seek to improve their country have zero demand in any place of power. It's beyond sad.
The State Department on Thursday unequivocally warned that if Russia invades Ukraine the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will sit unused at the bottom of the ocean.
Much like we were supposed to ignore the fact that Kabul would fall like Saigon, that Covid is of natural origin (even though no infected intermediate animals have been found) and that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian plant. All disinformation paid for by taxpayers.
It should be scandalous enough that social media executives have come to view their role as being loyal and compliant conduits for the national security state.
This is merely a somewhat new twist on a very old game. US news organizations have long been incessant purveyors of US war propaganda, going back at least as far as the Spanish American War, along with its insistant "Remember the Maine" headlines that misrepresented an incident that was either an accident caused by ship's personnel, or a false flag opeation. This behavior has been repeated and amplified for every war since. The biggest difference now is that the costs for running a newspaper in the past weren't so egregiously high that someone couldn't potentially air contrary views without being shut out of the market; and the security state didn't have a choke hold on the distribution system for those views (the internet) such that dissenting publishers can be completely severed from their audiences. That last item is the real problem.
The eager (and concealed) cooperation between social media and the Intelligence Services apparatus was first exposed a decade ago when Glenn brought us the Snowden exposé. Few seemed to care then either.
They do it for self preservation. It’s easier to go along. They already pulled them all in front of Congress for a dog and pony show about “dangerous misinformation”.
And to give the false perception that they are being somehow forced by the big baddies in government to share your personal data and silence unapproved ideas, when in reality they are eager beavers at it.
The reaction to the Twitter Files scandal, total indifference, is very telling. I guess you would say there is tacit approval for censorship. That won't be lost on the security state. This is only getting worse.
A total silence in corporate media on Twitter Files -- one more proof that each and every one if completely infested by security state operatives at all levels.
One should be eternally grateful to Elon Musk for slowing down US collapse domestically into horrible fascist state.
“Corporate media” is a television show. Paid actors given scripts and parts to play. There is no journalism involved. Even most movies nowadays are simply propaganda. The security state has captured all avenues of entertainment.
MSM and tech are the fully-co-opted propaganda arms of the Party, with only a few holdouts. And many/most “educated” urbanites are totally on board. The psychology of totalitarianism has ripped through the upper echelons of society. The only question is how much damage they will do before they wake up. Gulags, re-education camps, forced psychological “treatment” for dissenters, etc., are all possibilities as we continue down this road of government-sponsored unreality.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire
We should all support Glenn in shining light on this astonishing gov't action and clear censorship of US citizens' protected political opinions.
We should simultaneously all consider exactly what protocols we personally should be following based on our own comfort with US Federal intrusion on our substack content. Is your personal email used for your substack account and are you OK with US Federal access to that info, which is nearly certain if they want it? Just be thoughtful about all that, people.
Shit, I've been on 'the lists' for decades. I didn't go along with Iraq AND I supported Ron Paul -- not to mention disagreeing with our covid response. That's why my bio jokes that I'm a domestic terrorist:
Yep. I stopped caring what they said about me at "unpatriotic" (for not going along with Iraq), and I haven't seen a reason to start caring what they say since then.
Ironically, many of the same people who would have shared the “unpatriotic” label with you in the Bush era are now the same ones who would now call you (us) a white supremacist domestic terrorist.
There may be good questions about the efficiency of the Security State. Despite many years spent trying to get on Big Gov's shit lists as left-wing activists, we discovered the last time we flew that we were on Homeland Security's expedited line forget the precise word). This was sufficiently puzzling that we went to the (clearly labelled) office and asked how that list is compiled. The rather startled clerk told us it was random. Yes, more security theater.
I received an email from Glenn that seemed to indicate that he is moving his content from Substack to Locals. Don't know what, if anything, that move has to do with State censorship.
Has anyone heard how Glenn's husband is doing? I am hoping and praying for a full recovery from his illness. I have total respect for Glenn and pray that things are better for him and his family. God Bless. Cheers from Canada!!
He’s on Locals. So am I. This platform is excellent. Glenn does a wonderful news show on Rumble also. If you support him on Substack, his Locals channel it connected.
Also consider some of the other content providers on Locals. I really appreciate VivaBarnesLaw.Locals.com
This level of censorship is starting to scare the shit out of me. Aside from Glenn and a handful of others (who are now labeled as "extreme" and "fringe" by conservative commentators who I used to respect), who is going to blow the whistle on this? More importantly, perhaps, who in our leadership is going to care enough to do something about it?
Remember when we used to laugh at the Chinese because the government hid parts of the internet from them and therefore they didn't really have free speech?
People refused to follow the money. The same technocrats ruling today were the same ones that programmed that censored internet for China. It was only a matter of time before they saw the profit bonus of a restricted internet for all. China was just the test version. Now they will use it on all of us. We often forget that the internet was and is first and foremost a defense project from the beginning.
The powers appear to use the same tactic over and over again. Acclimate a population to prosperity and freedom so they develop trust in the powers, then once that power is secure, take the prosperity and freedoms away to rule with an iron fist. We all became enchanted by the world wide web, which was previously a bastion of useful and wanted information, only to see it taken over by ads, corporations and big media to whittle down what we can actually see, find or talk about. Meanwhile, hard copy is rarely seen and the past can be whatever those who have the power to say it was or is. We are in a world of lies. It reminds me of what happened to the so-called "American Dream." It was only allowed to make us compliant and trusting in the narrative...then they betrayed all of us.
The more I read into this story surrounding the Twitter files, the more I start to feel that independent platforms like Substack are vital, not only so you can speak your mind but also to build trust. How can you trust any information that comes from institutions that are this compromised by other interests? Even if I don't agree with [insert journalist on Substack here], I still read what they have to say, because I trust their professional judgement and ethics, and their dedication to the truth. That is something that mainstream news outlets /should/ be providing, then people's distrust, even when they report the truth, wouldn't be this high..
The real tragedy in all of this is that the US national security bureaucrats probably have convinced themselves that they are doing the Lord’s work. On the contrary, they are rejecting the one unique advantage of the western tradition since at least the Enlightenment—the free market of ideas. In embracing the false Platonic notion of the primacy of consciousness (the mind creates reality) they have ordained themselves as philosopher kings who alone have managed to escape the cave of shadows and are solely qualified to impart their understanding of truth upon the ignorant masses. They are the medieval Priesthood who will be snared in their own conceit and drag western values to ruin if they are not stopped.
Platonism is exactly what it is. I’ve been reflecting on how uncritically Plato’s political philosophy was presented to me in college and how uncritically I received it. Karl Popper’s The Open Society and it’s Enemies brilliantly reveals the dangers posed by Platonism. But for some reason, that wasn’t part of the curriculum...
I’d guess this all started during WWII. It’s when the idea of military industrial complex was born. It’s been all downhill since. One useless war after another, more and more spying.
This is the first war that the transparency has been there since the beginning. If anything, President Trump was a threat to the Ruling Intelligence State…I doubt he was briefed on the Ukraine bioweapons labs, let alone that Hunter had investments in one…
…this was entirely about the threats of a including Ukraine into NATO
In one simple statement the war wouldn’t have started…
…and Globalists would have lost ultimately Trillions
Hard to imagine the evil DAVOS man actually believes they are “altruistic”…
How long will Substack, Rumble and Local remain available? Arguably 50% of the population cares not a lick about censorship as long as they aren't presented with uncomfortable opinions and information. And that's just in the political realm. Once existential issues such as pandemics arise the pro-censorship numbers run much higher. And the state intelligence apparatus not only is aware of this but has been exposed to have utilized this fear with the recent Twitter analysis regarding Covid coverage.
It's the " It can't happen here" crowd that gets me. Freaking look around it is happening here. It may not touch you now, but it will absolutely touch you at some point.
As long as there numbers remain relatively small. I personally only know 1 other person that reads substack. Most people I talk about it have no idea what it is. Glenn, bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi are changing that, but it’s still a mostly “fringe” sight at this point. I’m sure the feds have infiltrated it anyhow, and are monitoring all its content, either thru dummy accounts or paid contributors.
I like how Vox can manage to trip over their own ideological shoelaces, even in a single paragraph in which they seem to agree with you. Neutrality is a "brand of capitalism" now? Like jingoism favoring one Baltic territory over its equally-mysterious-to-us neighbor isn't a brand? If anyone is interested in going down a deep historical rabbit hole, may I suggest a podcast called MartyrMade. This is no joke. The guy makes Dan Carlin style encyclopedic history lessons, with the same dramatic flair. He did an episode on Ukraine back in March, and a couple of follow-up interviews, that give a panoramic view on the evolution of the geopolitical landscape in eastern Europe over the past century. Just because many people the American left hates are against this war, doesn't mean it's a good idea. Knowing the long backstory reveals that we've been poking the bear for a long, long time. It's good to know why.
OK, but the "American left" is actually nothing but an agglomeration of FBI-CIA-NSA-corporate media loving liberals. They aren't anywhere near the left. Maybe that's because both they and the far right (Trumper/GOP) have utterly erased the actual left from the whole conversation. We haven't had a voice in anything for fucking decades. Which is precisely what both wings of the capitalist duopoly have been engineering. So now we have Clintonistas, the Obama brand, Pelosi, Schumer & Co. being broadly considered as "leftists." It's a goddamn farce.
Yeah, it's not great. I'm thinking that there is likely a silent majority of reasonable folks who don't enjoy attention enough to jump into the fray publicly. But I also see far greater partisanship in regular people than ever before. When I was growing up, there was more natural suspicion of all politicians. Now things seem more tribal. I just posted that because that podcast is worth a listen.
Dan created the first wildly popular history podcast many years ago. He's an armchair history buff with a penchant for gripping storytelling. But he retired a few years ago. His stuff is great, especially his long series on various topics. Nowadays I like a Canadian who does one called Our Fake History. It's not political, as the name might suggest, but merely refers to the fact that we generally don't understand history very well. I can attest to this, because I am always learning new things about old stories I thought I understood. What survives in popular narratives often leaves out key details which completely reframe the action once you hear them. I consider this MartyrMade guy, who I just discovered a couple weeks ago, on par with Dan Carlin; I wish I had discovered him earlier.
How soon before DOJ, FBI, and CIA move on Substack? This company is one of the last bastions of freedom of speech.
Odds that at least 1 of my subscribers is a fed: nearly 100%.
I suspect anyone that sounds like Ray Epps behind a keyboard
You can hear them wearing khakis.
Makes me think of a holocaust denier who posted here half a year ago or so. Odds are they were one.
Reprehensible, and/or criminal conduct - real, imagined or synthesized; is how they advance their never-ending demands for more power, more surveillance, and yet more powers of censorship.
I'm not a fed. I just forward your columns to my handler at the Ministry of Truth.
NOT BEFORE I DO, BECAUSE I LOVE BIG BROTHER!
Still adjusting to new glasses. I initially read this as I Love Bed Bugs. On reflection, there's not a lot of difference.
lolololololol
LOL. HAPPY NEW YEAR (I hope) Commander! :)
The only question is: do they pay subscription from their own pocket, or expense it (so that the tax payers are picking up the tab)? :-)
Taxpayer money going toward covid dissident substack subscription fees would probably be the least offensive item in their budget.
They spent a LOT of money getting people to shill for the shots.
Expensed for sure. I'm probably paying for my own sub! ;)
not me! :)
How long? They can get it by subpoena today or by getting a friendly or two in positions of access at substack. That is to say it is already a risk.
People should be thinking about what personally identifying info they use on substack...do you want your personal email on the account? Should you find a payment method that is not personally identifying?
But at the same time we collectively need the courage to stand up and be public in opposition to this stuff.
Commenter 34, I share your concerns about our privacy/safety on this comment thread, but don't "they" already know everything they want to know about us? Can we really remain anonymous on this site?
Trying to "remain anonymous" is a fools errand. "They" already know about you. The issue is whether or not the publications and comments on Substack will be censored. Pay attention to that.
You cannot remain anon anywhere online. That's impossible.
Precisely! And why I stand tall. No hiding for me.
Theoretically it is possible but you would have to have mad skills and utterly flawless opsec execution.
No. Not at all.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/29/der-spiegel-nsa-hacking-unit-tao
Even if you have anonymity on the server, there are all the middlemen -- the internet provider, your phone or PC, the routing company (e.g. Cloudflare). Cloudflare in particular has demonstrated the willingness to turn you in if asked by law enforcement, as they did during the "insurrection" protest on Jan. 6.
Basically you have to assume that you're being tracked all the time, and plan accordingly. I agree -- at some point, we have to just be courageous and stand up to these scum.
Agreed. Easier if you're older, like me. The truth in what you say is just heart breaking for all the younger folks who deserve a life that won't extract arbitrary punishment for non-compliance.
My generation got to be freaks and do and say and live much as they wanted. I suspect what we see now was coming even back then, but there was a moment of a few decades of liberation and somewhat widespread economy, fast advancement of civil rights and liberties, etc. A vital time.
Wow is it now depressing: the lack of diversity in views, art, expression, politics, hope, vision, etc. It's like we're half dead and hiding. Maybe we are.
The problem is that so many millennials and Gen Zers are in favor of this kind of censorship. Whether out of not connecting in person as you have Zoom and other 'virtual' connections, indoctrination at school or simply being naïve, they desire this.
Excellent point. I think there is hope because although younger generations need to relearn same lessons sometimes, there are fundamental inescapable truths.
We are already seeing the inescapable truth that going easier on criminals results in levels of crime that are broadly considered unacceptable. Those of us who saw it in urban US in 70s-90s knew, but the younger folks didn't until now.
There is a still to come a fuller relearning that censoring speech doesn't achieve the intended goal. No one has as much "truth" as they think and the censors block too many truths that the populace learns were wrong to block, and eventually the system must die because the people won't stand for it.
The younger generation seems to view "1984" as an amusing iteration of Disney's "Pinochio" but without all the "woke" points they seem to have a pathological craving for. I see Parents/School Boards/School Choice and someone (ANYONE) like Trump without his easily advertised flaws as a last hope (Not that it Matters, look at the "Biden Crime Family's" near Media Coronation coupled with their SOCIOPATHIC denial). How do we combat all this since we are now surrounded? How long before they destroy Musk and no one else will DARE to take his place or attempt what he has already done (ignored by the MSM, as an extra "kick in the pants" to Civil Libertarians everywhere)? Zelensky, the (laughably) pure "Defender of Freedom", used by Biden's Handlers, (Rice, Klain, Obama, Schwab Cabal, et al), as an excuse to drain the savings accounts of the hardworking USA Middle Class through their punitive taxes which they use to pay for the Russian/Ukraine War ... and then their skimming ... otherwise known as REDISTRIBUTION FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS TO THE ELITES, who will call this out? The EU is not paying anywhere near its share of military costs and neither is the UK. Donald Trump is found to be CORRECT once again ... but he will be hounded to the death for his honesty! And never remembered for his prophetic truths! NEVER :(
They imagine their side will always be in control, and they imagine it should be. And if they get their way, it will be.
Until another, more radical, faction takes over, and these once-cutting edge gullible fools find themselves in the crosshairs of a new, even more vicious cancel mob.
This is precisely the kind of thing our constitution and form of government was designed to oppose and neutralize. By having contempt for it, as something created by old white men, the younger generation today has put themselves and the entire country in jeopardy.
No we’re not. Just the fact that you are on this thread proves that you aren’t. Look to the young. That’s always where new brilliant, vital ideas come from. They are our only hope. Fuck off Obe Wan Kenobe!
Well them and our AI overlord.
That is why we need a peer to peer Internet eventually... where info travels phone to phone rather than over central systems. Would be great for China especially already.
That's kind of the idea of Mastodon, a distributed Twitter-like blogging system. It's a crude user experience and has very few users as of yet; I doubt Twitter will be dethroned in the near future, assuming the new management can get their act together before it goes bankrupt.
Get their act together how, exactly. User participation and number of users has risen drastically since Elon took over, but corporations, obviously fearful
of the US IC, have cravenly pulled advertising. As Schumer publicly stated “Don’t mess with the intelligence community. They can screw you 6 ways from Sunday”.
Elon Musk’s dramatic release of internal communications regarding the 2020 election and so forth has spooked advertisers to be sure, but these are momentary things, already starting to disappear in the stream, and my guess is that advertisers will be back eventually. They can’t simply ignore a massive social media website like Twitter.
Agree with Running Burning Man: anonymity is out the window.
Ability to reach anyone without physically traveling to their house is what's at risk.
My courage. Come and get me. So I can see my ENEMY face to face ... the better to fight him/her/its/they/them and whomever ... all of these pronouns are merely arrows in the quiver of the "Deep State" Government Censorship ASSAULT! Easy to duck right now ... but what is next!
how can you not use a credit card with your real name?
It's tedious, but possible. Keep in mind, that although the article does not emphasize it, one can register with a fake address as well as a fake name and a throwaway email address.
How to Use Prepaid Debit Cards for Anonymous Transactions
https://www.websafetytips.com/how-to-use-prepaid-debit-cards-for-anonymous-transactions/
I do nothing fake. I am here. And I dare you to try to take me down. Someone has it have B**** even if I was born a Biological Woman ... my Cojones are much larger than most real or even "fake" men (who aren't men at all, unless you mistakenly count aesthetic enhancements as changes to DNA. I do not! Anyone has the 1A right to call themselves whatever they want but Science is Science! PERIOD!
thank you!
I recommend, "Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance" by Julia Angwin. Somewhat dated, but still useful.
thank you
You are looking at my "real name." I do not duck or hide! I am an American Citizen. I expect to be treated as such. Let them come. I am waiting for them!
now they're really scared.
If there were more of us ... they would be! Are you hiding?
TAO (NSA acronym for "Tailored Access Operations) can get whatever they want.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/29/der-spiegel-nsa-hacking-unit-tao
Technically that refers to targets outside the US, but of course we know how much they respect that the law requires them not to target US citizens.
Soon.
They are worried about reach, not speech. So a few people here and there yelling to a few thousand people is no concern, like annoying preachers on soapboxes. But when they sway people away from the dominant imperialist narrative actions are taken. Ultimately, neuter dissidents like Chompsky pre-80s. Eventually, they’ll be accepting and promoting government lies: 9/11 and no election interference by deep state. And as facts come out by Wikileaks and Greenwald types, they will be marginalized. They will keep you in fear and maximizing the manufacturing of your consent. Nothing is new. The lies against Japan to rally is to war against them, still remains mostly unknown. Stephen Ambrose who showed the real history of WWII prior to 1988, reversed himself when showered in deep state money and put in charge of New Orleans D-Day museum.
How did Osama die, according to Aquino? How did Aquino die?
Or Rumble.
{checks watch}
Don't even speak of it!!
Soon...
See, when we do it, then that makes it okay!
"No, don't see it."
-- The PTB (Powers That Be), similar in name to the PHB (Pointy-Haired Boss).
who is "we?" not me.
He means The Empire.
The Yoel Roth of Tik Tok....whoever he happens to be.
Instead of saying "My comment was deleted", we should say, "I got Rothed!".
Who is they? Probably not random Wang Li.
Appears all the former Twitter employees have found jobs at TikTok.
Grievance Studies majors are in high demand.
Which seems odd considering the vast supply.
Lots of demand, so the grievance degreed folks still are needed. Kinda like the demand for DEI administrators on college campuses.
The least needed people are in the highest demand. Meanwhile, homeless highschool dropouts who seek to improve their country have zero demand in any place of power. It's beyond sad.
When *they* do it it's called Censorship.
When *we* do it it's called Content Moderation.
Yes. Like we can say outloud that Turkey's 'misinformation policy' is a dangerous assault on free speech, but OUR misinformation policy is hunky dory.
All 'disinformation' is equal but some is more equal than others. I mean, who actually believes that Russia blew up Nord Stream 2?
We're all supposed to forget this:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/state-dept-vows-nord-stream-2-hunk-metal-bottom-ocean-russia-invades-ukraine
The State Department on Thursday unequivocally warned that if Russia invades Ukraine the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will sit unused at the bottom of the ocean.
Much like we were supposed to ignore the fact that Kabul would fall like Saigon, that Covid is of natural origin (even though no infected intermediate animals have been found) and that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian plant. All disinformation paid for by taxpayers.
And we will NEVER know! We have no "Free Press." Accept it.
Exactly!
Just ask mayor Eric adams..big brother is protecting you.
It should be scandalous enough that social media executives have come to view their role as being loyal and compliant conduits for the national security state.
This is merely a somewhat new twist on a very old game. US news organizations have long been incessant purveyors of US war propaganda, going back at least as far as the Spanish American War, along with its insistant "Remember the Maine" headlines that misrepresented an incident that was either an accident caused by ship's personnel, or a false flag opeation. This behavior has been repeated and amplified for every war since. The biggest difference now is that the costs for running a newspaper in the past weren't so egregiously high that someone couldn't potentially air contrary views without being shut out of the market; and the security state didn't have a choke hold on the distribution system for those views (the internet) such that dissenting publishers can be completely severed from their audiences. That last item is the real problem.
The eager (and concealed) cooperation between social media and the Intelligence Services apparatus was first exposed a decade ago when Glenn brought us the Snowden exposé. Few seemed to care then either.
edit: the project was called "Prism". https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html
That's when GG became a personal hero!
Mine as well.
They do it for self preservation. It’s easier to go along. They already pulled them all in front of Congress for a dog and pony show about “dangerous misinformation”.
And to give the false perception that they are being somehow forced by the big baddies in government to share your personal data and silence unapproved ideas, when in reality they are eager beavers at it.
Govern me harder, daddy.
The reaction to the Twitter Files scandal, total indifference, is very telling. I guess you would say there is tacit approval for censorship. That won't be lost on the security state. This is only getting worse.
A total silence in corporate media on Twitter Files -- one more proof that each and every one if completely infested by security state operatives at all levels.
One should be eternally grateful to Elon Musk for slowing down US collapse domestically into horrible fascist state.
“Corporate media” is a television show. Paid actors given scripts and parts to play. There is no journalism involved. Even most movies nowadays are simply propaganda. The security state has captured all avenues of entertainment.
It’s not indifference at all. The MSM is gleefully supportive of government directed corporate censorship, and angry at Musk for threatening this regime. Check out this amazing bit of propaganda from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142666067/elon-musk-is-using-the-twitter-files-to-discredit-foes-and-push-conspiracy-theor
MSM and tech are the fully-co-opted propaganda arms of the Party, with only a few holdouts. And many/most “educated” urbanites are totally on board. The psychology of totalitarianism has ripped through the upper echelons of society. The only question is how much damage they will do before they wake up. Gulags, re-education camps, forced psychological “treatment” for dissenters, etc., are all possibilities as we continue down this road of government-sponsored unreality.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire
We should all support Glenn in shining light on this astonishing gov't action and clear censorship of US citizens' protected political opinions.
We should simultaneously all consider exactly what protocols we personally should be following based on our own comfort with US Federal intrusion on our substack content. Is your personal email used for your substack account and are you OK with US Federal access to that info, which is nearly certain if they want it? Just be thoughtful about all that, people.
Shit, I've been on 'the lists' for decades. I didn't go along with Iraq AND I supported Ron Paul -- not to mention disagreeing with our covid response. That's why my bio jokes that I'm a domestic terrorist:
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/were-all-terrorists-now
You are also, according to them, a white-supremist transphobe among other things. An all-you-can-eat buffet word salad that has absolutely no meaning.
Yes -- dirty fascists calling everybody else names..
Yep. I stopped caring what they said about me at "unpatriotic" (for not going along with Iraq), and I haven't seen a reason to start caring what they say since then.
Ironically, many of the same people who would have shared the “unpatriotic” label with you in the Bush era are now the same ones who would now call you (us) a white supremacist domestic terrorist.
There may be good questions about the efficiency of the Security State. Despite many years spent trying to get on Big Gov's shit lists as left-wing activists, we discovered the last time we flew that we were on Homeland Security's expedited line forget the precise word). This was sufficiently puzzling that we went to the (clearly labelled) office and asked how that list is compiled. The rather startled clerk told us it was random. Yes, more security theater.
Perhaps we flattered ourselves unduly.
I received an email from Glenn that seemed to indicate that he is moving his content from Substack to Locals. Don't know what, if anything, that move has to do with State censorship.
Has anyone heard how Glenn's husband is doing? I am hoping and praying for a full recovery from his illness. I have total respect for Glenn and pray that things are better for him and his family. God Bless. Cheers from Canada!!
You misunderstood a bit. Rumble and Locals are now same company; Sub-stack is separate but included with any subscription. So -- you are fine ;-))
He’s on Locals. So am I. This platform is excellent. Glenn does a wonderful news show on Rumble also. If you support him on Substack, his Locals channel it connected.
Also consider some of the other content providers on Locals. I really appreciate VivaBarnesLaw.Locals.com
This level of censorship is starting to scare the shit out of me. Aside from Glenn and a handful of others (who are now labeled as "extreme" and "fringe" by conservative commentators who I used to respect), who is going to blow the whistle on this? More importantly, perhaps, who in our leadership is going to care enough to do something about it?
Remember when we used to laugh at the Chinese because the government hid parts of the internet from them and therefore they didn't really have free speech?
Good times.
People refused to follow the money. The same technocrats ruling today were the same ones that programmed that censored internet for China. It was only a matter of time before they saw the profit bonus of a restricted internet for all. China was just the test version. Now they will use it on all of us. We often forget that the internet was and is first and foremost a defense project from the beginning.
The powers appear to use the same tactic over and over again. Acclimate a population to prosperity and freedom so they develop trust in the powers, then once that power is secure, take the prosperity and freedoms away to rule with an iron fist. We all became enchanted by the world wide web, which was previously a bastion of useful and wanted information, only to see it taken over by ads, corporations and big media to whittle down what we can actually see, find or talk about. Meanwhile, hard copy is rarely seen and the past can be whatever those who have the power to say it was or is. We are in a world of lies. It reminds me of what happened to the so-called "American Dream." It was only allowed to make us compliant and trusting in the narrative...then they betrayed all of us.
The U.S. has become China. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
ha! good one!
The more I read into this story surrounding the Twitter files, the more I start to feel that independent platforms like Substack are vital, not only so you can speak your mind but also to build trust. How can you trust any information that comes from institutions that are this compromised by other interests? Even if I don't agree with [insert journalist on Substack here], I still read what they have to say, because I trust their professional judgement and ethics, and their dedication to the truth. That is something that mainstream news outlets /should/ be providing, then people's distrust, even when they report the truth, wouldn't be this high..
Trust but verify.
The real tragedy in all of this is that the US national security bureaucrats probably have convinced themselves that they are doing the Lord’s work. On the contrary, they are rejecting the one unique advantage of the western tradition since at least the Enlightenment—the free market of ideas. In embracing the false Platonic notion of the primacy of consciousness (the mind creates reality) they have ordained themselves as philosopher kings who alone have managed to escape the cave of shadows and are solely qualified to impart their understanding of truth upon the ignorant masses. They are the medieval Priesthood who will be snared in their own conceit and drag western values to ruin if they are not stopped.
Platonism is exactly what it is. I’ve been reflecting on how uncritically Plato’s political philosophy was presented to me in college and how uncritically I received it. Karl Popper’s The Open Society and it’s Enemies brilliantly reveals the dangers posed by Platonism. But for some reason, that wasn’t part of the curriculum...
Let’s be clear...
If the CIA is implicated in the JFK...
...then Americans have been living under the Ruling Intelligence State
If? If?
I am not much of a JFK researcher, but the whole thing stinks like a wet sack of wet shit.
I’d guess this all started during WWII. It’s when the idea of military industrial complex was born. It’s been all downhill since. One useless war after another, more and more spying.
This is the first war that the transparency has been there since the beginning. If anything, President Trump was a threat to the Ruling Intelligence State…I doubt he was briefed on the Ukraine bioweapons labs, let alone that Hunter had investments in one…
…this was entirely about the threats of a including Ukraine into NATO
In one simple statement the war wouldn’t have started…
…and Globalists would have lost ultimately Trillions
Hard to imagine the evil DAVOS man actually believes they are “altruistic”…
We have and we still are…and even before JFK.
Trump got off easy. Wonder what they have in mind for Musk?
Try and post something that runs counter to the war narrative on CBC.
BOOM
Gone.
I am often in pre-moderation there, that means my posts on articles must be approved by some nameless, faceless, and usually utterly mindless censor.
How long will Substack, Rumble and Local remain available? Arguably 50% of the population cares not a lick about censorship as long as they aren't presented with uncomfortable opinions and information. And that's just in the political realm. Once existential issues such as pandemics arise the pro-censorship numbers run much higher. And the state intelligence apparatus not only is aware of this but has been exposed to have utilized this fear with the recent Twitter analysis regarding Covid coverage.
It's the " It can't happen here" crowd that gets me. Freaking look around it is happening here. It may not touch you now, but it will absolutely touch you at some point.
As long as there numbers remain relatively small. I personally only know 1 other person that reads substack. Most people I talk about it have no idea what it is. Glenn, bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi are changing that, but it’s still a mostly “fringe” sight at this point. I’m sure the feds have infiltrated it anyhow, and are monitoring all its content, either thru dummy accounts or paid contributors.
I like how Vox can manage to trip over their own ideological shoelaces, even in a single paragraph in which they seem to agree with you. Neutrality is a "brand of capitalism" now? Like jingoism favoring one Baltic territory over its equally-mysterious-to-us neighbor isn't a brand? If anyone is interested in going down a deep historical rabbit hole, may I suggest a podcast called MartyrMade. This is no joke. The guy makes Dan Carlin style encyclopedic history lessons, with the same dramatic flair. He did an episode on Ukraine back in March, and a couple of follow-up interviews, that give a panoramic view on the evolution of the geopolitical landscape in eastern Europe over the past century. Just because many people the American left hates are against this war, doesn't mean it's a good idea. Knowing the long backstory reveals that we've been poking the bear for a long, long time. It's good to know why.
OK, but the "American left" is actually nothing but an agglomeration of FBI-CIA-NSA-corporate media loving liberals. They aren't anywhere near the left. Maybe that's because both they and the far right (Trumper/GOP) have utterly erased the actual left from the whole conversation. We haven't had a voice in anything for fucking decades. Which is precisely what both wings of the capitalist duopoly have been engineering. So now we have Clintonistas, the Obama brand, Pelosi, Schumer & Co. being broadly considered as "leftists." It's a goddamn farce.
Yeah, it's not great. I'm thinking that there is likely a silent majority of reasonable folks who don't enjoy attention enough to jump into the fray publicly. But I also see far greater partisanship in regular people than ever before. When I was growing up, there was more natural suspicion of all politicians. Now things seem more tribal. I just posted that because that podcast is worth a listen.
Who's Dan Carlin? You don't mean George Carlin?
Dan created the first wildly popular history podcast many years ago. He's an armchair history buff with a penchant for gripping storytelling. But he retired a few years ago. His stuff is great, especially his long series on various topics. Nowadays I like a Canadian who does one called Our Fake History. It's not political, as the name might suggest, but merely refers to the fact that we generally don't understand history very well. I can attest to this, because I am always learning new things about old stories I thought I understood. What survives in popular narratives often leaves out key details which completely reframe the action once you hear them. I consider this MartyrMade guy, who I just discovered a couple weeks ago, on par with Dan Carlin; I wish I had discovered him earlier.
I was a long time Dan Carlin fan also. I shall check out this MartyrMade guy, too…Our Fake History.
Thank you.
Those are two different podcasts, FYI. I recommend MM for geopolitical stuff, and OFH for fun facts. But they're both excellent.
Amen, brother.
Check out that podcast, it's quite impressive...