Glenn - our politics are diametrically opposed, but there is absolutely no other person I trust more than you to provide an honest assessment of the deep undercurrents shaping our world through the media, government and other cultural institutions. I first started reading your Salon articles as a young man, and you have easily been one of the most influential figures in my formative years. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see you drop the yoke that the Intercept has become. As a lawyer now at a large New York law firm mirroring your earlier path in life, I can only hope to one day contribute one iota of the good you have provided to this world. Stay true, you have many people that look to you for strength.
What some of your "peers" fail to realize is that you built your entire career taking principled stances that put you on the outside of popular opinion and acceptable dialogue among the "mainstream" corporate journalists. You were in this position during the Bush years, the Obama years, and now it's no different. Those of us who have always appreciated your willingness to speak for the voiceless, no matter how unpopular it may be, will always be behind you even if it takes everyone else time to eventually catch up.
I'm a conservative so we're not likely to agree on many things, but I so respect the fact that it matters to you to get to the bottom of the story in an objective, and fair way that I felt I had to support your efforts and become a subscriber.
Hey, you and Matt are my heroes! Seriously, I'm 64 and I have never been more afraid for our country. If something doesn't happen to restore journalism in this country, we're doomed.
An old dinosaur conservative here. We don't always agree, but I love your honesty and independence so I was willing and happy to subscribe. Keep up the good work and hopefully more real journalists will join you.
I am a conservative Republican - I studied journalism at the University of Missouri ... it is so disappointing the lack of objective journalism these days and the impact that has had on the truth. God bless you for trying your best to expose and report the truth. We need more like you. I am happy to support you even though I may not always agree. I loved your honesty in your interview with Tucker. God bless you and the USA.
The clear problem here is that a large segment of the electorate - mainly, the activist elements of the electorate - have already not only convinced *themselves* "there is no debate to be had", but have also decided that because "there is no debate to be had" that "no one else must be allowed to have a debate either". This is strictly because they have convinced themselves that their opposition is an inherent threat to their existence - up to and including their very lives.
It is a moral panic like America has never seen before.
Whereas once upon a time you might have had enough worried parents getting together to scream about Dungeons & Dragons being a form of Satanic cult - because their pastors said so - they at least didn't widely believe their children were going to murder them in their sleep after rolling a few twenty-sided dice. Parents and community leaders who knew better were at least able to talk such people down, and the panic eventually fizzled.
Compare that to current-day mainstream Progressivism. Cooler heads are few and far between, and when they arise, they are screamed down from the podium by the panicked mass. They are further deplatformed so they can't do it again. The more they persist in calling for calm considerate conversation, the more they are called out by those who have HARNESSED the panic for their own elevation. Social-media followers counts, influence networks, Patreon cash money - these are all far more important to the instigators, and they can be gotten far more easily from panicked masses. The same was true of virtually every past moral panic in history; the grifters arise to sell fear and snake oil. Rational discussion removes the need to buy the snake oil, so mobs are sent to remove the better nature from our souls through credit-card cancellation, job elimination/denial, and even attacks in the street (or at one's home!).
While the Extreme Right is by no means innocent of this sort of thing, on the Left it's not limited to the extremes. The extremes are mainstreaming, and if not pushed back, will become the Left's norm. "No debate allowed, as there is none to be had".
Hi Glenn. Congratulations on your declaration of independence! Hopefully someday you'll look back on this as the best career decision you ever made.
You've surely noticed a lot of your subscribers are conservative/right-leaning by today's standards--including me. Please, whatever else you do, continue to lay out brutally honest criticisms of Trump, Republicans, and right-wing ideology whenever it is due. We are here not to have our biases validated, but because we respect your work.
I don't blame The Intercept. They saw a market niche was available for MSNBClite and they grabbed it. The Intercept will be an excellent training ground for potential future MSNBC contributors. Mr. Mehdi Hasan has already made the transition and I am confident that he will be the first of many Intercept alumni who make it to the big leagues. MSNBC does an excellent job of anaesthetizing the minds of its viewers with comforting content tailored to their preconceived biases so that they never have to do the unpleasant task of thinking. It's a surefire formula that guarantees commercial success.
However, there is also a place for journalism. There are masochists who want to understand the world as it actually exists. And there are a few misfits who like to investigate and truthfully report what they find. If these people connect, there is a possibility for commercial success on a smaller scale. So best of luck to Mr. Greenwald.
Long-time fan from early Unclaimed Territory days just subscribed. As important and brave as your journalism has been over all these years, your unflinching consistency in your core beliefs and standing up for them no matter the circumstances is what I admire as much as anything. Which is why it was absolutely laughable when TI overlords tried to say it was you that had changed.
I have complete confidence you will figure this one out and I look forward to supporting you on your next adventure.
It was nice getting to know you on the Joe Rogan Show the other day. I have been an admirer of your work for years. Your reporting keeps my eyes open and adds truth to many conversations.
As a progressive who doesn’t agree with many views that Tucker Carlson holds or held, the one view he seems to have consistently voice that I vehemently agree with is the importance of freedom of speech, which in my mind trumps the specifics of the speech itself (which one may or may not agree with). This makes Tucker nowadays a must watch for any progressive who believes in the idea of free speech. (He is also far more intelligent than many talking heads who mindless repeat views - even some I agree with - just because it makes them “popular” and not with any depth)
Today’s media landscape is dominated by institutional journalists who not only have given up any pretense of investigating the deeper power centers, but actively collude with them to coverup their misdeeds and attack those who would try and expose them and have *become* part of that corrupt power.
So this media which has cheered the continuing inquisition and torture of Assange - who was a light in a sea of blackness - has now turned on its enemies closer home - those that not only resist being corrupted but show them up.
The Biden tapes - or rather the reaction to them - have done more damage to the institutional media than Joe Biden. They have revealed a media that cheers the censorship of revelations from these tapes, revels in spreading disinfo about them (“Russian operation”) and even sowing deliberate confusion in the minds of the public as an NBC “investigation” finding that a completely different, unrelated set of documents were mysteriously sourced did. (Thus NBC spent more time tracking down the provenance of some obscure documents that few if any were talking about, rather than the ones that were being highlighted: authenticated Hunter Biden emails/docs and a named corroborating witness who went on TV - rather than remaining in the shadows as an “anonymous source” - to allege Joe Biden was lying when he said he didn’t know about his family’s businesses.)
Hope that more principled journalists will have the financial opportunity to cast off their chains and go back to doing real journalism.
Glenn - our politics are diametrically opposed, but there is absolutely no other person I trust more than you to provide an honest assessment of the deep undercurrents shaping our world through the media, government and other cultural institutions. I first started reading your Salon articles as a young man, and you have easily been one of the most influential figures in my formative years. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see you drop the yoke that the Intercept has become. As a lawyer now at a large New York law firm mirroring your earlier path in life, I can only hope to one day contribute one iota of the good you have provided to this world. Stay true, you have many people that look to you for strength.
What some of your "peers" fail to realize is that you built your entire career taking principled stances that put you on the outside of popular opinion and acceptable dialogue among the "mainstream" corporate journalists. You were in this position during the Bush years, the Obama years, and now it's no different. Those of us who have always appreciated your willingness to speak for the voiceless, no matter how unpopular it may be, will always be behind you even if it takes everyone else time to eventually catch up.
And thank you for having courage to stand up to oppressive forces. And for rescuing so many homeless doggies.
I'm a conservative so we're not likely to agree on many things, but I so respect the fact that it matters to you to get to the bottom of the story in an objective, and fair way that I felt I had to support your efforts and become a subscriber.
Hey, you and Matt are my heroes! Seriously, I'm 64 and I have never been more afraid for our country. If something doesn't happen to restore journalism in this country, we're doomed.
Also, I am hoping that Trump watched the Tucker Carlson interview. I hope he pardons Snowden and Julian Assange.
An old dinosaur conservative here. We don't always agree, but I love your honesty and independence so I was willing and happy to subscribe. Keep up the good work and hopefully more real journalists will join you.
I am a conservative Republican - I studied journalism at the University of Missouri ... it is so disappointing the lack of objective journalism these days and the impact that has had on the truth. God bless you for trying your best to expose and report the truth. We need more like you. I am happy to support you even though I may not always agree. I loved your honesty in your interview with Tucker. God bless you and the USA.
The clear problem here is that a large segment of the electorate - mainly, the activist elements of the electorate - have already not only convinced *themselves* "there is no debate to be had", but have also decided that because "there is no debate to be had" that "no one else must be allowed to have a debate either". This is strictly because they have convinced themselves that their opposition is an inherent threat to their existence - up to and including their very lives.
It is a moral panic like America has never seen before.
Whereas once upon a time you might have had enough worried parents getting together to scream about Dungeons & Dragons being a form of Satanic cult - because their pastors said so - they at least didn't widely believe their children were going to murder them in their sleep after rolling a few twenty-sided dice. Parents and community leaders who knew better were at least able to talk such people down, and the panic eventually fizzled.
Compare that to current-day mainstream Progressivism. Cooler heads are few and far between, and when they arise, they are screamed down from the podium by the panicked mass. They are further deplatformed so they can't do it again. The more they persist in calling for calm considerate conversation, the more they are called out by those who have HARNESSED the panic for their own elevation. Social-media followers counts, influence networks, Patreon cash money - these are all far more important to the instigators, and they can be gotten far more easily from panicked masses. The same was true of virtually every past moral panic in history; the grifters arise to sell fear and snake oil. Rational discussion removes the need to buy the snake oil, so mobs are sent to remove the better nature from our souls through credit-card cancellation, job elimination/denial, and even attacks in the street (or at one's home!).
While the Extreme Right is by no means innocent of this sort of thing, on the Left it's not limited to the extremes. The extremes are mainstreaming, and if not pushed back, will become the Left's norm. "No debate allowed, as there is none to be had".
Hi Glenn. Congratulations on your declaration of independence! Hopefully someday you'll look back on this as the best career decision you ever made.
You've surely noticed a lot of your subscribers are conservative/right-leaning by today's standards--including me. Please, whatever else you do, continue to lay out brutally honest criticisms of Trump, Republicans, and right-wing ideology whenever it is due. We are here not to have our biases validated, but because we respect your work.
I don't blame The Intercept. They saw a market niche was available for MSNBClite and they grabbed it. The Intercept will be an excellent training ground for potential future MSNBC contributors. Mr. Mehdi Hasan has already made the transition and I am confident that he will be the first of many Intercept alumni who make it to the big leagues. MSNBC does an excellent job of anaesthetizing the minds of its viewers with comforting content tailored to their preconceived biases so that they never have to do the unpleasant task of thinking. It's a surefire formula that guarantees commercial success.
However, there is also a place for journalism. There are masochists who want to understand the world as it actually exists. And there are a few misfits who like to investigate and truthfully report what they find. If these people connect, there is a possibility for commercial success on a smaller scale. So best of luck to Mr. Greenwald.
Never thought I'd decide to spend $5 a month on Glenn Greenwald once I went back to voting Republican, but here we are.
Long-time fan from early Unclaimed Territory days just subscribed. As important and brave as your journalism has been over all these years, your unflinching consistency in your core beliefs and standing up for them no matter the circumstances is what I admire as much as anything. Which is why it was absolutely laughable when TI overlords tried to say it was you that had changed.
I have complete confidence you will figure this one out and I look forward to supporting you on your next adventure.
It was nice getting to know you on the Joe Rogan Show the other day. I have been an admirer of your work for years. Your reporting keeps my eyes open and adds truth to many conversations.
Thank you.
25 dogs? That in and of itself gains my support.
Greenwald and Taibbi are the only principled journalists left. Happy to subscribe.
As a progressive who doesn’t agree with many views that Tucker Carlson holds or held, the one view he seems to have consistently voice that I vehemently agree with is the importance of freedom of speech, which in my mind trumps the specifics of the speech itself (which one may or may not agree with). This makes Tucker nowadays a must watch for any progressive who believes in the idea of free speech. (He is also far more intelligent than many talking heads who mindless repeat views - even some I agree with - just because it makes them “popular” and not with any depth)
Today’s media landscape is dominated by institutional journalists who not only have given up any pretense of investigating the deeper power centers, but actively collude with them to coverup their misdeeds and attack those who would try and expose them and have *become* part of that corrupt power.
So this media which has cheered the continuing inquisition and torture of Assange - who was a light in a sea of blackness - has now turned on its enemies closer home - those that not only resist being corrupted but show them up.
The Biden tapes - or rather the reaction to them - have done more damage to the institutional media than Joe Biden. They have revealed a media that cheers the censorship of revelations from these tapes, revels in spreading disinfo about them (“Russian operation”) and even sowing deliberate confusion in the minds of the public as an NBC “investigation” finding that a completely different, unrelated set of documents were mysteriously sourced did. (Thus NBC spent more time tracking down the provenance of some obscure documents that few if any were talking about, rather than the ones that were being highlighted: authenticated Hunter Biden emails/docs and a named corroborating witness who went on TV - rather than remaining in the shadows as an “anonymous source” - to allege Joe Biden was lying when he said he didn’t know about his family’s businesses.)
Hope that more principled journalists will have the financial opportunity to cast off their chains and go back to doing real journalism.