Thread by @echo_chamberz

Max Blumenthal on Washington DC ruling class.

Their “personality is suggestible, submissive, has advanced degrees but is actually extremely uneducated. Washington DC — this entire area — we call it the DMV”

Gives example of Thomas Friedman, who married an heiress, hides in his multiple DC mansions while he writes about how the world works, & gets laughed at by normal people.

“These people culturally are not accountable to any real people. They’re in their own little Elysium bubble”

On Thomas Friedman’s “conversations with taxi drivers”

“That’s the joke about him, because it perfectly encapsulates the parachute mentality of these people. The only real people they meet are those who give them rides”

Describes White House press conferences as insular meetings of pathetic sycophant strivers.

Jen Psaki is an “alpha female who goes to SoulCycle”, who the “frumpy reporters” want approval from. Peter Doocy is the failson of a conservative shock jock, & the token adversary.

On booster shots: “there’s no critical questions like ‘what does this say about vakseen efficacy’ or ‘will this be the last booster shot?’.”

It’s all about “how quickly can you get out the booster shots? Will the booster shots be the boostiest shots that we ever shot?”

On January 6, Blumenthal was in DC thinking “where the f*ck are the police?… they obviously stood down to lead the Trumpians into this political trap, & lead the American public into the current era we’re in. The post January 6 era has been layered atop The New Normal”

On The New Normal’s censorship:

“This is the hardest censorship we’ve ever experienced…. YouTube is removing congressional hearings… [and] press conferences with governors… Twitter is putting warning labels on people who make factually accurate statements”

Describes censorship push as starting with Hillary Clinton’s “fake news” speech.

“Fake news, I thought, was the seedy websites where false clickbait stories were written in order to generate ad revenue.”

“But what she was talking about was anything that contravenes the establishment’s narrative & interferes with our ability to gain the compliance of the American public, & specifically the educated middle class”

Describes how the coordinated censorship started with Alex Jones, who was even removed from Pinterest.

Blumenthal spoke out about this “dangerous precedent”, while he “saw the red rose DSA types acting like it was Victory Day after WW2”

“It’s so obvious that lockdowns hurt workers… that we’re being lied to given the hard censorship… that the biomedical security regime being ushered in is going to be a massive boon to the global capitalist predator class… but it’s been so hard to convince people on the left”

“Everything’s hiding right there in plain sight in front of us, but it’s so hard to say it… Everyone’s just sleepwalking through this era.”

“You need the constant fear of mortality. It not only shuts down debate. It forces the media consumer to reckon with their own mortality”

“The virus, as in classical fascist rhetoric, has been merged or rendered indistinguishable from a segment of the public that is supposed to instill fear in those of us who are supposed to be enlightened & progressive.”

“In the US it’s the QAnon MAGA-chuds, the Trump troglodytes who are the anti-maskers and who are spreading the virus & threatening our children”

“It becomes fused into the culture war. You’re not on the left, & you’re not progressive if you’re taking this position, because it inevitably lines you up with our ideological foes who are threatening [us]… the barbarians inside the gates”

“Anytime I question (am I going crazy here?) I look at the arguments on the other side and it makes it very clear that they don’t actually have arguments. It’s just deception.”

Says anti-lockdown left wingers need to start organizing.

However, “it is not possible to argue w/ the Branch Covidians… you cannot reason them out of something they did not reason themselves into… they become afraid of you if you even try. It just breeds resentment.”

“instead focus on highlighting the contradictions… continuing to look for the buried news, and talking to people who are experiencing the pain of the New Normal regime.”

“To highlight the protests. To continue to show French stormtroopers beating someone for entering a shopping mall. Forcing our leftist colleagues to look at what’s being done in the name of policies that they supported”

“It’s already… causing confusion among many of them”

Max Blumenthal on the media’s choice to ignore inconvenient stories.

“It speaks to the repulsive, bootlicking culture that prevails. I have trouble even calling them ‘the media’. They’re stenographers for various imperial & financial institutions, & they’re information warriors”