It was only a question of time before the all-out war on Rogan began. He's way too big and off-key to permit him to keep going. The concept of free speech in the US is a mirage: you have it right up to the line where it matters or can threaten power centers, then you don't.
Every major institution is united to destroy Rogan, including the WH. The Press Secretary -- speaking on behalf of the US Govt -- demanded Spotify do more to stop him, and this is treated as normal and benign. Ask Julian Assange if *effective* dissent is permitted.
The power derived from controlling the flow of information is immense. That's why every tyrant and authoritarian wields censorship power. Tyranny can't exist without it. And as Orwell and Chomsky have both said, the most effective form isn't jailing dissidents but doing this.
Read what Orwell said about why censorship in the UK during the war was so much more effective than the overtly autocratic regimes that just imprisoned dissidents. The British don't have to: they have their compliant media unite to punish and destroy the reputation of dissidents:
We're at the point where we also arrive in these cycles. If you object to the attempt to silence Rogan, then you will be instantly tarred with the same brush used to try to destroy him: You're a racist, anti-vax, etc. etc. That's the enforcement mechanism to keep everyone quiet.
This racism charge, from splicing together a bunch of context-free snippets over the years, reeks of desperation but it, too, was inevitable. Racism accusations are the central toy to every silencing game in the US. You can make anyone look racist with it
By far the most important part of what's happened in this Rogan melodrama is that WH weighed in, demanding Spotify "do more." It's part of a long line of Dem politicians using their domination of DC to coerce censorship: a clear violation of the 1st Am.
If you actually think that finding old clips of someone using the n-word is proof they're a racist, then you would find this 👇 infinitely more alarming and important given that he is kind of more powerful than Joe Rogan. But you don't think that: it's just a game to silence him.
Everyone knows that if Spotify removes Rogan, he will move to a new platform with his millions of listeners. The points of this:
1) Deny him the credibility of a major corporate platform.
2) Vilify and ostracize him to prevent further growth.
3) Create an example for others.
Good time to post one of Barack Obama's best moments, where he denounces what he calls "woke" activism as the superficial and self-serving delusion that it is, explains that it's just about the self-esteem of the denouncers, and mocks the idea that silencing people is activism.
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Last night @elonmusk vowed to honor the endless, repressive and due-process-free censorship orders from Brazil's Judge Alexandre de Moraes.
The Judge has banned various journalists and members of Congress, among others, from social media.
This would be a huge deal for Brazil:
Rumble last year also announced that it would refuse to comply. The platform was expending huge resources to constantly take down videos and ban users upon the endless, lawless orders of a single job.
Amazingly, Rumble is no longer available to anyone in Brazil, getting this:
In January of last year, we obtained one of the secret orders Judge Moraes issues to platforms. This one banned Senators, Congress members and journalists, and mandated secrecy.
No due process. We reported it here. Hard to overstate how extreme it is:
UK Court hands Assange a partial victory in the Biden DOJ's attempt to extradite him.
US must provide explicit assurances that Assange 1) can raise a 1st Am defense, 2) will have the same rights as US citizens and 3) will never face the death penalty.
Biden WH doesn't want the sideshow of a trial; daily protests; discovery into CIA; Assange on the stand; Biden as the first-ever president to imprison a publisher.
They want to kill Assange through conviction-free imprisonment.
How dare the US President weigh in on a war he has caused American citizens to finance, arm and support!
Look at the mentality of these Israel fanatics: the duty of American citizens is not only to finance Israel's military and wars, but also never question what Israel does: