MATT TAIBBI—MSNBC opinion columnist Zeesham Aleem just penned the latest in what’s become a parade of hit pieces from mainstream outlets directed at me and other independent journalists. Even by the low standards of the genre, “How the populist left has become vulnerable to the populist right” is a humorous standout. It argues that after I spent a month detailing how the FBI, DHS, DOD, CIA and other agencies built a system for mass delivery of censorship requests to firms like Twitter and Facebook, I helped fuel a subculture that “could funnel people from leftism to authoritarianism.”
CLASS COLLABORATION
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JARED BALL—Wakanda Forever is its own hopeful title. Forever are we to see our ambitions for a better world in a Wakandan fantasy, one, as Lawrence Grandpre suggests, is based not on culture, or I would add political organization, but on the random divine act of a meteor delivering a plant, and one based on quiet isolation, and ultimate service of empire. Forever are we to have our political aspirations defined, and diverted by Marvel, Disney, and characters created by now dead White men.
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JAMES DiEUGENIO—Broder was so much of an insider that he began collecting hefty lecture fees from industry groups and then lobbied Congress on behalf of at least one of those groups, even though this was a clear violation of the Post’s editorial policy. He then appears to have lied about it by saying it was cleared in advance. (Harper’s, June 12, 2008). By hiring Broder and then maintaining the columnist as a fixture at the Post for over four decades, Bradlee not only showed what kind of protect-the-Establishment journalism he valued but that he was blind to the media future that was just over the horizon.
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GREENWALD DISPATCHES: The US Anti-War Left is Dead. The Squad’s $40b War Vote Just Killed It.
3 minutes readGlenn discusses the recent origins of AOC’s political career, and how much she has already distanced herself from her initial anti-establishment positions. The charitable interpretation is that AOC could not resist the forces of corruption that define the US duopoly, but that would require us to see at least some attempt on her part to oppose such forces, instead of simply caving in almost at once. The fake left co-optation rhetoric continues, of course. And the same goes for the rest of the “Squad” and the notorious Bernie Sanders.
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Caleb discusses the reasons why he is certain Breadtubers like Vaush and Jason Unruhe are doing US imperialism’s bidding, while pretending to be on the radical left.