I’m a middle-aged musician, I play cello on Broadway, and like what you are describing the scene here is one of supposedly liberal people shutting down and ostracizing anyone who doesn’t agree word for word with exactly whatever they happen to believe today. That would be, whatever the NYT thinks today. More than agree, you must spout the party line publicly, and on social media, otherwise you’re labeled “one of them”. So many friends and colleagues who are supposedly liberal folks are filling the newer Broadway bands and other groups with people who are the right gender, and the right color; though very often they are not the right musician for the job. For example, if a player can’t handle the music on the page the solutions these days is to simply make the music easier. It’s more important to them to have diversity than to have a compelling musical product. If you object, you’re a racist bigot. Last spring the band at Hadestown the musical announced that they would no longer be hiring white men for the most part, https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/HADESTOWN-Band-Announces-Diversity-Initiative-20210525, and even though that’s discriminatory hiring and illegal according to our union contracts, they were celebrated and continue to be. I find myself mostly disappointed that so many friends and colleagues are so caught up in their desire to be liked and have the approval of their peers (and thus remain employed) that they are willing to throw out so many bedrock ideas about being an American.
Joe Rogan would happily welcome Neil Young or any of the others on to his show and let them state what the "misinformation" he is spreading is. But none of them will do it.
Young sold his music portfolio to the Blackstone Inc., via Hipgnosis Songs Fund. A rewind to 04 August 2020: "Blackstone Announces Appointment of Jeffrey B. Kindler, Former Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, as Senior Advisor". Than the old sold-out offers fans "free Amazon Music" to move there.
This is how things go in the Pfizerstan. Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) owns 5.80% of the Blackstone and 6.56% of the Amazon. AMZN is Bezos, he owns The Post, the Post is a CIA outpost and Rogan is not yet controlled by the CIA. Therefore, crush Spotify, move the monies into the "right hands," those of our own ghouls and all would be fine.
To expect old washed out junkies, now multimillionaires, to be anything but the pawns in the game of totalitarian takeover of the country (or its ultimate demise) is more naive than they themselves were while they were young and poor.
Somehow we need to find each other so we can become a force like the Canadian truckers who have come together to push back against authoritarianism. I have no voice but I am supporting those who still do have a voice by subscribing to voices on Substack, Tucker Carlson on FoxNation, Epoch Times, Rebel News, etc. My contribution may be a drop in the ocean but if enough drops get together we become a flood.
Thank you Bari Weiss for allowing free expression on your Substack and giving a platform so Winston Marshall can shed light on this.
Wesley Yang calls the phenomenon “authoritarian utopianism”. Free-speech is a problem: incorrect thinking, impertinent questions, orthodoxies get questioned. The election of an unauthorized president proves that people are too stupid to be trusted with free speech. This is a commonly held belief amongst progressives, just ask, they will happily tell you this is their deeply held belief. In they’re thinking I am too stupid to be allowed to say what I think because I am dangerously wrong
Outstanding article and truth-telling from Winston Marshall once again. This was a great read. My spouse is an artist and we have routinely shaken our heads at the artistic community’s increasing deference to government and establishment politics over two decades.
Artists become slaves of the State. Even just 10 years ago that was unthinkable.
I have never respected artists for anything other than their professional skills. I've never understood why so many people conclude that because someone is really good at singing, or playing a guitar, or pretending to be someone else, they also have an inherent channel to special wisdom that "normal people" don't possess.
What is exceptionally dangerous is the State pushing private companies to increase censorship. The left has learned from the mob (the real mob): "Nice bidness youz got dere...be shame should you looz it."
This is disturbing on many levels. In the West, particularly in English-speaking societies, popular music has traditionally been the voice of rebels and misfits. Today, the "people's music" is heavily commercialized; money, not the innate yearning to express free ideas, dictates what musicians may say.
Consistent with the tremendous latitude afforded "BIPOC" members of society to speak and act outside of norms, rap and hiphop have extremely racist and sexist lyrics, reflecting a decrepit, empty ghetto culture rooted in violence and nihilism. This is acceptable and allowable by white culture because it's perceived as a cry for justice, and also it sells.
The so-called rebels of the 1960s were rebelling against crass materialism, not true injustice. The issues they sang about -- peace, racial justice, environmentalism -- were being addressed as far back as 1949, when President Truman ordered the military to integrate, and all through the quiet 1950s American society grew to accept racial equality, culminating in the Republican-driven Civil Rights Act. It was Richard Nixon who founded the Environmental Protection Agency in 1971. These accomplishments were mainstream efforts, and were not driven by spoiled rich white kids banging on guitars.
Now those same sanctimonious loudmouths are speaking out against... the right to question the origins and treatment of a Chinese virus??? They were fools 50 years ago and are still fools today.
Aren't these aging artists really saying, "protect me first since I am old and sick." And wouldn't it be interesting to hear what they think was said on the two podcasts that was disinformation.
Rogan has all the leverage here. If Spotify was dumb enough to fire him, he could set up shop right next store on another site, which site would immediately draw tens of millions of listeners. The real problem comes if and when the firms that run the internet itself (AWS, Google, GoDaddy) collectively decide to shut him down. When Psaki talks, this is what I worry about.
I was horrified, but not surprised, to see CSNY (and others) demanding censorship, Young no longer rails against "tin soldiers and Nixon coming" but has joined the bolshevik/fascist establishment currently in power. They demand groupthink and newspeak and will destroy anyone who opposes them or questions their orthodoxy. I wonder if any of these useful idiots have even read Orwell. Some of them must have, so I can only assume that their embrace of totalitarianism is deliberate. The rest are just unprincipled conformists who (apparently) believe whatever Twitter tells them to believe.
I’m a middle-aged musician, I play cello on Broadway, and like what you are describing the scene here is one of supposedly liberal people shutting down and ostracizing anyone who doesn’t agree word for word with exactly whatever they happen to believe today. That would be, whatever the NYT thinks today. More than agree, you must spout the party line publicly, and on social media, otherwise you’re labeled “one of them”. So many friends and colleagues who are supposedly liberal folks are filling the newer Broadway bands and other groups with people who are the right gender, and the right color; though very often they are not the right musician for the job. For example, if a player can’t handle the music on the page the solutions these days is to simply make the music easier. It’s more important to them to have diversity than to have a compelling musical product. If you object, you’re a racist bigot. Last spring the band at Hadestown the musical announced that they would no longer be hiring white men for the most part, https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/HADESTOWN-Band-Announces-Diversity-Initiative-20210525, and even though that’s discriminatory hiring and illegal according to our union contracts, they were celebrated and continue to be. I find myself mostly disappointed that so many friends and colleagues are so caught up in their desire to be liked and have the approval of their peers (and thus remain employed) that they are willing to throw out so many bedrock ideas about being an American.
Joe Rogan would happily welcome Neil Young or any of the others on to his show and let them state what the "misinformation" he is spreading is. But none of them will do it.
So a couple of senile Canadian dinosaurs are telling us what we can and cannot say. Good times.
Young sold his music portfolio to the Blackstone Inc., via Hipgnosis Songs Fund. A rewind to 04 August 2020: "Blackstone Announces Appointment of Jeffrey B. Kindler, Former Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, as Senior Advisor". Than the old sold-out offers fans "free Amazon Music" to move there.
This is how things go in the Pfizerstan. Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) owns 5.80% of the Blackstone and 6.56% of the Amazon. AMZN is Bezos, he owns The Post, the Post is a CIA outpost and Rogan is not yet controlled by the CIA. Therefore, crush Spotify, move the monies into the "right hands," those of our own ghouls and all would be fine.
To expect old washed out junkies, now multimillionaires, to be anything but the pawns in the game of totalitarian takeover of the country (or its ultimate demise) is more naive than they themselves were while they were young and poor.
Ironically, the "progressive" Left has become just like the religious right of the 1980's; Hysterical, illogical, censorious, totalitarian.
It's especially ironic that supposed freedom activists are the ones leading the charge against freedom of expression.
"He who fights with monsters..."
Somehow we need to find each other so we can become a force like the Canadian truckers who have come together to push back against authoritarianism. I have no voice but I am supporting those who still do have a voice by subscribing to voices on Substack, Tucker Carlson on FoxNation, Epoch Times, Rebel News, etc. My contribution may be a drop in the ocean but if enough drops get together we become a flood.
Thank you Bari Weiss for allowing free expression on your Substack and giving a platform so Winston Marshall can shed light on this.
Wesley Yang calls the phenomenon “authoritarian utopianism”. Free-speech is a problem: incorrect thinking, impertinent questions, orthodoxies get questioned. The election of an unauthorized president proves that people are too stupid to be trusted with free speech. This is a commonly held belief amongst progressives, just ask, they will happily tell you this is their deeply held belief. In they’re thinking I am too stupid to be allowed to say what I think because I am dangerously wrong
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell made their money selling songs about pushing back “against the man” - now they are the man.
They said then: don’t conform.
So we should say now: don’t conform.
We need to push back against them…hard.
"Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her
Well I heard old Neil put her down
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around anyhow"
Outstanding article and truth-telling from Winston Marshall once again. This was a great read. My spouse is an artist and we have routinely shaken our heads at the artistic community’s increasing deference to government and establishment politics over two decades.
Artists become slaves of the State. Even just 10 years ago that was unthinkable.
I have never respected artists for anything other than their professional skills. I've never understood why so many people conclude that because someone is really good at singing, or playing a guitar, or pretending to be someone else, they also have an inherent channel to special wisdom that "normal people" don't possess.
What is exceptionally dangerous is the State pushing private companies to increase censorship. The left has learned from the mob (the real mob): "Nice bidness youz got dere...be shame should you looz it."
Johnny Rotten for government censorship??? Uh. No.
This shits embarrassing Neil.
Thanks Mr Marshall.
This is disturbing on many levels. In the West, particularly in English-speaking societies, popular music has traditionally been the voice of rebels and misfits. Today, the "people's music" is heavily commercialized; money, not the innate yearning to express free ideas, dictates what musicians may say.
Consistent with the tremendous latitude afforded "BIPOC" members of society to speak and act outside of norms, rap and hiphop have extremely racist and sexist lyrics, reflecting a decrepit, empty ghetto culture rooted in violence and nihilism. This is acceptable and allowable by white culture because it's perceived as a cry for justice, and also it sells.
The so-called rebels of the 1960s were rebelling against crass materialism, not true injustice. The issues they sang about -- peace, racial justice, environmentalism -- were being addressed as far back as 1949, when President Truman ordered the military to integrate, and all through the quiet 1950s American society grew to accept racial equality, culminating in the Republican-driven Civil Rights Act. It was Richard Nixon who founded the Environmental Protection Agency in 1971. These accomplishments were mainstream efforts, and were not driven by spoiled rich white kids banging on guitars.
Now those same sanctimonious loudmouths are speaking out against... the right to question the origins and treatment of a Chinese virus??? They were fools 50 years ago and are still fools today.
Aren't these aging artists really saying, "protect me first since I am old and sick." And wouldn't it be interesting to hear what they think was said on the two podcasts that was disinformation.
Rogan has all the leverage here. If Spotify was dumb enough to fire him, he could set up shop right next store on another site, which site would immediately draw tens of millions of listeners. The real problem comes if and when the firms that run the internet itself (AWS, Google, GoDaddy) collectively decide to shut him down. When Psaki talks, this is what I worry about.
I was horrified, but not surprised, to see CSNY (and others) demanding censorship, Young no longer rails against "tin soldiers and Nixon coming" but has joined the bolshevik/fascist establishment currently in power. They demand groupthink and newspeak and will destroy anyone who opposes them or questions their orthodoxy. I wonder if any of these useful idiots have even read Orwell. Some of them must have, so I can only assume that their embrace of totalitarianism is deliberate. The rest are just unprincipled conformists who (apparently) believe whatever Twitter tells them to believe.