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I was watching a Timcast with Adrianne Curry and another one with Candace Owens, and Tim was speaking of the need for people to be brave and stand up to this authoritarian Neo-Maoist Evil that has taken over media, academia, and government institutions. There's been a lot of flack coming his way because although he did mention "anonymous people" on social media, what he really means is people like you, Bari, or Winston Marshall, here.

Both Tim and Candace said people would be SHOCKED at the a-list actors and musicians and media members who are in their DMs and email inbox who hate the evil of Wokeism, who hate CRT and what it's done to the world, but they're all so more afraid of losing what they have that they pretend to go along with all of it.

As a nobody on the internet who has severed myself from all social media and only participates in a few substacks / locals communities, I can only hope that the people with the actual "power" in our culture stand up soon and end this madness. It's not going to be the conservatives and GOP, because they have no real power in the culture.

It's going to take more than Bari or Winston Marshall. It's going to take more than Bill Maher. It could've been Kanye, but the reaction to his running away from the plantation was so swift and so vicious, that it likely scared others from doing the same, which was probably the point. It's going to take an Oprah. I thought for awhile it was going to be Obama, but in his recent comments it's obvious he's gotten the message from the DNC and media to get back on the plantation and stop decrying cancel culture.

It's going to take a lot of people with real juice in our culture standing up together and saying, "Enough is enough!" We're on the razor's edge here. It needs to happen soon.

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This, from the article:

He writes: “I could remain and continue to self-censor but it will erode my sense of integrity. Gnaw my conscience. I’ve already felt that beginning.”

reminded me of this:

“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”

― Theodore Dalrymple

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Dear Ms. Weiss,

I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of others thanking you for what you are doing. It is truly remarkable and invaluable. I also wanted to implore you, as I'm sure so many others have, to start a news service. You have mentioned the journalists you know too afraid to do their jobs. If it's even remotely possible, please give them the opportunity. Your readers need a fact-based news service. More than that, the country needs one. Please consider it. In the meantime, thank you endlessly.

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The intolerant thrive on the expectation that most people cannot afford to make the sacrifice that Winston Marshall made.

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Our mothers told us to tell the truth and to apologize when we're wrong. They didn't tell us to apologize for telling the truth. And we never should.

Andy Ngo is indeed a brave man and so is Winston Marshall. Antifa are the shock troops of totalitarianism. In Weimar, the black shirts and brown shirts were two sides of the same filthy coin. And 100 million died as a result. The time is now to stamp our Antifa. It starts with telling the truth about them and never giving in. Or temporizing.

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I'm a big fan of Mumford and Sons and I was so sad when he apologized. I'm so proud of him! Thanks for posting this. (And I wish Mumford and Sons, as a team, had said to the cancel crowd- eff off.)

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"And so, in our Manichean moment, by recommending a book criticizing Antifa, Winston Marshall was turned into a fascist."

Nicely illustrates how stupid and reactionary the left has become.

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1. I hear a lot of talk about the bravery/cowardice of individuals (I am one of the “cowards” for sure), but no talk of the cowardice of the Republican Party. Some 15 years ago I remember the talk of Dems competing everywhere. A month ago I read about a Dem candidate, who is black, running in rural Kentucky with a slogan “from hood to holler”. Of all the talk of the chaos in our large cities, who is a serious GOP candidate running for the Mayor of NYC? Curtis Sliwa? Who is the GOP candidate running for the Mayor of Seattle, or for any position in that city? Portland? Minneapolis? Sure many of the them would lose, but most of the Dems did not win outright. Ehen is the GOP going to stand up?

2. The talk of socialism describing the “progressive” mobs is inaccurate. It’s graft, first and foremost, but in its essence is more like a Reagan style extreme libertarianism. They reject the authority of the government to, among other things, prosecute or stop people if they want to take over streets, buildings, or any kind of property. When they “defunded” the police in Seattle the first thing they mentioned in their platform is that the government cannot do it, in other words that the “government is the problem” and that the money should be handed over to “community” organizations. In other words, they are for the privatization of the government. For example, homelessness “response” in most cities is not done by an increase in government services, but by paying outside contractors and organizations, often without any oversight. There was an article in the NYT recently describing how this system works in foreign policy: aid program for Guatemala to stop immigration was a tool to funnel billions into accounts of Dem friendly “community” organizations. There isn’t anything socialist about it. Furthermore, in socialist countries one was silenced by official authorities. Here you are silenced by and often on behalf of private corporations.

3. Antifa and Black Block are acting like a paramilitary, terrorist organization. While I appreciate writing about what they do, I would like someone to follow the money and uncover who is really behind them. How much money has flown into Portland during last year through GoFundMe or other resources? Let’s dissect that funding structure. For example, a self-described socialist in Seattle has numerous contributions to her campaign of $1,000 from “unemployed” persons from across the county. Maybe someone should look into how come unemployed folks can afford to donate that kind of money to local candidates. Are they the real source? If not, who is?

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Sorry for multiple comments, but this really stood out to me: "that politics has swallowed everything and that everything needs to be put to a political litmus test ... "

It's not just that things have to be put through a filter; there have always been such filters. But now things have to be put through multiple filters that all contradict one another such that absolutely nothing can be generated that will not destroy the life of the person generating it.

That I think is new. These litmus tests are all mutually contradictory and seem specially designed to be mutually contradictory such that no creative person can ever create anything else ever again. No one dare open their mouth at all, ever.

The tests are not there to separate the pure form the fallen. The tests are there to paralyze EVERYONE, period.

And your comment about religiosity is to me interesting because I've been spending more and more mental time on converting to Judaism, the idea of it, what it would mean, up to an including going through a whole Torah reading cycle and buying siddurs ... but the last rabbi I reached out to identified herself on her website as "female-identified and queer," and I'm like, "You mean a LESBIAN WOMAN?" Just say it, for pete's sake! You're a Jewish lesbian woman, all things that you should not only not sugar-coat to keep form offending people but that you should be fucking PROUD OF! Orthodox Judaism doesn't feel at all right to me because I will not convert under the aegis of people who don't count me toward a minyan, but damn it, if Reform/Recon have been completely swallowed up by wokeness, then what is there?! Even religiosity is barred from me; no other religion makes sense to me but Judaism.

Agh, sorry sorry ... Anyhow, there's a lot to digest in this interview and it's all worth digesting.

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Bari, great interview. I read Andy Ngo's book. He deserves as much attention as Winston Marshall. Can you write an article about him? I think what he wrote is true, but there seems to be a lack of coverage.

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I imagine the darling Twitter mobs buzzing out of Pandora's box. But the blame must lie with editors and producers who allow pathological brats to bully everyone else. Tell them to go pound sand. We're seeing daily auto da fes of clearly decent, moral human beings sacrificed to baying mobs. It is true that the bolsheviks were a minority. So were the brownshirts. We appear to have learned nothing. Weekly, I have conversations with people who want to speak out, but don't. Intimidation works. The old U.S. is under here, somewhere, but time is running out.

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Thank you Bari.

I do feel sad that young adults today can be torn down by zealots on Twitter. I’m reminded of what my parent’s told me as a young boy: sticks and stones can break my bones, but names will never hurt.

My suggestion for any young adult is to stay away from Twitter - unless you have the courage to look your attackers in the ether and tell them to fuck off.

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Retired now, I would have found my life unbearable had I not traveled extensively, worked in several countries and met so many people with different views, cultures, national backgrounds, "identities" and experiences that I was able to debate with. Several of my better friends are the ones with whom I had some pretty long and loud "debates" where we ended up agreeing to disagree on the topic ... while discovering that all people really want the same fundamental things out of life BUT disagree on "how to get there". Those raucous exchanges allowed me to grow, evolve and mature = to think.

It is devastation to see that intolerance, dogmatism and tribalism are so common these days. I'm sure Winston will have a better life thanks to the courage he had to break with the Orwellian "thought police".

How boring it must be for anyone who can only bear to interact with people like themselves!

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Ms. Weiss, you ask in the interview how society can move beyond the current state. One way would be for all to read the Medium article written by Winston Marshall. Another way would be for all to watch your interview with him. What a sweet person. It is hard to imagine any negative opinion holding after watching him speak. I love to hear the word integrity come through the speakers.

Thank you for bringing this interview to your audience. I am grateful.

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founding

The one question I was hoping would have been asked is whether his band mates supported his right of free inquiry to read and comment on whatever he liked.

This entire episode made me think of those BDSers, led by Roger Waters (regardless of his level of sobriety), who demand that bands not play in Israel and back up their demands with Twitter storms and worse. With few exceptions, the big named bands ignore them while up and coming ones, by and large, fall to the intimidation. I would have thought Mumford & Sons are big enough that they could have stood together and pushed back as a matter of principle.

Ultimately, each of us makes our own decisions on important matters and many factors are usually involved in the process, as we all know from personal experience. From a religious perspective, one could take the position that God (or the gods) know ultimate truths and proper conduct that we humans cannot know for sure. From a more skeptical or scientific viewpoint, we can admit that there is much about life, human nature and morality that we can never know for certain. These streams lead to the same place: beware of those who claim to “know” the “correct” path and act as the arbiters of right and wrong.

What is called for on an individual level is a politics of humility which allows for the freedom to experiment, tentatively and contingently, while always checking to see if we are moving in a good direction and armed with the good sense and courage to change course if we sense we are not. In a way, this is not too dissimilar to the millions of consumer choices and decisions that economic theory tells us wind up setting prices for goods.

To those who claim the ultimate knowledge of what is good for us and are ready to impose it through threats and intimidation, we can reply simply “how do you know and who appointed you?” These emperors with no clothes and their sycophantic or fearful followers can be resisted, but it all begins with the individual. Obviously this is easier said than done, but that’s where I come down.

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It has come to Canada. Cloaked in Indigenous clothing - tearing down statues - of the queen while law enforcement stands by, claiming that holding up the law will encite further violence...as if allowing violence, under the cause du-jour (trans, BLM) to run rampant isn't how violence mestataciźes. Trudeau - oh most virtuous, did this when he allowed a group of the right kind of protesters blockade Canada's national rail for wèeks on end, while tweeting support. He is likely the first PM for whom i have felt contempt... as i watch him destroy Canada.

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