The Twitter Files
Is Intellectual Honesty Dead?
The Twitter Files released so far reveal the behind the scenes machinations that led to Twitter’s censoring of information related to Hunter Biden’s’ laptop weeks before the 2020 Presidential Elections.
It’s obvious that they started with the objective of blocking the story and then back-filled the reasoning with mumbo-jumbo about terms of services.
It was so egregious at the time that Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna sent this message to the Vijaya Gadde (former general counsel and the head of legal, policy, and trust at Twitter) about how Twitter’s actions were a “violation of the 1st Amendment principles”.
Also, Twitter wasn’t the only tech platform or media group that worked to actively suppress this story. Remember when publicly funded NPR said it was a “waste of our time”?
We all saw this happening in real-time in the MSM. They absolutely refused to consider that the laptop was real, even though all reporting by right-wing media was confirming it’s authenticity by contacting involved parties such as Tony Bobulinski.
They even got former intelligence officials to chime in so as to run cover for the largest media blackout of a story since WW2.
I disagree with what they did, but I get it. They saw Trump as an existential threat and were willing to sacrifice any remaining credibility to ensure that he was not re-elected.
This should be a familiar gambit by now:
Lie big now
Win politically
Deal with the inevitable blow-back later
They all eventually recognized that the story was in fact real. It only took CBS two years to do so…
But they’ve never accepted responsibility for the fact that it was done intentionally. According to MSM, this was just journalistic error…nothing more. The only problem is that the same journalistic errors were repeated over and over, against just one political party throughout MSM and carried over into social media platforms.
The Twitter Files are significant because they roll back the curtain to show that these were not good faith errors. For the first time we can definitively conclude that there was collusion to prevent the release of information which could have altered the 2020 election.
These aren’t arguments or interpretations at this point, they are facts. Media and big tech’s coverup of the Hunter Biden Laptop story to benefit Joe Biden is a FACT and it was WRONG.
I’m not interested in arguing whether there was anything of relevance on the laptop or if it was prepared as an October surprise. I don’t want to hear about how they couldn’t verify the story…they never tried. It was an unprecedented coverup of a relevant story of public interest in order to favor one political party.
It was a historic shattering of conventional political norms that would have otherwise been inconveivable just a few years before.
Lex Fridman is absolutely correct in this tweet, but with one major caveat: people on the left need to admit that this actually happened.
Except we’re never going to get this from the left as we see from this reply to Lex’s tweet.
I suppose if one ignores things like context, norms, precedents, historical patterns of behavior, simple logic and common sense, one might conclude that Twitter officials acted in good faith…but in my opinion this would require a plethora of intellectual dishonesty with some pretzel like contortions of reality.
Other reactions have been:
It’s a nothingburger
Nothing new to see here
Elon Musk is a white supremacist
Complete silence
My favorite take though was this one. The poster is basically saying to Republicans: “Get over it loser, so what if we colluded to cover up Hunter Biden’s laptop”
I must admit that I have a bit more respect for this one because at least its honest.
The reality is that this is where we are. No matter what the Twitter Files have and will reveal, there will be no acknowledgment that something fundamentally wrong occured.
It’s a never ending bait and switch. They keep pretending that there are still norms that they adhere to and when engaged to point out that the norms don’t actually exist or are being broken, they inevitably:
cancel/silence
defame/denigrate
gaslight
This was evident a long time ago, but maybe this is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Maybe this time they have gone way too far.
If you take the time to listen to this episode of the JRE podcast, where you essentially have Tim Pool going up against Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde, you’ll understand. Tim repeatedly pushes her with facts, examples and arguments and she just continually denies, deflects and insists everything is fine…it’s fair…it’s transparent.
Recommend you listen to get a feeling for how hopeless it is to try to engage with these people in good faith:
But at least the bloom is finally off the rose officially. If the left is unwilling to at least acknowledge that what happened with the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop was at least seriously wrong then we’re done talking.
No amount of civil discourse aiming to bridge ideological divides can ever get us to a point of common ground because one side is fundamentally dishonest intellectually.
There is no longer anything resembling norms that we can look to for a semblance of what normal society should be.
What we are left with is just a struggle for power.
This is what the Twitter Files really tell us.
And note that I haven’t even started to get into the issues of political interference by state actors such as the FBI or the DoJ. It’s superfluous for my point, but that’s also looming and if even more damning.
So what do you do when intellectual honesty is dead? What do you do when it’s just about power?
These are tough questions for me. The most important part of my Twitter bio is the part about “Intellectual Honesty”. I truly believe in this concept and I get incredibly frustrated when I see people on my side not adhering to this.
On the other hand, we’re dealing with an opponent that has no qualms about intellectual dishonesty…or as they see it: “their truth”.
The Mind Set
Philosophically, there’s only way forward: projecting strength is the only things that will matter and this strength can only be achieved through political power.
I think more and more people are starting to get this and we’re already seeing some differences.
BLM is on the ropes
The tide is turning on CRT and Radical Gender Theory
ESG is starting to come under scrutiny
Even if it stumbles sometimes, the movement has already begun.
I’m going to tell you a story about what is going to happen and if you’re a Democrat you might not like how this is going to go:
If they want to divide us by identity groups, we’ll identify as Americans
If they want to indoctrinate our children, we’ll take over the school boards
If they want mail in voting, we’ll become better at mail-in voting activism
If Trump is too crass and undisciplined then we’ll elect DeSantis who knows how to make our case better
If they want to silence us, we’ll create our own media institutions, take over your platforms and boycott your woke corporations
If they want to marginalize us economically, we’ll create a parallel economy
There will be mistakes, but we’ll get better because we’re more motivated, more determined and there really is no other option. And if we have to, we’ll play the game by the left’s rules.
I have no doubt about any of this because this is what history says that will happen. The pendullum always swings back and the left’s refusal to return to any semblance of reality just means that the eventual blow-back will be that much bigger.
Don’t believe me?
I submit the most recent Munk Debate:
Douglas Murray and Matt Taibbi arguing that mainstream media cannot be trusted (48% starting audience agrees)
vs
Malcolm Gladwell and Michelle Goldberg arguing that mainstream media can be trusted. (52% starting audience agrees)
Of note is that generally speaking the population tends to break into three groups of roughly similar sizes: Left, Right and Independents/Moderates.
The debate resulted in the largest swing in the event’s history, moving from a 48%-52% voter deficit to a 67%-33% win.
Alternate link: https://vimeo.com/munkdebates/review/775853977/85003a644c
What you should take away from this that when facts and arguments are actually considered in a neutral setting for the exchange of ideas, the middle third agrees with the right.
But philosophy alone isn’t enough. There also needs to be a strategy.
The Strategy
As I see it, 2024 is the most important election of our lifetime. I know everybody always says this but there are reasons that this time it actually is. All efforts need to be made in the next two years to ensure that 2024 unfolds perfectly.
To win in 2024, we must first understand what happened in 2022.
The 2022 midterms were actually good news for the right, because it told them what not to do in 2024.
First, it exposed the size of the Republican party’s Trump problem when it didn’t cost them too badly. Going into the midterms I had accepted that Trump would be the 2024 nominee. But the red-wave never materialized and Trump turns out to be a major reason why. Moving forward, the right needs to move away from Trump and I believe this has already begun.
I know the Trump issue is a touchy subject with people on the right and I plan to do an entire article explaining why I don’t think Trump can win any longer. But in short, he has too much baggage, too much wear and tear, and there is nothing he can do to change the minds of about half the country that doesn’t like him.
Second, they got just enough power (the House) so that they can block Biden’s agenda, without being perceived as the ruling party. Moving forward, if Trump is no longer on the political agenda, then 2024 should be a referendum on Biden who is still a spectacularly unpopular president.
Finally, they now have the right potential presidential candidate in Ron DeSantis who managed to turn Florida from a purple state into a Republican +20 state in just four years. This is political talent that Republicans have not had since Reagan.
And DeSantis has a Reagan-esque opportunity to govern for 8 years because the similarities of Biden (and the present day) to the Carter presidency (and all that went down in the 70s) opens the door for DeSantis to be elected with a real mandate for change.
And this is the crucial thing. The presidency doesn’t mean anything if you can’t actually make any changes to the system.
If you want to make changes you need to project an air of calm and normality to the American people, while you push forward against the will of the MSM and liberal establishment that will fight you tooth and nail.
This is exactly what DeSantis has been able to do in Florida through preparation, competence, and discipline. They’ve tried repeatedly to tear him down, but nothing sticks because he doesn’t make mistakes…this is so crucial.
DeSantis manages to repeatedly communicate the political points that Republicans win on with independents and moderates, without coming off as radical, while also being able to speak to the Trump electorate.
I believe that DeSantis has the ability to govern non-controversially as President, while also making the kinds of structural reforms to government necessary to make a difference on issues that matter.
And I almost forgot, the Democrats are very vulnerable in the 2024 Senate races because they have to defend 23 of 33 seats.
And there’s a Republican SCOTUS.
So if you want the good news, it is that all the stars are aligning for a big Republican victory in 2024. But don’t count out the Republicans’ ability to F-it all up.
So don’t lose hope…don’t ever lose hope.
Believe it or not, there are more than enough sane people on the left, right and center to save this country and modern civilization from imploding.
But we can’t lose sight of the ball because we need to win and win big.
I hope so, sometimes it feels that everything is so corrupt it’s beyond repair but the only thing to to do is to keep fighting
It would be nice if there was some comeuppance for the egregious wrongs perpetrated upon the citizenry since 2019… we shall see, 50/50 chance maybe? That is not a precise estimate, I am an optimist by nature!
I completely agree that we have to focus on the future, I’ve always voted but 2024 I will be engaged like never before. Let’s go RdS!