Five years ago a number of events―in brief, the government's assertion of totalitarian powers on some fronts and complete abdication on others―made me question my political allegiances. I started looking to different sources for news and opinion, which is a good idea in general. And the heterodox right started making more sense to me. What I gradually found, though, was that many of the people I'd started paying more attention to were never really serious about opposing heavy-handed COVID rules, but were deadly serious when they said there are no innocent Palestinians. Perhaps more to the point, the rebel pose they'd taken for a while was just that: a pose.
On Tuesday I opened up the Tablet homepage and saw a piece entitled The Edgelords "inspired" by the Douglas Murray-Dave Smith debate on The Joe Rogan Experience. And as soon as I got the gist of it I found myself wondering, "Hey, I wonder if Spiked! is doing something like this today as well." And wouldn't you know... The latter article is by Brendan O'Neill, who may well be a dimmer British bulb than Murray himself. He believes people like Rogan and Smith (the only Jew among the three men in that room) are shepherding naive young conservatives and freethinkers into the "Israelphobia" of the mainstream media. The same media that's barely mumbled about the IDF killing and burying Gaza paramedics.
Beyond the Mideast―but always returning to it, by compulsion―there's a clear discrepancy here. A lot of consumers of alternative media have become weary of gatekeeping. But some of these outlets aren't against gatekeeping at all. They just want to slightly change the terms: who guards against whom. And it looks like they just expect to be obeyed.
2 comments:
I can't say I've seen any evidence in the mainstream media that has presented any information about the murder and disappearance of the Gaza medics. The gatekeepers have done a bad job of being non-partisan. It's obviously a bad thing when 1200 people are killed but it seems to me it's far worse to hold 2.2 million in an open air prison without food, water, medicine, sanitation or any other of the requirements of most people's lives (occasional bombings don't count as needs). I didn't watch the Rogan show, but I just don't have the time to pay attention to hour and a half long podcasts. I do see him occasionally in brief outtakes on youtube or twitter so I'm not totally out of it.
At least Rogan is willing to host debates and has enough credibility for the debaters to trust him.
I want every irrational member of the Left given the microphone as much as possible so everyone can hear them. As far as the Right is concerned, the exact opposite approach is taken. Nobody is allowed to hear what they have to say. It doesn't look as though we going to see it again but what would be nice is an ethos of differing viewpoints, expressed with an underlying civility at least most of the time. It would be even better to see some intellectual humility, mutual respect, and willingness to listen for real. Instead, as you said, they just want to slightly change the terms: who guards against whom. And it looks like they just expect to be obeyed.
good title again, btw
It's not an area where the media shows much interest in airing the full story. There are exceptions here and there, but overall the practice seems to be to provide the kind of coverage that will support whatever current government policy happens to be. That's pretty dire, obviously. The good news is that more people seem to be seeing through it now. No, bombings don't count as needs, and it's worth remembering where the bombs ultimately come from. As for podcasts, my experience is pretty much the same as yours. I can't really dedicate the time to them, but catch highlights later on.
Joe Rogan seems to be good at talking to people, and is willing to talk to just about anyone with something to say. Why this should be considered a weakness I don't know.
The more everyone identifies exclusively with either the Red Tribe or the Blue Tribe the less they'll be willing to hear truths and opinions that fall outside of it. It may be that the decline of religion has caused more people to become dogmatic about politics. I hope that things like avoiding Thanksgiving dinner with Trump-supporting relatives are mostly confined to the Internet.
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