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In the first of a series of video comments from viewers, Ann Morrison, who lives in rural Wisconsin, talks about why her neighbors vote for Republicans and Trump and against the Democratic Party.

In the first of a series of video comments from viewers, Ann Morrison, who lives in rural Wisconsin, talks about why her neighbors vote for Republicans and Trump and against the Democratic Party.

The demand by Democrats for Big Tech to censor right-wing conspiracies on social media is a betrayal of the ideals liberals claim to stand for, says Thomas Frank. The real question is why so many people, particularly in rural America, believe such outlandish lies. Thomas joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news

The demand by Democrats for Big Tech to censor right-wing conspiracies on social media is a betrayal of the ideals liberals claim to stand for, says Thomas Frank. The real question is why so many people, particularly in rural America, believe such outlandish lies. Thomas joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news

Transcript

Paul Jay

Hi, I'm Paul Jay. Welcome to theAnalysis.news. Please don't forget at the top of the website, there's a donate button. If you're watching on YouTube, there's a subscribe button.

In a recent piece in The Guardian, Thomas Frank writes:

"In liberal circles these days there is a palpable horror of the uncurated world, of thought spaces flourishing outside the consensus, of unauthorized voices blabbing freely in some arena where there is no moderator to whom someone might be turned in. The remedy for bad speech, we now believe, is not more speech, as per Justice Brandeis’s famous formula, but an “extremism expert” shushing the world.

What an enormous task that shushing will be! American political culture is and always has been a matter of myth and idealism and selective memory. Selling, not studying, is our peculiar national talent. Hollywood, not historians, is who writes our sacred national epics. There were liars-for-hire in this country long before Roger Stone came along. Our politics has been a bath in bullshit since forever. People pitching the dumbest of ideas prosper fantastically in this country if their ideas happen to be what the ruling class would prefer to believe."

That's Thomas laughing at his own lines (in the background).

Thomas Frank

I haven't thought about it for a long time.

Paul Jay

I love when I'm interviewing someone who can really write and all I have to do is read their piece as an introduction. It makes my life so much easier. Anyway, here we go.

"Debunking' was how the literary left used to respond to America’s Niagara of nonsense. Criticism, analysis, mockery, and protest: these were our weapons. We were rational-minded skeptics, and we had a grand old time deflating creationists, faith healers, puffed-up militarists, and corporate liars of every description. Censorship and blacklisting were, with important exceptions, the weapons of the puritanical right: those were their means of lashing out against rap music or suggestive plays or left-wingers who were gainfully employed. Or these days, left-wingers like us who aren't so gainfully employed."

Now joining us to discuss the liberal demand for more censorship is Thomas Frank. He is a political analyst, historian and journalist. He co-founded and edited The Baffler magazine. He's written several books, including What's the Matter with Kansas? Listen, Liberal and his most recent is The People, No: A Brief History of Anti Populism. Thanks for joining me, Thomas.

Thomas Fran

Paul Jay. It is great to be here. Here among the canceled.

Paul Jay

So, you accuse this demand for, particularly the big social media companies, the demand that's come from corporate Democrats and from a lot of the newspapers and much of the liberal political elite to essentially censor Trump's stuff on the social media?

Thomas Frank

Yeah.

Paul Jay

And you're saying this is essentially a betrayal of the liberal ideals liberals claim to stand for. So why is this a betrayal?

Thomas Frank

Well,

The demand by Democrats for Big Tech to censor right-wing conspiracies on social media is a betrayal of the ideals liberals claim to stand for, says Thomas Frank. The real question is why so many people, particularly in rural America, believe such outlandish lies. Thomas joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news

The Australien Government has made an ad about Australian Values for people planning to become citizens, and it's another biting satire.

The Australien Government has made an ad about Australian Values for people planning to become citizens, and it's another biting satire.

The Australien Government has made an ad about Australian Values for people planning to become citizens, and it's another biting satire.

Many progressives are ignoring U.S. aggression around the world despite its involvement in many wars and expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons. Medea Benjamin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Many progressives are ignoring U.S. aggression around the world despite its involvement in many wars and expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons. Medea Benjamin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

Paul Jay

Hi, I'm Paul Jay. Welcome to the Analysis News, and this is going to be part two with Medea Benjamin. Don't forget a donate button at the top of the webpage, and as much as you might be getting tired of hearing me say that, I'm sort of tired of having to say it, but what the heck, that's what nonprofit journalism is, and if you're watching on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, and here's the music.

So this is a follow-up discussion on part one of my interview with Medea Benjamin, and I'm not going to do the long introduction again, but here's Medea and she's the co-founder of Code Pink and author of, what, four or five books on foreign policy.

Thanks for joining me again, Medea.

Medea Benjamin

Good to be on with you Paul.

Paul Jay

So a few years ago, I believe you were there, there was a People's Summit held in Chicago. Bernie Sanders spoke, the nurses union organized it, and there were sessions and all kinds of topics, and I remember that those of us who do care about this were talking to each other and saying, hold on, where's the session on foreign policy? And there wasn't one.

Now, it's interesting that when Biden and Sanders had these working groups, there wasn't a working group on foreign policy in the lead-up to the elections. Maybe because there were such differences on foreign policy, they figured they couldn't get together or nobody cared?

I don't know, but, you and your partner in crime, Jody Evans and the Code Pink women and a few others have been dedicated fighters for an anti-war movement in the United States, but it's been quite a while, maybe since the massive demonstrations against the Iraq war, that there has been much of an anti-war movement in the United States.

And I said this in an interview the other day and somebody wrote in on YouTube, I don't know what left you're talking about the left I know, we're all interested in foreign policy. Well, yeah, but, boy, it ain't much. So if you agree with that proposition, why?

Medea Benjamin

I think it's complex and maybe we can explore some of those different areas, we had a very strong anti-war movement. Well, I'm old enough to remember the anti-war movement of the Vietnam days. That's where I got my start, and that was because there was a draft, and when you have a draft, you have an anti-war movement that has a lot of young people and a lot of energy to it. The end of the draft did a lot to end the anti-war movement.

The Iraq war built up an anti-war movement, and we had several demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets. Then when Obama came in, the anti-war movement fell apart, and I think it's for several reasons.

Paul Jay

Can I ask a question before you go there?

Medea Benjamin

Yeah.

Paul Jay

Didn't it fizzle out really even before Obama came in? How much of an anti-war movement was in the year or two before Obama was elected?

Medea Benjamin

Well, when the war started dragging on, there becomes less and less of an anti-war movement, but I would say that we were still able to mobilize people. We still had small groups all throughout the country. Code Pink still had chapters around.