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Many libertarians have the same opinions as us on non-economic foreign policies of the West (seeing through “human rights” claims as hypocrisy to justify war that is waged for resources and geographical control, what coups/assassinations/terrorists are ClA ops, etc.) because these are all state activities and they are anti-state, at least in the current form in the West
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Blumenthal’s opinions on the situation of vaccines in USA is very libertarian
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Clearly not a communist given he has never spoken positively about any AES and never explicitly supported enemies of the West
Yea idk that’s all I got lol
I gotta disagree on some points.
From all the libertarians I’ve interacted with, I think some communists give libertarians way too much credit. Sure, some of them claim to be anti-war, but not out of genuine concern for those affected or the “good” reasons. Not saying all libertarians are like this, or that libertarians can’t eventually become communists, just something to be aware of.
Most libertarians only want to “bring the troops back” so the military can arrest, kidnap, extort and murder brown people and leftists and protect the money and property of the capitalists that libertarians believe they will become one day. Some libertarians I’ve met are even explicitly pro-war. They only pretend to not be pro-war as long as the government supports a war. As long as capitalists support war, they are all for it.
While probably not explicitly, Max Blumenthal seems to have praised China in how they have handled the COVID-19 pandemic and Xinjiang reeducation facilities.
I used to support Max Blumenthal, and I try not to accuse people for any reason of this, but he’s lost my respect for being an anti-vax and a grifter.
Ben Norton on the other hand has my respect.
While I do not think Max Blumenthal is a Libertarian, I absolutely do think that he is way less politicized than people give him credit for, that his politics are hyper confused and without a solid root other than reflexive anti-americanism (and I say that because to be anti-imperialist one must also theoretically understand imperialism, which necessitates a solid political base in materialist and marxist thinking).
This ideological confusion of his allows his thought to be riddled with contradictions, and a MAJOR one is a certain commitment to “freedom”, in the ways in which it is pushed hegemonically in the west in general. Call it latent system pushed individualism, ig. The extreme of that is capitalist libertarianism, so I understand why one would jump the shark and call him a libertarian. This is too hasty, but it is not cooompletely incorrect.
And this is what imo, tied to more “base” interests (such as financial, his switch to anti-vax is bringing a lot of cash and vastly expanded the grayzone’s audience), is what explains the shift.
Ben Norton always was a bit more politically coherent, and he turned towards clearly marxist and ML movements early on, and a certain humility so to speak to listen (really listen) to analysis done by marxists leninists and anti-imperialists. This is also why Ben Norton actively listened to the analysis of the communist party of canada about the ill called “trucker” convoy up here, and why Blumenthal did not. Norton correctly saw the CPC canada as accurate, that the movement was a petit-bourgeois one, with a leadership with deep ties to fascist elements, and one that is to the direct opposite of proletarian interests. Blumenthal on the other hand, saw it as a potentially progressive movement to be worked with, and he entered head first in the culture war thinking he was bashing back against it, engaging in nonsensical conspiratorial crap, and actively attacking organized working class elements such as fucking unions and communist parties in Canada.
Tl;DR Blumenthal is what happens when a mf has no dialectical materialist analysis. Sorry for long comment.
Polish ones are often ancaps, racists and antisemites and many have the weird mix of nazism-ancapism-monarchism taken from Korwin. They are actively working on being as little connected to reality as they can.
Who is Korwin? I feel like jumping into some rabbitholes.
Janusz Korwin Mikke, first clown of polish politics, famous for praising Hitler every now and then and getting kicked from several political parties he founded. He also courageously fought against EU by sleeping all the time after being elected to EU Parliament. His career started when during the famous 1980 strike in Gdańsk shipyard he came to tell the workers about the wonders of capitalism - they listened to him and they locked him in shed because they though he is police provocateur. Also a verifable stud, but, very surprising for a libertarian, not a pedophile.
In reality he’s very successful grifter who live a comfortable life for over 4 decades now by preying on teenage libertarians pocket money. Also he’s actually quite useful, since for all this time he is making libertarianism be ridiculed by most people.
How can someone be a nazi, an ancap, and an monarcuck all at once?
No idea what happens in their heads, to average all this, it’s mostly the “strong man guarding private property” thing, which often reaches open nazism and monarchism. Do note that the average age of those people is around 16, which would explain that.
well, just look at all the hillary voters. demonstrated against George W. Bush jr in 2001 but now scream for nuclear war to support a nazi army trying to genocide a russian minority for 8 years…
I mean yea some libertarians have shit takes that’s why I said “many” and not all lol. Doesn’t change the fact that Blumenthal’s journalism isn’t against libertarian ideals and actually follows them in many ways
I’ve never seen this, do you remember where it was from? Tried searching on Grayzone and google and couldn’t find it. If true this would be really interesting since it definitely does not align with libertarian values
I agree with your point, I just want to give my piece.
It was one of the articles about China. Although that may have been Ben Norton
lol f libertarians
Yeah Ben was the best thing about Gray zone but now that he’s moved onto Multipolarista, there’s no point in visiting the former anymore.
What about Ajit Singh or Aaron Mate?
I appreciate them. RIP Singh covid took him too soon
He died?
Didn’t he? I heard he caught covid
His latest tweet is from April 4th
Oh… I should read past the headlines more often. You’re right. 🥴
Or it may just be juche necromancy
I think you might be a bit too “all or nothing” when it comes to Grayzone and Blumenthal. Yeah, I agree, anti-vax stuff is stupid, but also Grayzone / Blumenthal still do a lot of good journalism, just on things that aren’t related to the pandemic.
your second paragraph is basically saying that the antiwar aspect of some libertarians is bad because they want to nazi you. which i think is a whole load of pink hat DNC gaslighting.
true, xinjiang was a horrble scene in the 90s (right after the students revolt aka chinese color revolution ;) and it is somewhat contradictory to claim that Blumenthal praised Chinas covid policy but in the same post you claim he is an antivaxxer which i ve never heard. being against mandates and pharma corruption (which is everywhere) does not make one an antivaxxer. By this token Aldous Huxley was an antivaxxer and just criticized the state of war because he wants to nazi you.
plz read other media, these emotional projections are completely baseless and just breadtube glowie gaslighting bullshit
Who pissed in your cornflakes? You first and last sentences sound like Infrared’s word salad.
It is contradictory of Blumenthal to praise China’s policies while also being an anti-vaxx grifter. That is my concern as well.
Of fucking course Pharmaceutical corporations are corrupt. No one disputes that. But the vaccine is at least somewhat effective in reducing COVID-19 fatalities and spread, and China’s and Russia’s and Cuba’s vaccines are very similar to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, just more effective.
I don’t know what to tell you about mask or lockdown mandates. They of course fucking suck, but its not that big of an issue. Its a mild inconvenience.
Afaik Blumenthal is not against vaccination, the neccessity of masks or the covid vaccine. Plz cite where he ever states anything against those in particular or in principle?
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1498891859829137408
“Biden wants us to forget how he to spread social poison and medical misinformation, claiming first responders who refused a mRNA injection that did not prevent transmission or infection sought “the freedom to kill you” & should be fired. We won’t forget.”
How is this anti-mask or anti-vax? Also afaik Max is vaccinated…
If Max is vaccinated, I would find that hypocritical of him.
Max Blumenthal has repeatedly described COVID-19 lockdowns as being ineffective, mask mandates as being ineffective and the vaccines as being either ineffective or shams.
There is an entire world of difference between bringing attention to and criticism of Pharmaceutical corporations’ greedy and exploitative practices, strong-arming of the Global South and wealthy manipulative CEO’s versus saying that lockdowns are ineffective or that the vaccines are vials of poison.
Especially considering that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are very similar to the Sputnik and Chinese and Cuban vaccines and that while lockdowns suck, they mitigate spread and deaths of COVID-19.
Max Blumenthal siding with racist and capitalist bootlicking cracka ass truckers isn’t pragmatism or toleration of reactionary elements for a greater cause, its siding with those who refuse to wear masks or be considerate of others while they assault and put the lives of people of color in danger so Blumenthal can profit.
This is a typical anti-vax rhetorical trick. First of all, there is no significant difference in safety and effectiveness of different vaccine types, so mentioning the fact that they are mRNA only serves to scare people who don’t understand what that means.
Secondly, NO vaccine 100% prevents transmission or infection, what they do is they make transmission and infection much less likely. They significantly reduce the probability, but of course not to absolute zero, hence why people can claim it’s not “prevention”.
It doesn’t matter whether he is personally vaccinated or not. You can be vaccinated and stil be an anti-vaxxer due to the kind of rhetoric you use that spreads fear, doubt and misconceptions. Advocating against mandates is also a form of anti-vax behavior.
In order for vaccines to be effective at combatting a pandemic you need to pass a certain critical threshold of percentage population vaccinated, and you will never get those kinds of 90%+ rates that you need without some sort of coercive mechanism.
I don’t think it’s responsible to do 90%+ in a country like the US. You are going to get a lot of kicking and screaming and drawing of blood.
Aim for a lower number combined with strong government action on lock downs, quarantining, tracking and masking.
btw I am not medically qualified
Doesn’t matter if its “responsible” when lives are at stake and when the science requires it.
I can mostly agree to that second line.
It is more unrealistic to expect people in the US to comply with the kinds of lockdowns, mass scale testing and contact tracing that would be required in order to be able to stop the pandemic without overwhelming majority vaccination.
It would also never happen because the US government is fundamentally unable and unwilling to do those sorts of things. Maas vaccination is already the compromise measure for whiny, entitled westerners and their bourgeois states.
Yes China was able to maintain zero-Covid with much lower vaccination rates. But no western government could ever do what China did. And even with all that success, we see there are still some problems in China now and then.
Localized outbreaks can get fairly bad when there is the slightest slip-up. No one can be perfect all the time, so when some local government makes a mistake, it is a big detriment not having those kinds of 90%+ vaccination rates.
China has been working very hard to make up that vaccination gap especially among the elederly who are paradoxically, one of the demographic groups with the lowest rates of vaccination in China. This is a problem that is being addressed.
You won’t get those either.
i m like a forced social media pescetarian, with all the red herring they keep feeding me…
ah, a masterful and classic red herring. equating legitimate criticism of the Biden administrations lies and police state measures based on lies with being antivax. and i m personally for vaccinated first responders and i do believe that vaccination reduces transmissions, that does not mean there wasn’t a huge lie being driven by the media. same with the whole ivermectin/horse dewormer shit, which - even acknowledging that ivermectin has little to no effect on covid - is a lie and a smear
and all the other unsubstantiatable, emotionally loaded claims over a variety of topics but with no key argument
can you also glow in the dark?
You’re just digging a deeper hole.
You seem to be way too close to Max Blumenthal and Infrared and despite your claims of not supporting the Kkkanadian truckers strike, you seem to be cut from the same cloth.
I don’t think that siding with fascists or mollycoddling them is necessary just because they have some frustrations, at least not in this instance.
I think you calling me a “Glowie” is major projection.
i know why blumenthal is being gaslit. or why greenwald is gaslit. or why infrared is gaslit… because of a man, the co-opted part of breadtube is unwilling to speak about. JULIAN ASSANGE. hostage of the worldwide glowstick community
I say this with no hyperbole, I think you need to take a breather and calm down, don’t tear yourself up. I hate that Julian Assange is probably going to get executed, but right now I am concerned for your mental health. Assange has nothing to do with Max Blumenthal being a grifter.