UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down while on a business trip in Manhattan on Wednesday, December 4th. Almost immediately, security camera footage was released of what appears to be a targeted assassination. All over the Internet, jokes and memes were made praising the shooter for what appears to look like an act of vigilantism by a citizen upset by American’s broken health insurance system. A narrative was built by the media almost immediately. The whole story, and the reaction to it, has really brought out the absolute worst in people and generally lowered my hope for humanity.
The Internet Archive was allegedly hacked, and their crawler stopped updating conveniently prior to the election. Although the Wayback Machine was partially restored, most of the archive’s services were down for a considerable amount of time. The Internet Archive has recently gone through a substantial amount of legal trouble, and some of their content has disappeared after they restored all their services. For an organization that has preserved so much of the old Internet, the recent events are quite troubling. They bring into question the entire integrity of the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine.
In 2016, I had returned to America after several years outside the country. I did an amazing job of avoiding most, but not all the election season. I didn’t see any meaningful difference between either candidate. Hillary Clinton was evil and corrupt, and her name is associated with a “two to the back of the head” suicide. I joked with a friend that I hoped Trump won, just so that people on the left would finally get angry about endless wars again. I don’t think I was quite prepared for the absolute media fueled-hatred of those who opposed the Orange Man, nor was I prepared for those who saw Trump as America’s only hope. In the years since that election, I found myself on a journey, both across America and through an insane political landscape.
I immediately got messages from friends on Saturday following the assassination attempt on Former President Trump. One friend immediately thought that the event was staged. Another said he thought there was a “nonzero” chance it wasn’t staged. One friend has since changed their stance, indicating the simple answer is the most likely. I find it absolutely fascinating that people who have watched a controlled media continually lie to them for the past several years (if not our entire lives) are so willing to believe one of the most outlandishly contrived Hollywood cinema style plots as if it’s 100% genuine. People feel like they have to believe a story, and we’ve been conditioned to believe in heroes and the impossible.
I recently documented how I archived content from creators I subscribed to on Locals. I subscribed to VivaBarnes when they first joined the platform in 2020, and I also subscribed to Louder with Crowder when it switched to Locals from The Blaze. For years, I felt like both had done an excellent job of informing and/or entertaining their audience in some very difficult times. However, both have had their own controversies over the years. Over time, I gained less from the subscriber-only content. The quality of their work has degraded. My own research has found they’ve both been pushing their own narrative stories, sometimes directly opposed to the facts of the events they cover. I don’t regret supporting them, but I think I’ve exhausted the value I received from their videos. This month, my subscriptions end for the only two people I follow on Locals.
Recently Steven Crowder ran an investigative piece alleging a high ranking female executive at BlackRock was connected to a forum used to exchange sexually explicit material involving minors. This allegation was based off of a single e-mail address, tied to the individual by means of several background check websites. This investigation was horrifically sloppy, and had no concrete evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. Crowder’s team has done amazing investigation work during the most controversial election of our time. However, this investigation was abhorrently bad. It was followed by a serious of other questionable investigations where Crowder went after the porn industry, and a small local school. As the show seems to drift further away from the topics many American conservatives actually care about, he also is facing more accusations from former staff members about his conduct as their employer. As someone who has been a fan of his content for years, I find it disheartening to see the quality of his show in a sharp state of decline.
Years ago, I was in a vehicle headed to a state park in Kentucky to go camping with a group of friends. As I looked around from my seat, I asked, “Wait, do we all know each other from Reddit?” A friend replied, “Yes, you’re going camping in the woods with random people you met off the Internet. You know, that thing your mother told you not to do.”
Whenever I moved to new cities, Reddit meetups were one of the many ways I’d meet new people. Reddit was once an amazing microcosm of vastly different viewpoints spanning tens of thousands of communities. In the past several years, it has abandoned its original vision, driving out verboten viewpoints in the name of safety and social justice. It’s embrace of censorship has converted the platform from a hivemind into an echo chamber. Once a small backwater site like 4chan, Reddit has grown to embrace big tech censorship, and has morphed itself into a website with a very narrow acceptable range of views. It has become an extremist forum, just as terrible as the platforms that were created by its dissidents.
Over the weekend Hamas forces attacked Israel. Initial reports indicated Palestinian forces entered via land and power gliders. There is evidence they are directly attacking civilians, although a considerable amount of information is clouded in the fog of war. Immediately, most conservative analysts and commentators defended Israel and condemned Palestinian forces as terrorists. The resulting media fury has sharply divided people on all sides of the political compass. Some people fully support Israel without question, some fully back the Palestinians, and others condemn both sides of the conflict. Few people are asking the real questions beyond the media smoke screen. The conflict is a major distraction from a failing US president, the unending conflict in Ukraine and the dual border crises in the European Union and the United States.
In my last post, I discussed archiving the collection of Louder with Crowder Mug Club episodes after he switched networks. During the past year, Steven Crowder has faced many controversies, both with his show and his personal life. His conflict with The Daily Wire, the leaked videos of an argument with his wife, the departure of Dave Landau, and his move from BlazeTV to Rumble, have all led to reactions and speculation.
I currently still watch and support Louder with Crowder with a subscription to Mug Club. Over the past few years, I have found the show both entertaining and an excellent lens for information in an increasingly politically divisive media hellscape. We are living in a culture that seeks to erase anyone who doesn’t spout the ideology of progressivism. It’s a culture that will not supply grace and forgiveness to those who admit they are imperfect, but will justify insane beliefs of those from the progressive clan. Do Crowder’s antics and actions impede on his integrity? If so, what light should that cast (if any) on the work and dedication of the dozens of people that have made Louder with Crowder into one of the largest conservative morning shows currently on the Internet?
Last year Kayne West (also known as Ye) made headlines for several interviews where he directly blames a single ethnic group for issues he’s had with the entertainment industry. Blaming any group of people based on a characteristic they literally have no control over, has been historically been condemned as immoral. Kanye’s views shouldn’t really come as a surprise in a world that is returning to segregation as some type of penance for past wrongs. However, there is a deeper evil to this story that people are dismissing because of Kanye’s absurdity. Kanye’s story is about the dangers of Hollywood, the power of propaganda, and the way people are used for their cult of personality to propel a narrative. But worst of all, his story is being used to fuel the Orwellian idea that words are violence. His story will likely be twisted as a tale of right-wing radicalization that fuels domestic terrorism.
