638: Elon Musk & "The Twitter Files"

Brian Nichols  0:00  
The Twitter files. Yeah, let's talk about that. Instead of focusing on winning arguments, we're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, Happy Wednesday there, folks, Brian Nichols here on The Brian Nichols Show. And thank you for joining us on a horse. For fun filled episode. I am as always your humble host. And thank you for joining us on of course, yes, another fun filled episode, the program I am joining you live from our Stratus ip Studios here in lovely Eastern Indiana. Don't let cyber attacks or outdated Business Technology, put your company at risk. Learn more at the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Stratus ip Well, folks, let's talk about the Twitter files. Yes, we that we've all seen behind the scenes? Well, let me rephrase that. It's not that we've seen we've all kind of known that behind the scenes that proverbial thumb was against anybody right of Stalin when it comes to the political spectrum in terms of Twitter, censoring information in terms of what was allowed as a part of the public discourse over on their platform? Well, they said no, that's not the case. And lo and behold, Elon Musk ends up buying Twitter and he is able to now get the archives released in terms of what actually happened but he didn't just go ahead and release the archives. He uses a trusted medium to do that. And today joining us to talk about the medium CPUs and why it was so important. Jack Hunter returned to the program from Bass politics. Jack, welcome back to The Brian Nichols Show. How you doing great to be with you brian is always good to have you my friend. Well, let's talk about this. Matt Taibbi. He He is obviously one of the more seasoned voices I'd say more who your political left and he has taken on this the story Matt has in terms of leading forward the Twitter files talking about what censorship happened behind the scenes. But Jack before we get there, let's first reintroduce yourself to The Brian Nichols Show audience. It's been a while since you've been the show what's been going on and let's then talk about what's going on in the world of Twitter.

Jack Hunter  2:02  
Hi, I'm Jack hunter. I tour with the Chippendales. That's where I met Brian. He was our main all those good lucks. Glad to be here, Brian. You know I work based politics with my friends and colleagues Hannah Cox and Brad Palumbo. We do a lot of good work there. I feel and it's good to be with you here. today. We're talking about the Twitter files of Matt Taibbi being the reporter who was dispatched or given the information is probably a better way to put it as critics would say he was dispatched by the world's richest man and other conspiratorial nonsense. But long story short, many of us have suspected for a long time that these major big tech social media institutions Facebook, Twitter and whatnot, have been censoring right of Senators speech, anything they disagree with certainly things that go against the COVID orthodoxy and other things, but just general basic free speech, as we have defined it in the United States for a very long time. Elon Musk, Bach, Twitter, he had all sorts of communications in the Slack channels and other emails and other things. And he gave it to Matt Taibbi a very respected and credible reporter who comes from progressive left, who reports on civil liberties Wall Street. The one always remembers his Stanley McChrystal, General Stanley McChrystal article in Rolling Stone about 10 years, 12 years ago, whatever that was, but a guy has written for Rolling Stone, the nation, very credible, and he's like, this is what's Twitter is up to what you suspected is not only correct, but I've got I've got the dirt and people like us are like, yep, now we're talking about in a real way, where we got some concrete evidence. My understanding is that the second news story on this Twitter files to Electric Boogaloo is going to be reported by Barry Weiss, formerly of the New York Times, who left for what staff reasons and other things. But it shouldn't be very interesting. And, you know, we're in a place where you can't trust institutions, public or private, to even operate in the spirit of the First Amendment. Obviously, if your private entity, you know, the First Amendment doesn't apply. But if you're a major platform, you would think they would want to do that they purport to do that. We know they don't do that. And it's controversial that a private actor, Elon Musk, bought one of these big things and said, I'm going to do that that's the controversy, no matter how they spin it. I mean, they're calling this man a white nationalist, for God's sake. But where does it come from? That's the dumbest thing

Brian Nichols  4:21  
I've ever heard. Well, I'll tell you where it comes from. It comes from the Kanye West's of the world who are out there now. He just got suspended on Twitter. But you saw there and this is so obvious what happened was the corporate media saw what was going on with Kanye and to be able to then use his him as the reason to say, well look at what's happening. You're having someone like Kanye who's going around and using Twitter to promote his anti semitism all his awfulness, and Elon actually just nuked him and it kind of cut that conversation short. But you see this right. This is part of I think what we've had is this general conversation is that there definitely is a section of the discourse that is toxic. And it's how do we have a real conversation when it comes to having a real political discourse, without having that toxicity, start to seep itself into the conversation. And I guess when you look at what Elon has been doing, he's been doing much more not just in terms of trying to actually root out the real toxic nests, and you look at behind the scenes, all child porn pornography that's been going on at Twitter for how many years now being raised up consistently and ignored. And now he's actually going ahead and addressing that. That's one huge area he's addressing. But I think it also is frustrating for liberals and leftists alike, because they are not used to being able to actually have an equal platform when it comes to the civil discourse. They're so comfortable and used to the thumb from Twitter censors behind the scenes, helping push their argument in a more positive favor their way. They don't know what to do when it comes to actually putting an even playing field. So I guess, going forward, Jack, what do you think this does for the American discourse? Is, is this helping? Or is it hurting us when we go forward?

Jack Hunter  6:05  
Well, people like Elon Musk, and those who support what he's trying to do are healthy. It's from a liberal perspective. I don't like calling these people liberals, I don't if you read my columns, or when I do interviews like this, I'll call them progressives, though, you know, that's we can debate that term as well. I usually call them left this progressives. Brian in a liberal society, I have a right to an opinion. And Brian, you or anybody watching has a right to their opinion. We can disagree, but we both respect the general idea that we have a right to our opinions, right. That's the United States. That's the first amendment, whatnot. The American left and when I say that I'm not just talking about the Democratic Party, though I'm talking about that. But the major institutions, the media outlets, all of which overwhelmingly lean left have turned liberalism on its head. The old understanding look, I'm more liberal than Elon Musk is I wouldn't have kicked Kanye West off of Twitter, I am at 1978 Skokie, Illinois, let's protect Nazis, right to speech, ACLU free speech, or that's where I'm coming from. I think that's how open we should be with our free speech. We've gone from that sort of being the progressive position, that speech should be that open back when I was a kid, and that was the position and 78 I was four years old, but I'm not that old. But you said I'm saying it was the old the old liberal view. It was conservatives who said no, we have to censor things that are sexualized and factual. We have to censor things a little turn kids to Satan, all this, you know, metal, music and all this stuff. We have to censor movies and music. It was the right? It said that. And liberals like no, you live in United States as a liberal democracy. And we allow this stuff to this extent, because that's how free speech is. Now it's completely flipped. And you have just average leftists I will talk to friends at the bar, who I've known for 20 years who vote Democrat, and I'll say hey, do you believe in free speech? Oh, of course I do. How about misinformation? Oh, no, we can't. How about hate speech? We definitely get that. And then I'm like, Well, who decides what that is? And, you know, if I bring up Joe Biden and the government, what is it a disinformation governance board? They'll be like, Oh, that sounds pretty good. All right. That's the ACLU in 1978. And allowing free speech, even extreme free speech. And you're not allowing, you know, they call Elon Musk, a white nationalist, because he risks allowing hateful and toxic speech, including Kanye West. That's the price you pay for a free society. And that's the point of liberalism. They completely lost the plot on that. And what scares me so much, conservatives, mostly libertarians, maybe a little bit more a little more thoughtful care about this, to the extent that their their speech is protected, but don't care about it, the broad sense that I'm talking about that you used to be able to reliably count on the left to do right now, you got people like Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Bill Maher is heroic on this Dave Chappelle, I think it's the most heroic just because of how famous he is and what a big deal pushing up against this and they're old enough to remember what true liberalism is. And then you got a whole bunch of people who vote Democrat, I'd say the overwhelming majority have voted for Biden, and Hillary, that think that censorship is not only five, but it's now a progressive value. It's freaking weird.

Brian Nichols  9:17  
Well, we talk about politics being downstream from culture. And this has been a recurring theme here in the show the past few few weeks, where this idea of talking about how do we impact the culture in a in a serious manner. And I look at these cultural figureheads that you just brought up, you know, it may be the latter, more specifically being like the Bill Maher's the the Dave Chappelle 's of the world. Where Yeah, there has been some pushback, and yet we still see electorally, and you look at 2022 here as the most recent microcosm of elections to kind of pull through some data. Yeah, that the GOP in the Republican Party had a much better showing than they did back in 2020 in 2018, to say the least, but it was not nearly the Sunette The Red tsunami that we were expecting. So I guess then it goes to when you look at the numbers of the younger generation 25%, I think it wasn't the electorate was Gen Z. And predominantly all went to left the Democrats for the for the election. So I guess the question then asks, doesn't matter what our old culture used to be great that we have our old, cultural, you know, folks who remember what it was like to have real free speech? But does it really matter when the future generations aren't embracing these principles?

Jack Hunter  10:31  
Well, does it matter as a separate question? Well, let me let me look at it this way. So if things in the past that you were accustomed to as Americans basic freedoms or policies that we had mattered to you, broadly, generally, in your lifetime, if they matter to you, then they probably should matter to you. Now I'll use my own example, for most of my life, to the degree that I've been involved and involved in politics and political journalism. I was an anti war conservative leader and anti war libertarian, Ron Paul, pulled me in the libertarian direction. That's how I identified today. So those issues are important to me. I don't like fighting a proxy war with Russia via Ukraine and spending more than we annually spent in Afghanistan to do so. But just as important, the conversation we're having here, basic liberalism, free speech, due process basic things that something called the American Civil Liberties Union, you would think cares about, and I've gone the wrong direction. If the younger generation or generations past my parents and grandparents understood the liberalism I just described about the free society and freedom of opinions and news and freedom of the press and things like that. If that matter, then it was part of what made America free, it should matter now. Now, to your point, if polls show that a majority, I think it was 67%, and a major was either gallon per pupil, when the governor the disinformation governance board was floated 67% of Democratic voters thought that was a good idea. Could you imagine if Donald Trump President Donald Trump said, Hey, I'm going to institute at the federal level a disinformation governance board? What do you think though 67% of Democrats would think of such an agency as controlled by the Trump and

Brian Nichols  12:14  
probably probably the same thing they thought when they heard about Operation warp speed and Trump vaccine, and they were all like, I don't know about this experiment, right vaccine with Trump mo on leading it, and then all sudden Biden gets plugged in. It's like, what? I've always been on board with the vaccine pro vaccine. I've been the one sharing the vaccine the loudest Jack.

Jack Hunter  12:33  
Yeah, exactly. And so that's why it's important for those of us, especially libertarians, we're in the minority. We don't want state power for Democratic or Republican administrations and that way, but we're at a point, you know, I'm a fan of Ron DeSantis. In many ways, I'm a fan of Donald Trump. In some ways, I didn't vote for him. But there are things I certainly like about the Trump phenomenon and the read some of the reasons people were attracted to him. But you know, we as libertarians, people who understand and what her journalism, we need to make a distinction that's the dog knocking stuff over right there a distinction between the public and private sphere that that doesn't change. You know, DeSantis telling Disney what it can do and conservative cheering that I don't think I didn't agreement with Disney was doing but it's just something government shouldn't be doing. And we shouldn't go in that direction. Democrats thinking it is perfectly fine. to censor speech. And let me be clear, private entities can do what they want. The old Twitter regime could do what they want. They could censor somebody like me, who thinks free markets are a good idea. That's what they want to do. That's do. Elon Musk as a private actor can allow people like me to say free markets are a good thing too, which is what got them up in arms. Censorship in the purest definition, is the government saying you can't have a certain type of speech, we learned via match ad and the Twitter files. It's not clear that the US government said do A, B and C and they did it, it is clear that they suggested it and they did it. And it is clear that people who were key players in censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story and getting Donald Trump kicked off Twitter later had major positions in the Biden administration. So that's a little too close to comfort for me and close enough to the definition of actual censorship, the government saying dictating regulating what speech can happen and what can't

Brian Nichols  14:25  
Well, so I guess then the question is, it happened? Fixing my light there it happened. So what do we do now? Like it already happened once? What are we I mean, and it's this sounds so like, just cliche, but like, what can we do? Honestly, because it's all out in the open, everybody can see it, and the left can ignore it and pretend it's not happening, but it is happening. And yet, more often than not, it's it's supported and embraced by government. So what's the recourse do do we have recourse? Is there a path forward Jack?

Jack Hunter  14:57  
The first step is sunlight, which Matt takes We deal with this first story. I understand Barry Weiss, who's another credible reporter is going to be doing the second story. And let's see who does the fifth 10th and 15th story I'm sure there's plenty of material there to work with. You then take that information that due to the greys that mainstream outlets have covered it. I watched CNN coverage, we're like, whoa, this stuff happened. But here's why it's not okay. It's fine. You know, and they will be saying Donald Trump's and ISIS if he did the same thing. There's enough of us who know that this is problematic. The stories out there, Elon Musk and Matt Taibbi are forces that have to be reckoned with because of who they are and their stature. You take that information, the Republicans are going to have a house majority. Some are saying that they might have hearings, investigations. And look, I don't like the show both things. I thought January 6 was an absolutely horrible day for my country. And I was embarrassed. It also wasn't another state trying to take over the government, a bunch of dumb rednecks and Yahoo's running all over the place acting like idiots. That's what it was. But you know, Democrats act like that's 911. Well, what's happening with our speech in this country is way more important and way more a threat to democracy than anything that happened on January 6, at its worst, and that's no disrespect to the person who lost their life on that day. But the just the general idea of American liberal democracy, free speech, basic Founding Fathers constitutional First Amendment Bill of Rights stuff is under threat. And one major party in this country is the primary culprit is the Democratic Party. Most of its voters, citing that poll I did earlier seem to agree with this direction. So you know, I've voted for Libertarian Party candidates in the past, I've worked a lot with libertarian leaning Republicans, if Republicans have the house by one vote, and they want to have hearings. That's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about it in a big way that's outside of the conservative Liberty terian sort of media and echo chambers. And that's us what the next step is, I think that's a step of just trying to do something, raising awareness and maybe even stopping it somehow enforcing the force. First Amendment maybe more forceful way, the Democrats, whatever fear I don't know.

Brian Nichols  16:56  
All right, Jack. Well, we're getting towards the tail end of the episode. So obviously, is the part where I like to have folks go ahead, number one, and figure out where they can go ahead and support you. But number two final thoughts for the episode? What do you have for us today? A thing that audience can take away nice little both as we wrap things up?

Jack Hunter  17:12  
Well, you know, we're all looking forward to Christmas. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, because it's the only holiday where most people off work, you get a big lavish meal, and there's no gifts involved. But I am look, I'm about to go back to Washington, DC for two weeks of coming back here, but not to be redundant, but I guess I'm going to be like I said, All my life I've been an anti war conservative is my number one issue. But in the last six years, I guess it's Democrats, and certainly a lot of libertarians, conservatives, Donald Trump, like turn their brains in a month or something basic liberal values that I used to take for granted as an American. And I'm glad I didn't live in, you know, some Middle East authoritarian country or Russia or something like that, where you didn't have those liberties are under attack like nothing I've ever seen. And I'm going to continue to speak out my very limited capacity and defensive them and others take notice do the same and care about these things too. Because they matter. I love my country. I'm a patriot. I love the United States. I love America. I feel very blessed to have been born here and be part of it. I want to retain and conserve the things that make us uniquely American and free. In

Brian Nichols  18:15  
the world of wine. There are so many choices and that's why blood of tyrants wine has tyrants losing their heads whether you're looking for a new go to that home, or watching the press your friends at a party. A lot of times wine has you covered and if you're trying to get rid of some pesky parents in your life, well if we've got that covered, too, and the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash wine and get $5 off your order one more time Brian Nichols show.com forward slash wine freemen don't ask permission. So take a sip, you'll be glad you did. And then otherwise final thoughts for the The show also that goes hand in hand with what we're going to be doing here slash arguing over as a another part of our Patreon and that is Candidate School. Jack. I'm so excited for this. We're having an option right now for folks who are either a already running for office, specifically, your local and your state candidates and those folks who they need the help they need help figuring out, you know, what are you doing from getting your resources lined up messaging, fundraising. So option A but also option B if you're just kind of interested in figuring out like, Hey, I'm maybe want to run for office one day, but I'm not too sure what it entails Candidate School. It's a great just boot camp for anybody to enter into, and it's less than 10 bucks a month. Traditionally, consultants are like 10s of 1000s of dollars a month. So we're starting things off. I knew one of the biggest barriers to entry is I'm going out and talking to all these different candidates here and the show is Yeah, they just don't have the resources that the big folks do. So we're trying to do is help give you guys a little bit of that extra help that we know we desperately need here in the liberty movement. So if you guys are interested in Candidate School, head over to the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Candidate School and sign up today. And by the way, if you enjoyed today's episode, do me a favor go ahead give today's episode a share at being nickels liberty and go ahead and tag jacket as well. And Jack Hunter, where can folks go ahead and follow you based politics and continue the conversation?

Jack Hunter  20:05  
You can find me on Twitter at Jack Hunter 74. And bass politics is my home. Brad Cox and excuse me, Brett Palumbo, Cox and

Brian Nichols  20:15  
myself. Just mix them together. Yeah. One super person.

Jack Hunter  20:20  
We just founded this in January. So we're coming up on our one year next month in the reaction, we've got people sharing it reading and appreciating it is beyond what I thought I was gonna do. All right, but it's done far beyond that, because the happier and really appreciate it from anybody that is a reader out there.

Brian Nichols  20:35  
That's awesome. Yeah. And what you guys have been doing it based truly, it's been awesome to see an alternative form of media and it speaks to, I think, why you guys are having success. While we continue to see more and more folks reach out to us here in the programs because people are tired jack of the old style of how we have this conversation. It's why we're having success. It's why Elon Musk, frankly, is having success, whether people want to admit it or not. It's why we're seeing the important conversations like the Twitter files being dropped. They're so important, because we're seeing right now there is a big fork in the road. And we're definitely seeing that America is at that point where we're trying to figure out which path to go down. And I think it's folks like us who are really giving folks a chance to have a different voice a different alternative versus what they've been so used to over the past 100 200 years that one way of thinking. So with that being said, Jack, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate you joining us. And yes, by the way, folks, I know I mentioned we are here on Wednesday. Thank you for watching our first two episodes this week. If you missed them, no worries, I will include them right here below. And by the way, our episode on Monday we had Jason sheftall. Now we all know things are kind of hitting the fan in China where we talked about what is happening in China with China quite literally unraveling which also is the name of his podcast China unraveled. And is this the end of China we talk about that all that and more. So if you're joining us here on YouTube, No worries though that will include that link right here on the page. Otherwise, if you're joining us on rumble, or on Odyssey wherever it may be no worries, just go ahead and find that video most recently posted or joining the Brian Nichols show.com where you can find that episode and all 635 other episodes as well. But with that being said, it's Brian Eno signing off. You're on The Brian Nichols Show for Jack Hunter. We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at the Brian Nichols show.com Enjoying the audio version of the show, then you'll love our YouTube channel. Be sure to head over there and subscribe. If you're new to The Brian Nichols Show, be sure to head to your favorite podcast catcher and click download all unplayed episodes so you don't miss one of our nearly 500 episodes that will be sure to leave you educated, enlightened and informed. If you got value from today's episode Kate do me a favor and Edie the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash support and leave us a $5 donation and by the way you get on the show five sober yet if not head to Apple podcast and tell folks why you listen to the program and don't forget to tell your friends to subscribe to follow me on social media at be Nichols liberty, and again, if you'd be so kind please consider making a donation to The Brian Nichols Show at the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash support. The Brian Nichols Show is supported by viewers like you. Thank you to our patrons Darryl Schmitz, Michael Lima, Michel Mankiewicz hodi John's Trent Acosta and the we're libertarians network

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