Okay, so Neil Young recently demanded that either Joe Rogan's content should be pulled from Spotify, or his music would be pulled from Spotify, because statements like: [insert reasonable discussion about the vaccines and mandates] are totally unacceptable.
Listening to The Lotus Eaters Podcast, I discovered that apparently, you youngin's forgot who Neil Young is. Then I realized: "Oh shit, 1972 was 50 years ago!" and I realized that I should probably explain some things about Neil Young.
So, Neil Young was a very popular Rock and Roll musician in the 1960's Counter-Culture movement. He is the typical, 60's Leftist hippy fighting the system man. As such, his music was very political. This means he was basically a very Left-wing, anti-War, anti-Capitalism, activist.
Some of his most popular music was extremely political, though most people kind of lost the message. Three significant examples are:
Chicago - released by the group Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young in 1971 is a piece of music paying hommage to the desire for the "Justice Democrats" and other Leftist & Progressive to protest the 1968 Democratic Presidential Nomination, where Lyndon Johnson & the Democratic Establishment were planning on pushing their chosen candidate (Hubert Humphrey) as the Democratic Nominee. It's a long story about why this is important, so there will be a bullet at the end explaining.
Ohio - Released by the group Crosby, stills, Nash, and Young in 1970 about one month after the incident in question. It is probably the most famous protest song in American history excluding Yankee Doodle Dandy (technically). It is in reference to the Kent State Shootings that took place at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. This incident stemmed from many days of anti-war protests by anti-war, progressive, and communist activists at Kent State University, which had resulted in the burning down of the KSU ROTC building that nearly killed many cadets as an act of political terrorism against the US military due to the continuation of the Vietnam War. In response to the arson, the governor of Ohio deployed Ohio National Guard troops to both Kent, Ohio & KSU to end the protests due to the violence. Unfortunately, this action precipitated more protests. During one of these protests that was ordered to be ended by Ohio National Guard troops, one of the units mis-maneuvered, got cut off, surrounded against a fence line, and fired at/around/above the protesting students who were pelting them with objects. 4 Students, almost none who were even involved in the protests (as the schools was not shut down) were killed by stray gunfire. This song promotes the idea that president Richard Nixon is a tyrant seeking to kill anti-war protesters, and the listener needs to stand up and take political action against oppression. The song was actually censored form play on AM radio stations in America (these would have been the more popular frequency rage at the time, rather than FM).
Rockin' in the Free World - released by Neil Young in 1989 is quite popular among the older generations. However, despite the refrain in the title, it is an explicitly anti-American propaganda song that decries the US generally as a shithole of misery, suffering, materialism, and aggressive imperialism. The fact that Neil made this song after being told he couldn't play in the USSR due to the event being cancelled, should really tell you his Leftist perspective, even though this took place as the USSR was collapsing.
Southern Men - released in 1970 is a moderately popular political propaganda piece condeming... well, the South. He does it specifically in regards to the Civil Rights movement, and opposition to it via segregationists, and the Ku Klux Klan's activities. Note the year. This song was released 2 years after MLK was already dead, and 6 years after the 1964 Civil Rights bill had already been passed. He released another "dis track" to the state of Alabama (called "Alabama") in 1972. This managed to so annoy people that Lynyrd Skynyrd to such a degree that they released "Sweet Home Alabama" as a response to his songs. which include naming him and his songs directly, and even refusing to apologize for George Wallace (a famous pro-segregationist governor) being popular in the state.
In summation, if it's not clear: the man is a die-hard Leftist who has been aggressively political his whole life, and his music is supported by Leftists and is a major focal point of Leftist culture and history.
The hypocrisy that one of his most popular songs "Ohio" was censored for being politically intolerable to the establishment, and he HIMSELF is now calling for censorship on another medium, should really explain just how much of a group of hypocrites the political Left in this country has always been.
It was NEVER about opposition to censorship or free speech. It was just about getting what they want.
- This bullet is just an explanation on the story of the 1968 Democratic Convention, if you want it. These were not like modern conventions, and normally the nominations for president had a real chance of being decided that night. President Lyndon Johnson (D) had become very unpopular as he had expanded the war in Vietnam including massive bombing campaigns against North Vietnam generally, as well as bombing and secret attacks on North Vietnamese Army positions in the neighboring countries of Laos & Cambodia. Casualties in the war had gotten very bad, the MSM was regularly broadcasting dead American soldiers and flag draped coffins on television. Even leading MSM news personalities like Walter Cronkite were questioning the war, especially after predictions that the Vietnamese Communist forces were on the verge of defeat didn't appear to be true after the Tet Offensive happened earlier in the year and killed thousands of Americans (and attacked the US embassy). LBJ chose not to seek re-election due to the turmoil he was facing, and it looked like his heir apparent would be Hubert Humphrey who looked like he would change only a bit. The progressive candidate was Robert F. Kennedy, brother of JFK and former Secretary of State. However, he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan barely 2 months before the convention, throwing the progressives into disarray, but leaving them furious about the possibility of Humphrey getting the win. The Civil Rights movement had already completely collapsed into open violence, when in this same year MLK Jr. was assassinated (4 months before the convention), and it caused nearly 150 race riots across the US and required the deployment of US Army & Marine Corps infantry units to maintain order. When the Progressives & Communists protested around the convention, they were met with stiff resistance from the Democratic Establishment aligned Chicago Police Department (none of whom were fans of Communism anyway). This resulted in many famous scenes of significant violence, including legitimate rioter & officer brutality (including wooden nightsticks to the skull) that were broadcast on television; along with disruptions during the convention as delegates were outraged about their own political supporters being smashed in the head outside the convention hall. Nonetheless Hubert Humphrey secured the nomination. Republican nominee Richard Nixon would exploit this incident later by holding a ticker-tape parade in the same area to draw a contrast. This incident lives in the minds of Leftists and Democrats as a very significant moment in American political history as the Left basically exploded on itself and sank it's own chances of winning the 1968 election and ushering in major republican wins.
I'm not sure I buy it that Neil Young and the typical American liberal-types have always been hypocrites, at least in the way they are right now. There's been a definite change in the "liberal" zeitgeist over just the last few years that has been very creepy to watch. Maybe it's just because they are now politically and socially ascendant, but it feels like something else.
They have become increasingly authoritarian, viciously intolerant of dissent, and utterly irony-blind. You can tell there's been a change because there are still some old-school liberals who have remained consistent, and made the same observation.
For instance, Bill Maher, for years considered the epitome of the Smug Liberal Douchebag, is now being smeared as right-wing adjacent because he's still anti-censorship, and has guests like known Secret Nazi, Jewish lesbian Bari Weiss.
I think that very few people cultivate their world view through a process of observation and reasoning. Most just absorb their opinions from their tribe's hivemind. And the Liberal hivemind has become cancerous and dangerously deranged.
I made the joke in another thread about Young being replaced by the pod people. Seeing people, who I don't always agree with, but at least respect as artists, reveal they've been subsumed by this same diseased hivemind has the same effect on me as Donald Sutherland pointing and howling at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Historical note: At some point Neil Young became friends with Ronnie Van Sandt of Skynyrd. There are a few photos floating around of Van Sandt wearing Neil Young t-shirts.
Young wrote and recorded a demo of the excellent Powderfinger and sent it to Van Sandt for Skynrd to record, but Van Sandt died in the infamous plane crash before anything ever came of it.
I think you are underestimating the power of technology and how its effected the ability to both disseminate and control information in the world. They can now deny people their own eyes by simply saying things enough times.
The reason this is important is because that is the reason why the last decade seems so much different. Its not that they are different, but that they are now fully visible to you instead of "those wacky kids out in Cali" that you just hear about sometimes and maybe a single one comes back to town. And even more so, they have realized how much power they now wield with aforementioned tech and no longer are fettered by their capabilities.
Absolutely not! Social media on everybody's phone, with their algorithm-created bubbles, bite-sized commentary, gamification, and addictive nature formed the culture medium that has allowed this disease to grow and thrive. But it's not just some top-down propaganda being forced on the people. Ordinary people are doing this to themselves and to each other. Endless feeback loops accelerate the bad ideas and attitudes and those make their way back to the top.
The Establishment doesn't control information, not totally, yet, which is why they are pushing for censorship of "misinformation" so hard. They can't dictate the truth, no matter how much they lie.
You can find proof of their lies easily, if you're willing to look. Even without that, anyone with an attention span longer than a goldfish should be able to spot the inconsistencies and hypocrisies that our elites regularly espouse. The Democrats flip from "the filibuster is necessary to preserve democracy" to "we must abolish the filibuster to preserve democracy" is the most egregious example from recent memory.
"Liberals" choose to believe the lies. They ignore the hypocrisy. The irony is completely lost on them. They are 100% morally certain, and 100% certain of the absolute evil of anyone who disagrees. This is their tribe. Their tribe is on the Right Side of History. The very idea that they should spend a moment to ask "are we the baddies?" is repugnant to them.
I have lived in California all my life, and I can guarantee it wasn't always just latent radicals hiding their lunacy. Even ten years ago, if I had asked just about any Democrat "Is the US a racist country?" or "Can a man become a woman?" or "Should the government censor private citizen's speech?" the answer to all would have been "of course not."
Now, I'll bet your average Democrat would say "yes, how dare you even ask?" to each.
The shitty ideas and attitudes of Wokeness are basically a virulent, brain-rotting disease that has spread like wildfire on social media and turned its victims into ideological pod people.