Neil Young is no stranger to liberal activism. Through his music and appearances, he’s been a strong advocate for climate change mitigation as well as being a long-time opponent of the Keystone oil pipeline. And like most celebrities (a generous use of the term in his case) he is a vocal Trump hater. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t care much about another rant by Neil Young. However, his words and actions in his current feud with Spotify so exemplify the root problem in our culture today that we had to opine.
That problem centers around the term “misinformation”. Neil Young makes the arrogant assumption that his own information (about COVID in this instance) is absolutely, unequivocally, 100% unassailably true and that all other competing ideas are by default misinformation; not just inaccurate but ill-intentioned. The possibility that Young’s sources themselves contain misinformation is never considered, even for a nanosecond.
Young believes his position sacrosanct. As such, it transcends the need for debate or even inquiry. It is the only truth. Therefore, all other discussion not directly supportive of this singular truth should be silenced. To that end, Young is trying to force Spotify to follow in the censorship footsteps of Twitter and Facebook.
But there is more to his arrogance than the belief that his point of view is the only possible truth. That belief also assumes most people, if given two opposing sets of information, are wholly incapable of making their own judgment about what to believe. In the not-too-distant past, the way opposing points of view were illuminated was for supporters of each side to construct reasoned arguments with supporting evidence which would then be made widely available for consumption by all concerned. Those who were previously uninformed on the topic could then make a much more thoughtful decision for themselves. By contrast, in Neil Young’s world the best course of action for resolving opposing viewpoints is simply to eliminate the opposing source of information altogether. No need to educate or convince the public. They are much better off being uninformed without any need to make a choice.
This leads to the “misinformation” label being attached to any data, advice, or fact about COVID that runs counter to the doctrine espoused by Neil Young and his progressive kin. The term misinformation in this context is both definitive and dismissive. Immediately applying this definition to all points of view that compete with yours is a cheap and cowardly way to try and win a debate.
And in what universe is Neil Young the final authority on which COVID information is misinformation? We could easily make the case that the CDC itself has been the source of COVID misinformation numerous times in the past two years. Ditto for Dr Fauci and President Biden. But no matter how much supporting evidence we may provide to make that case, it doesn’t make us the ultimate authority. It is only our opinion (and we like to think it a reasoned opinion).
Who should make the call on what information is misinformation? On a complex technical topic such as COVID, we would normally turn to scientists and medical authorities. However, much as has happened with the debate on man-made climate change, the spokespeople for these traditionally reliable technical authorities have been compromised. The CDC leadership, Dr. Fauci, the pharmaceutical companies, and many others have given in to the fame, fortune and outsized stature heaped upon them by both the media and access to the White house. To some extent, all of them have now prostituted themselves to a political agenda, with science having only a secondary role in their messaging.
A big part of that political agenda is to maintain the air of an unabated emergency medical crisis regarding COVID. That is a necessary backdrop for justifying the continued use of extraordinary governmental powers ostensibly for mitigating the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, progressive leaders, including many state Governors and the President, have found these “emergency” powers quite useful for the additional purpose of accelerating their non-COVID related goal of a larger and more controlling government. Censoring information to the public is a big part of that desired control.
However, a problem for the President and his foot soldiers like Neil Young is that it is technically very difficult to censor information in today’s highly interconnected society. The article you are reading right now is evidence of that. Possibly sensing this difficulty, President Biden went a step further and made things worse by casting those who question or disagree with his COVID information as enemies of the state. He levels that same charge on those who prefer not to be vaccinated. This attitude, coming from our highest leader, gives top cover to Neil Young and those of his ilk to spew their arrogance as if they are ambassadors for the righteous and obedient portion of the population.
As regards Young’s specific demand that Spotify de-platform either himself or Joe Rogan, he illustrates another fascinating aspect of the “us vs. them” construct promoted by President Biden. One now needs to disassociate oneself from the opposition by not sharing the same space. It’s sort of like social distancing, but instead of trying to avoid a virus it’s the infection of an opposing opinion or idea that must be stopped. This begs the technical question of when the linkage to someone whose opinion you disagree with is made distant enough to be satisfactorily considered “unassociated”. In Neil Young’s mind, the rather giant “space” of Spotify is still too small for he and Joe Rogan to share. But apparently the larger space of the general Internet, with everyone’s data being comingled in routers, switches, servers, and fiber optic cables is OK for sharing with the evil Mr. Rogan.
So far, the response from Spotify has been measured and reasonable, and about you’d expect from a company trying to satisfy as many customers as they can. What Neil Young and a stunning number of Americans are blind to is the possibility that they themselves are the lemmings who are obediently walking off the edge of a COVID cliff behind their leader. It could very well be that they are the ones who have sucked in the misinformation, not those who they demand be silenced.
7 Responses
I don’t think you could have articulated this issue any better. The undercurrent of socialism in this country is paddled by the ever growing erosion of the constitution, from which our freedoms were founded. We continue to have those freedoms reduced by more and more government control. It’s a bit ironic that Covid-19 and it’s band of variants have contributed to the control, but in doing so, have turned the heat up too quickly on the frogs and they are jumping out of the pot to protect the freedoms that made this country great.
Right you are Johnny. The silver lining here is that Neil Young and others are giving us all superb real-time examples of how the erosion you speak of progresses.
My favorite article so far! You took a simple observation that most of us would not consider and turned it on it’s head. “The possibility that Young’s sources themselves contain misinformation is never considered, …”
Thanks Jim. A side effect (unfortunately growing) of the actions of Young and others like him is that, because of their celebrity, their certainty in their belief tends to engrain that belief in parts of our culture. People with opposing views then find themselves up against a bigger wall of inertia when trying to get their point across.
A little late to the game, but…I really appreciated this read. I find it amusing that Neil Young assumes that as a Spotify subscriber, I require his shielding from Joe Rogan (whom I’ve listened to one time, and at hour 3 decided I had to move on with the rest of my life…). The “my way or the highway” approach that Neil Young took insults the very creative free speech principle that he has built his entire career on. He insults me as well, insinuating that my informed appreciation for Neil’s creative expression cannot be equitably applied to Joe’s creative muse as well. Alas, I am smarter than you think Neil.
And, in the end, as long as they can manage the damage, Spotify is going to lean where the money is every time.
Now that some time has passed, it looks as though Neil Young came out on the losing end of this. Also, Paula and I listened to the entire 3-hour interview between Rogan and Dr. Malone (https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SCsueX2bZdbEzRtKOCEyT). The level of discourse in this interview is light years above anything that has ever come out of Niel Youngs mouth, or for that matter, Dr. Fauci and the CDC. There are a lot of angles covered in this interview. It’s long but well worth a listen.
Well stated Lisa! Never too late to defend the foundational freedoms that our our educational madrasahs are trying modify by brainwashing young minds into socialism – everything shared except your own thoughts and freedoms.