In 2006, before she was a Fox TV star, Laura Ingraham wrote the book Shut Up and Sing, which took on loony leftist Hollywood performers who belabor us with their political views.  Her book reminded these know-nothings “we don’t care what you think, so just shut up and sing.”  While Laura’s book was refreshing, and entertaining, it hasn’t stopped mindless entertainers from inflicting their numb-scull beliefs on us.  It’s gotten even worse.  We’re not only treated to leftist delusions from the likes of Robert DeNiro and Bette Midler, but now have to endure civil rights and international trade lectures from athletes whose only qualification is the ability to stuff a ball in a hoop.  “You better listen to him, he was pre-med.”  Uh huh.  An even more troublesome development is the alarming degree to which aging 1960’s radicals and former civil-libertarians have abandoned their former principles in favor of support for government repression.  I’m old enough to remember the 1960’s.  The hippie ancestors of today’s Wokesters were told, “Turn on, tune in, and drop out.”  “Never trust anyone over age 30.”  They opposed  government regulations, and government generally.  Their motto was “Challenge Authority.”  The Wuhan virus changed all that.  Their transition from champions of personal freedom to boot-licking sycophants can be attributed to Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Anything Trump said had to be opposed.  Ergo, if Trump wants schools and businesses open, the Left wants them closed; Trump advocates therapeutics, so the Left must trash them.  Trump’s against masks, so masks are mandatory.  Which brings us to the ongoing Joe Rogan/Spotify/Neil Young, et al. dispute.  But first, a disclaimer.  I don’t listen to podcasts.  I’m neither a Joe Rogan supporter nor detractor, I’ve never heard the man.  In any event, Rogan has a podcast, for which Spotify reportedly has paid $100 million. (Why am I doing this.  What I really need is a podcast).  Rogan apparently interviewed Dr. Robert Malone, the vaccine scientist whose research led to the MRNA Wuhan virus vaccines.  Malone said official COVID figures are not to be trusted because hospitals get bonuses if patients have the virus, the government is ‘out of control’ and suppresses data.  While all these things are true, this led to calls for Spotify to implement a “misinformation policy.”  Let me translate.  In Woke-speak, “misinformation policy” means censorship of any opinion, even that of the scientist who invented the MRNA science that led to the Wuhan vaccines, if it conflicts with conventional opinion, or jeopardizes profits.  Enter Neil Young.  If you’re under 60, you may have said, “Who?”  Neil Young is a burned out Canadian rock singer, who once was a 1960’s activist.  Mr. Young has a perfectly Orwellian notion of the way to protect our freedoms, “To protect our freedoms, it seems we’re going to have to relinquish some of our freedoms for a short period of time.”  He didn’t say to whom or for how long.  Young also has been quoted as saying, “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away,” and “The thing about my music is, there really is no point.”  I’m going to give him that one.  Anyhow, Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify, “Either cancel the Joe Rogan podcast,” which is heard by tens of millions of listeners, “or remove my music from your platform.”  Balancing their $100 million against Neil Young, Spotify chose the money, and removed Neil Young.  The Left leapt to Neil Young’s defense.  The World Health Organization announced it supports Neil Young’s attempt to censor unapproved opinions.  The WHO is controlled by China, and China would like to suppress the fact that it poisoned the entire world, so that figures.  The media hailed Young as a hero for taking a stand.  The fact that he’s taking a stand against the dissemination of the truth was lost on these morons.  Other musicians followed Young, Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren for two. (I can almost hear the echos of “Who? and Who?”)  Here’s the rogue’s gallery –

 

Are you sensing a pattern here?  Yes, Virginia, all three are burned out refugees from Woodstock, with lots of mileage on them, all city driving.  Especially Neil Young, who by his own admission spent 40 years “smoking marijuana like others smoke cigarettes.”  The weed alone can fry your brain, but also can lead to strokes and aneurysms.  Young suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 2005.  The event helped him change his life.  Only seven years later he gave up pot and alcohol in order to recover sufficient memory to write an autobiography.  If this seems a bit cruel to Mr. Young, remember, we’re being asked to rely on his word that fellow brain aneurysm patient Joe Biden’s decisions should override the Constitution.  This is a tough call.  After all, if Neil Young, Joe Biden and the Chinese Communist Party are for it, it must be good for America.  It’s even rumored that Neil Diamond may demand Spotify remove his music too.  Let’s see, the First Amendment, or Sweet Caroline?  I think I’ll stick with the First Amendment.  The real tragedy is that the call for cancelling our Constitution isn’t limited to washed-up musicians who may be excused because they’ve smoked enough dope to turn their brains into guacamole.  Francis Collins, chief of the National Institutes of Health, says he wants to “track down” and deliver “justice” to those he thinks have distributed “disinformation” about COVID-19.  Shouldn’t we listen.  He is an “expert.”  Never forget an expert is a person who knows more and more about less and less, until ultimately, he knows everything about nothing.  Winston Churchill warned that “nothing would be more fatal” than putting experts in charge of government.  It once was the job of journalists to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, by asking the questions and disseminating the information that the elites would rather suppress.  That’s what Joe Rogan is doing.  Sadly, the media has abandoned journalism for toadyism, and is willing to sacrifice your rights in the name of what they consider the public good, and all for one podcast they can’t control.  For its own good, the Left better hope its unsuccessful, lest “justice” be delivered to their interests.  Here a just a few Leftist podcasts it took me five minutes to find:  Know Your Enemy, “a leftist’s guide to the conservative movement”; Bad Faith, by Bernie Sanders’ press secretary; The Al Franken podcast, where Franken compares the U.S. to Nazi Germany; Coffee With Comrades, “current events, culture and action through a radical lens;” Good Morning Comrade, a Leftist/Socialist/Communist podcast that “shits on racists, misogynists, liberal wine moms, reactionaries, useless Democrats and other pillars of authoritarian western culture;” Doomed, “QAnon, white supremacists, Proud Boys, the alt-right…host Matt Binder guides you through all the conspiracy theories;” Sh*tty Christians, “a leftist comedy podcast about the people who exploit faith for profit and power.  Your sleeper cell in the Christian Right” (It’s comedy bashing Christians, so it’s alright.  How long would a podcast called Bat Sh*t Crazy Muslims last?  Now that’s funny).  I find all the foregoing podcasts to be repugnant, but I don’t want to cancel any of them, and therein lies the difference between conservatives and the Left.  Meantime, just ignore entertainers’ demands for tyranny.  They know not what they do.  Tell them, “shut up and sing.”  And to Neil Young, you burned out, now fade away.