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Jan. 17, 2023 - Stay Free - Russel Brand

01:11:15

Why Can We Still Not Talk About Natural Immunity? - #060 - Stay Free With Russell Brand

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	So, I'm going to go ahead and get started.
	In this video, you're going to see the future.
	Hello there, you Awakening Wonders.
	Thanks for joining me on Stay Free with Russell Brand.
	We've got a fantastic show for you today.
	We're going to be talking about the latest news on the coronavirus and its medical solutions.
	That's still going on, is it?
	Some people, gal, don't forget so easily what's gone on in the last couple of years.
	We are, of course, on Rumble, which is our home, but you beauties on YouTube, if you're joining us there, you're going to have to go over to Rumble because there are certain things we cannot say on YouTube that we can say on Rumble, and I promise you, I pledge with my open heart That it is not about spreading hate.
	It's not about spreading misinformation.
	It's about giving you truth so that you can assess reality using your own deductive powers and your own magnificent intelligence.
	We've got so much to tell you about.
	David Sirota is going to be on the show.
	He wrote that film, Don't Look Up.
	He's a traditional lefty, but he's an anti-establishment figure.
	You're going to love hearing from him.
	We're talking about Pfizer and big pharma profits.
	In a sense, the way that the bipartisan media makes it difficult for any of us to We're going to talk a bit more about the Biden files and in our presentation, here's the news.
	No, here's the effing news.
	We're going to be talking about the former head of the FDA lobbying Twitter over a tweet suggesting natural immunity is superior to the vaccine, which because we're still on YouTube, I have to say is something I do not have an opinion on.
	Correct.
	That's right.
	And hey, Listen, before we get any further, this is sort of a nice story in a way.
	Joe Biden, who I believe he's the president of America, is in charge of it.
	That's what they do.
	They hold elections and then they get the best one, the best American, to be in charge of America.
	Are those elections fair?
	I believe that they are fair.
	There's certainly no evidence to suggest they're anything other than fair.
	Do the Russians ever get involved?
	The Russians?
	Some people say they get involved.
	Other people say they don't.
	Certainly, there's no information that could be detrimental to the advance of the preferred establishment party that's held back.
	But I believe systemic change is what's required.
	Here, though, I come to Joe Biden with sympathy in my heart, not because he's a stooge of a system that will never deliver real change to the ordinary people of America who deserve Better.
	But because I've been in the situation he was in.
	It was Martin Luther King III's wife.
	His wife, Andrea, I think is her name.
	It was her birthday and he wanted to sing Happy Birthday to her.
	And have you ever been in that situation where you're singing Happy Birthday and then you realise that when it's going to get to the bit, Happy Birthday dear!
	And you think, Oh no, I don't know the person's name.
	But what you can do is you can just drop out for that bit and the other people are going to say, There's got to be other people doing it though.
	There's got to be others.
	In this case it was only him.
	You can't be on mic when you're doing it.
	And also don't instigate happy birthday if you know that in that crucial lyric you've not got what you need to get through it.
	No.
	Future-proof yourself.
	Future-proof yourself, Joe Biden.
	If you know that you've got a bunch of top-secret files in your numerous residences, don't go, right, Donald Trump's done the worst thing anyone could ever do.
	He's got a bunch of secret files.
	Yes, we got him.
	Finally, we got him.
	Get the FBI involved.
	Get the FBI.
	They should investigate this.
	This is unconscionable.
	Whoa, whoa, whoa.
	What's all these files all over your gaff, mate?
	So bad.
	So bad.
	I can't talk to you about it.
	My lawyer said I can't.
	I can't talk about it.
	Meanwhile, is it your birthday?
	No.
	Happy birthday to you!
	Happy birthday to you!
	And also, when you watch this, what he goes, you see the moment when he realizes he don't know the name.
	And then the thing that he comes up with instead of a name is frankly not good enough.
	But congratulations today, the honorees, including your wife, who I understand, is it her birthday today?
	Well look, my wife has a role in our family.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody's birthday, you sing happy birthday.
	You ready?
	Oh, it's weird custom.
	When it's somebody You're not supposed to be pretending to be normal.
	That's not your job.
	Go out there and pretend to be normal.
	Your job is be the President of the United States, be the Commander-in-Chief, represent the will of the American people at a divisive time when the systems have become corrupted, when people are terrified about globalism, when people are worried that corporatism has overtaken democracy.
	That's your job.
	That's your job.
	But if you are going to sing Happy Birthday, for God's sake, know the name of the person you're singing Happy Birthday to.
	Happy birthday to you!
	Happy birthday... I want you to, while you're watching, try and spot the exact moment when he realises, oh no, I do not know the name of Andrea.
	I don't know it.
	I'm gonna have to say something else.
	Watch for that moment.
	Watch for it.
	Happy birthday to you.
	Happy birthday, dear Lalvin.
	Happy birthday, dear Lalvin.
	I don't know the name.
	I don't know the name.
	It's about to be Lalvin.
	People are called Lalvin, aren't they?
	Isn't Lalvin people's names?
	Martin Luther King.
	Lalvin.
	What if I could just get all the essence of Martin Luther King into a word?
	Happy birthday, dear Lalvin.
	Happy birthday to you!
	Now where are the files?
	There he is.
	Oh dear, oh dear.
	Shame really, innit?
	I don't know, I mean there's another nine seconds in the clip, what's he gonna do?
	Do an encore?
	Happy birthday to you!
	Well, it's hell turning 30, but you gotta No, that's not good enough.
	Not the age joke.
	I'm 21 again.
	The only thing that should have followed him saying, well, should have been, I'm sorry.
	Well, I'm sorry.
	I'm sorry that when I'm honouring you, Andrea, I don't know your name.
	And I'm sorry that I replaced your name with Lalvin, which isn't a word.
	It's just a series of sounds.
	In other Biden-related news from the mainstream media, Biden's classified files, yet more files have been found, and Kevin McCarthy, the new Speaker of the House, goes at the mainstream media, saying that they're not reporting on certain issues in an unbiased and objective way, which, I don't know, tell me in the comments, tell me in the chat.
	That is the role of the mainstream media.
	We know everyone has preferences, we know that we all have biases, but we're not all the bloody media!
	Are we?
	And our biases should be declared.
	We shouldn't demonise particular people and celebrate and deify others.
	We should prize the truth.
	Convey the truth.
	Let's have a look at McCarthy taking up a task.
	From one standpoint, they knew the documents were there.
	They actually asked President Trump to put another lock on, so they were locked.
	You look at President... Also, where's this happening?
	Why is he doing this?
	A film premiere behind that velvet gate?
	And look... He's having a proper...
	Gavin's got a podium!
	He's got a desk.
	He should have a desk.
	I know you guys are here to see Avatar 2, but I got some important points to make about the way you guys are doing your job.
	Want some popcorn?
	Oh, yeah, I'll take that popcorn.
	Is it sweet or sour?
	I mix them both and then tip some M&M's in.
	They're a real treat.
	Biden.
	He wasn't president.
	He was vice president.
	He held these in different locations right out in the open.
	He criticized President Trump.
	Did he utilize the Justice Department to raid President Trump?
	Did you think that was right?
	There you go.
	I mean, some of you guys will love Trump.
	Some of you will not love Trump.
	And as you know, here on this channel, we believe in democratising communities, giving genuine power to real people, allowing the media to convey truth to people so that we can make decisions for ourselves.
	Towards the end, old Kevin McCarthy chastises the media members present in a way that I think is somewhat admirable.
	Let me know what you think in the comments and chat.
	Different as well.
	It has to be equal across.
	And what I'm finding what's happening with President Biden time and again, you go from a laptop saying it not only that it wasn't true, but utilizing your own friends to go into companies to tell them to say the same thing, to try to knock down information, to try to make sure the New York Post story couldn't be printed.
	You should be offended by that.
	You are of the press.
	You should be allowed to write even when you knew it was true.
	Let me reiterate that I don't think that the Republican Party is the solution to the ailment of ordinary American people, but certainly you have to agree with McCarthy's diagnosis around this partisan and biased reporting.
	And even in a more incidental manner, seeing the way that the audience just clap along when Joe Biden just drops that humdinger in a happy birthday that in microcosm is the way that they are willingly entering into a pretense that there's nothing going wrong and we've said before on our show and let me know if you agree with this in a sense Biden is the perfect president for America now because you have to ignore his on-screen deterioration that he provides the perfect symbol for what's happening this aged and decrepit and incapable individual
	Yeah, and whatever you think about the Republicans or Kevin McCarthy as a human being and politician, you know what he's saying about transparency and kind of fairness across the board in terms of media reporting is 100% true.
	I remember Matt Taibbi when he was writing initially about the Twitter files and Hunter Biden and things.
	What he was saying is that Uh you know 20 years ago 30 years ago journalists or the media would have jumped all over a story like that and now what it's what happens is the media actually go it doesn't fit in with either our narrative or what we've been told that we can say and what we can print the media have been
	Completely co-opted by establishment interests whether those are corporate and financial interests or government and regulatory interests.
	But it's actually good news for us because it means that independent journalist voices have more value and more room in the space and normally you can't control it.
	People now are going to get access to counter-narratives no matter what the mainstream media do.
	Although sometimes in their overtness they come up with funny moments like this on ABC News talking about the lack of visitor logs at Biden's residencies.
	Check it out.
	The latest on the investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents.
	Republicans are now demanding to know who may have had access to five more restricted files found in the president's Delaware home last week.
	But as ABC's Em Wynn reports now, the White House says visitor logs likely don't exist.
	They don't exist. In fact, there's no such thing as visitor logs.
	I don't even know why I just said that, because I might as well have said,
	Blahf, yeah.
	It's just a thing that there isn't in the world.
	So, um, hey, listen, if you're watching us on YouTube, you better get ready to click over to Rumble,
	because in a minute we're going to be talking about the CDC investigating Pfizer.
	We're going to be talking about certain scientific revelations from peer-reviewed papers that we will not be able to talk
	about on YouTube.
	We're going to be talking about Fauci in some depth, and we're going to be showing you a beautiful moment
	where inadvertently the mainstream media booked a guest who's carrying a counter-narrative.
	And we know him well, because we've had him on this show before.
	Asim Malhotra who speaks, shall we say, controversially about certain medications, their outcomes and effects in a way that we cannot talk about on YouTube because as you know that YouTube take the WHO's policy for their guidelines on medical matters and you can determine for yourself whether or not you think that's right.
	on Rumble we're allowed to say what we want and let me emphasize once more
	we use our freedom of speech to create unity, togetherness and opportunity for new alliances
	not to create hatred. I've got no time for it. You can't create anything
	meaningful from hatred.
	You're gonna love this though. As you know if you watched our WF Raw Rumble
	special yesterday Davos is on.
	We did some great reporting.
	Let me know in the chat if you enjoyed that reporting.
	It continues.
	Here's one story that I don't think Klaus Schwab will be, won't be publicised, because I think one of the problems they're tackling is human trafficking and the problem of exploitation of sex workers.
	Well, look at this.
	Prostitutes, or sex workers is the preferred phrase, gather in Davos for annual meeting of Global Elite, where demand for sexual services rocket.
	We've got to do something about climate change.
	Oh man, my temperature's rising, baby!
	What's going on over there?
	This is supposed to be sort of a moral, ethical, virtual signalling event so that elites can mask their true appetites and desires.
	But them appetites and desires, they keep rising, baby.
	What about that bit?
	Sex workers dress in business attire and rub shoulders with the global elite.
	I mean, that's no worse than all the other shoulder rubbing that's going on, is it?
	Would you mind rubbing my shoulder?
	Well, I'm afraid that's going to be extra, sir.
	Sir, that's not your shoulder.
	Now listen, we're only going to be on YouTube for a minute longer.
	Oh, I didn't realise we were still on.
	Yeah, we know we are on it.
	Cowell, you just be yourself, trust your instincts.
	You're one of the best on-screen assistants money can buy.
	If you're watching this on YouTube, click over and watch this on Rumble
	because we're going to show the hilarious moment where Dr. Asim Malhotra, former guest on this show,
	who like, as you remember, Gareth, he's great.
	He's got a lot of information.
	He's a doctor with a credible background.
	His father was a physician.
	He's one of the, I think, foremost cardiologists in our great nation, but his perspective
	on certain medications changed radically as a result of a personal experience.
	And then he conducted some peer-reviewed research, which we are unable to talk about now.
	Very good at talking around all this.
	It's my job.
	The BBC inadvertently booked him on, and you've got to see how the mainstream media handle this.
	It's delightful.
	Sometimes, like, you know, as they say, a stopped clock tells the truth twice a day.
	Well, even the mainstream may inadvertently let a little bit of truth slip like a nipple under a negligee once in a while.
	That'll be extra!
	I'm not rubbing your shoulder, Klaus.
	Oh, please.
	I'm not suggesting that I would pay for it.
	Let us know what you thought of our special yesterday.
	It was fantastic.
	We're going to leave you now on YouTube.
	Well, let me just tantalise you a little bit.
	Experts have criticised Dr Asim Malhotra's appearance on The Corporation.
	Yeah, I bet experts have, because you know he's funding the experts.
	Accusing him of pushing extreme fringe views, which are misguided, dangerous and could mislead the public.
	You're going to hear more and more about misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.
	As the establishment recognise it is becoming increasingly difficult to control dissenting voices.
	They will smear dissenting voices.
	They will judge controversial, any information that is not in alignment with their requirements.
	We'd better come off YouTube now because I'm going to get into it, Gal.
	Join us over on Rumble.
	There's a link in the description.
	Click over.
	We'll see you there.
	I just thought of a joke about the prostitutes.
	Go on, do it, mate.
	You know what they were there for, don't you?
	Go on.
	To penetrate the cabinets.
	Oh, if you're here to, I hear you're here to penetrate the cabinets, you're going to have to strap this on.
	Well, I won't have to, I've actually got a penis.
	Oh, all the better then, thank you!
	Yeah, not all sex workers are female.
	Oh very good, thank you!
	I'm not suggesting that Klaus Schwab's paying for that, I'm just saying that there are, well I'm not saying it, actually the mainstream media is saying that there are more sex workers there than usual, presumably because the people there are willing to pay to have sex.
	I don't know, it's an interesting sort of realm we've entered into.
	Shall we have a look at the mainstream media's framing of a former guest of our show and hopefully future guest of our show, shall we get him on this week?
	We certainly should.
	Asim Malhotra, he's a British cardiologist and doctor who dares, has the temerity to suggest that the vaccines are anything other than a golden elixir fallen from heaven via Pfizer that have no adverse side effects at all.
	At a very reasonable price.
	At a reasonable price, that's right, what's more, Yeah, you're paying for it through your taxes.
	Why wouldn't you pay for it?
	You've got no choice anyway.
	You have to pay your taxes.
	And we came perilously close to making it mandatory to take the vaccine.
	Certainly, if you want to go anywhere or do anything or have a job, thankfully, it's got no negative side effects.
	Let's watch our friends over on the BBC report in this story.
	Well, I'm joined now by Dr. Asim Malhotra.
	He is a consultant cardiologist and specializes in statins.
	Thank you for joining us.
	We're here to talk about a relatively innocuous story about statins.
	Apparently, statins are going to get recommended for everyone over a certain age to prevent heart disease.
	And Asim Malhotra, once this dude starts talking, he said, we had to invent a symbol.
	Oh, you did, yeah.
	I had to invent a signal to stop him talking, because it's like they go, yeah, it's hard anyway.
	You know, like when you're on Zoom or whatever, and people are chatting, you think, actually, could I just, do what, I want to, Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear... Like, you know, that's what it's like talking to Asim, right?
	And he knows, because I told him at the time.
	Mate, like, when I bring my finger up like that, that means you've got to shut up.
	And to tell you the truth, it's nice to give a doctor the finger, because normally it's the doctor giving it to you.
	Let's face it, right, guys?
	OK, let's have a look.
	Morning, Doctor.
	Good morning.
	Good morning.
	In terms of what Nice are saying, your thoughts on that?
	Yeah, so I have a great respect for NICE, but I think in this regard with statins, I think this guidance is misguided.
	Yeah, OK, misguided guidance.
	He's just talking about statins.
	He knows exactly what he's doing.
	He's just waiting for the moment.
	And soon I will strike with a really long, impenetrable monologue that goes on for an hour about how vaccines are causing cardiovascular complications.
	They'll have to literally take this show off air for me to not say what I'm going to say.
	You can't show this on YouTube, but it's been on the BBC because YouTube follow the guidelines of the WHO.
	So you can't show anything that contravenes WHO guidelines.
	And WHO guidelines are that you can't say anything negative about the vaccines, I think.
	We've got a few, actually.
	You've got them over there, haven't you, mate?
	You've got guidelines.
	Do you want some?
	You could do a guideline in a minute.
	But while we're looking for guidelines, God knows we need guidelines, have a look at the moment that I've seen pivots from talking about stents or whatever the hell they're called.
	Statins.
	I don't like that word.
	Statins.
	I've never enjoyed that word.
	No.
	What's it called?
	Statins.
	Statins.
	It's not an enjoyable word.
	No, it's not.
	It's over before it's begun.
	Especially because I think some of the things he points out is that we should be prioritising healthy lifestyles.
	Something that came up a lot.
	Yeah, actually a lot of the things he said were good.
	Like, sort of like, don't eat heavily overproduced food.
	I mean, it's so many things.
	Like, you may not eat healthy, you may not exercise.
	Don't needlessly take pharmacological drugs.
	Of course, some people need chemical support.
	Of course we do.
	But that's like a lot of the stuff that was coming up during the pandemic.
	Whatever you think.
	You can take the vaccines out of it if you want.
	I mean, we won't.
	No, you can't.
	We're going to talk about it.
	Profitable!
	But, you know, some of the stuff that he talks about, you can't call misinformation.
	He's saying that even with regard to statins, that it's better to have a healthier lifestyle.
	A lifestyle that wasn't promoted during the pandemic, because people were told to stay indoors and order from Uber Eats or Deliveroo.
	Everybody just eats!
	This is from Marty Macari, who is professor at Johns Hopkins University.
	He points out that the NIH would not fund research into natural immunity.
	Like, listen to this.
	The critical discovery that steroids reduce COVID mortality by one third came only after European researchers did a randomized trial that Fauci's agency should have commissioned quickly.
	Similarly, a conclusive study showing that vitamin D reduces COVID mortality published last month arrived two years late.
	That was all conspiracy theory.
	You probably still can't say that on YouTube.
	About vitamin D, natural sunlight, start being in tune with your environment.
	These things are good for you, man.
	Okay, should we?
	Yeah, I was just gonna say... Alright, you do your thing, then I've got a joke.
	Okay, my stuff was just that, you know, again, whatever you think of the vaccines, some of the things that he's been talking about is how much that these heart disease and heart attacks have gone up.
	And that that could be, and it seems like a lot to do with the pandemic itself, people had lifestyles that didn't contribute to staying healthy.
	Yeah.
	You know, it's... I think they want, when I say they, I know it's reductive, I know who are the they or whatever, but let's just say a convergent set of establishment interests I'm calling that they want us to be sort of unhealthy, to eat unhealthy food, to stare at screens all the time, to lose our contact with nature, with our innermost selves, with love, with the glory that being human can encompass.
	That not only could we create something a little bit better, we could create something magnificent.
	But you can't do that without disrupting the interests of the powerful.
	And they will never present solutions that disrupt powerful interests.
	That's why I wouldn't get excited about whether it's Biden or Trump, because ultimately they're going to be funded by the same I know Trump was a bit of a berserker and said a load of crazy stuff, but in office, I've got to tell you guys, he did not deliver on those promises.
	That's what I feel.
	Let me know in the chat.
	Let me know in the comments if you agree with me.
	A lot of you like Ron DeSantis now, don't you?
	But I'm telling you, that dude will let you down.
	He's coming on the show soon, by the way.
	And now can I do my joke?
	I've been sitting on phrases.
	Staten sounds like a name that Joe Biden would say when he's panicking in Happy Birthday.
	Like, Happy Birthday dear Staten!
	Her name's Andrea.
	Staten!
	Happy Birthday to you!
	Let's have a look at our scene, the old warbler.
	That, unfortunately, I've got respect for Chris Whitty, but I think he's mistaken here, because analysis I've done, and even Carl Hennigan, the director of Centre for Space Medicine Oxford, suggests that Saturn Pill's prescription hasn't reduced since the pandemic, so it's unlikely to be a cause.
	But what is almost... Oh, where are you going, mate?
	Where are you going?
	You're on the BBC.
	What is likely to be a cause?
	What is it?
	Something that's going to make people money?
	Something that's going to allow people to be locked up in their homes?
	This isn't going to be bad news, is it?
	Certainly, and if you allow me to say this, what my own research has found, and this is something that is probably a likely contributory factor, is that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines do carry a cardiovascular risk.
	Oh, you said it!
	You said it on the telly!
	That journalist's earpiece would be... Okay, you better shut this guy down, but they don't know that they're dealing with Haseem Malhotra.
	You can't... I can't shut that guy down!
	Yeah, they haven't got a technique, have they?
	You need the finger, baby!
	You need to give Haseem the one finger!
	And I've actually called for the suspension of this pending an inquiry because there's a lot... The suspension of the vaccine program is such a heavy thing.
	...uncertainty at the moment about what's causing the excess deaths.
	Some of it will be ambulances... Excess deaths!
	You're talking about excess deaths!
	Adverse reactions!
	...delays.
	My own father, it was reported on BBC News in late 2021, I was the first to actually highlight the ambulance delays because my own father suffered a cardiac arrest at home and the ambulance took 30 minutes.
	And when his post-mortem came... Look at that, the Strap is still doing millions in the UK, already takes statins, despite there being no side effects.
	If I was in that, I'd go, listen, this guy, I don't know what he's saying now.
	This is not agreed upon mainstream narrative.
	I think he's drunk.
	Has this guy been drinking?
	I can smell his breath.
	I'm in the room with him.
	I'm by his laptop.
	They would have been frantic about that.
	May God rest Acemo Hotra's father's eternal soul.
	The issue with this, I think, Ross, is the very fact that this kind of discussion isn't allowed on mainstream media.
	It has been censored because this is one person's opinion.
	He's, you know, he's a kind of expert in his field.
	He's a cardiologist.
	He actually does say in this that he doesn't have all the information that he can never be completely right.
	And that's partly because we haven't got all the data.
	But those are the things that need to be discussed.
	Like, you know, we even we have different opinions about vaccines and things like that.
	But I think in a situation where at the moment the CDC are saying that they're now studying the BioNTech vaccines for increased risk of strokes in people over 65, that's the thing that needs to be spoken about.
	The fact that there are all these excess deaths going on, whether they're caused by Difficult, nefarious things.
	Or they're just caused by the fact that we were told loads of stuff during lockdowns that didn't help people.
	It didn't help people's lifestyles.
	I agree with you.
	You know, cancer rates are going up and all of that kind of stuff.
	Here's the story you're referring to, mate.
	The CDC are investigating whether Pfizer COVID vaccine increases stroke risk for people over 65.
	There's that story.
	and also from a presentation we'll be doing later this week in Here's the News by a researcher,
	from Martin McCarty there at Johns Hopkins.
	He points out that the Journal of American Medical Association's most widely circulated articles in 2022
	were one on the discovery of mRNA vaccine particles in breast milk, myocarditis after COVID vaccination,
	and the durability of natural immunity.
	All of these things should have been part of the conversation.
	As Gareth says, we disagree on fundamental issues around vaccine, vaccine health and regulation around these issues.
	But there has to be an open debate, an open conversation.
	What do you think?
	Let us know in the chat.
	Let us know in the comments.
	Do you feel you can handle opposing views and come to conclusions yourself?
	Or would you like to live in a paternal nannying state where you are treated as like some sort of little Blob of inner matter that just has to do the will of centralised interests.
	You can let me know about that in the chat.
	Time now for our presentation.
	Here's the news.
	No, here's the FN news.
	The former head of the FDA who you'll enjoy this.
	He looks like Eddie Munster.
	Let me know if you agree with me.
	He looks like a little vampire guy.
	Lobbied Twitter to take down a tweet suggesting that natural immunity is superior to the vaccine.
	Why would that be?
	Why would someone who receives money from Pfizer Be against natural immunity.
	Let me know in the chat.
	I'm going to be reading out some of your comments right after this on that very subject.
	Time now though for here's the news.
	No.
	Here's the effing news.
	Did you know that social media were banning accurate and truthful information about vaccines
	Yeah, we did already know that.
	Yeah.
	Well now everybody knows.
	Today's story is a fantastic one!
	Did you know that social media companies were censoring truthful, accurate information about vaccines and the Covid pandemic because it didn't suit their narrative?
	That means that when they're talking about misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, gal-information, bi-information, tri-information, saying they're just trying to protect us, we're just trying to protect you, no they were not On August 27th 2021, Dr Scott Gottlieb, a Pfizer director with over 550,000 Twitter followers, saw a tweet he didn't like.
	You should try living in my world, I sleep about a thousand every day I don't like.
	more about it right now. This is Alex Berenson writing on Substack.
	Oh, so Pfizer are a profit-driven company, not a medicine organisation.
	All that time they were saying follow the science, what were they really following?
	Which science?
	Economics.
	The tweet explained that natural immunity after Covid infection was superior to vaccine protection.
	It called on the White House to follow the science and exempt people with natural immunity from upcoming vaccine mandates.
	You can go back and look at our videos from that time.
	We were talking about that then because you told us to.
	We were talking about natural immunity.
	We were tiptoeing around it carefully.
	What do you think?
	You know, trying to walk on the eggshells they lay down before us.
	Well, it turns out you were right.
	You've always known you were right.
	And now we have the evidence to demonstrate that you were correct all along.
	It came not from an anti-vaxxer like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but from Dr. Brett Giroir, a physician who had briefly followed Gottlieb as the head of the Food and Drug Administration.
	Further, the tweet actually encouraged people who did not have natural immunity to get vaccinated.
	How tight were the lines of censorship that even if the tweet recommends that you get a vaccination, it's still not good enough?
	It's still not an ardent enough vow to the agenda of the system?
	Also, this person was a former head of the FDA.
	Now, we've done videos where we're critical of the FDA because they get much of their funding from the organizations that they're supposed to be regulating.
	But if, in their eyes, a former head of the FDA can't be trusted, then who can be trusted?
	It's not some, you know, whack job or Alex Jones or David Icke or some crackpot.
	You can't trust them.
	They're lunatics!
	It's the former head of the FDA, according to their analysis.
	So it just shows you, they will censor anybody who stands in the way of their agenda, and their agenda is about profit and power, it always was, it always will be, and you should only listen to ideas that are about attacking those systems of power.
	If what you're being offered is, this is how you can reorganise things without disrupting the interests of the powerful, you're probably getting a message that's coming from the powerful.
	No matter.
	By suggesting some people might not need COVID vaccinations, the tweet could raise questions about the shots.
	I mean, what is this?
	Is this a religion now?
	To suggest that some people might not need COVID vaccinations has to be censored.
	What the hell is it?
	How extreme is this?
	What is this, Vaccine Isis?
	Which sounds like a pretty good disease.
	Besides being a former FDA commissioner and a CNBC contributor and a prominent voice on COVID public policy, Gottlieb was a senior board member at Pfizer, which depended on mRNA jabs for almost half of its $81 billion in sales in 2021.
	Pfizer paid Gottlieb $365,000 for his work that year.
	But I'm sure that didn't influence his enthusiasm.
	This is just a guy who wants people to have vaccines for Oh no!
	Oh no!
	This other guy who's worked at the FDA and stuff, his views are going to prevent people that really need vaccines.
	Yes, yes, I suppose they are profitable and I suppose I do get that £365,000 a year from Pfizer, but none of that matters to me.
	All I want is people to be censored so that they can be helped.
	When people want to censor you, For your own good.
	Think about what's being suggested by that.
	They think they know more than you.
	They think they're smarter than you.
	And when they're also being paid to have that opinion, it makes me question its validity.
	Gottlieb stepped in, you bet he did, emailing Todd O'Boyle, a top lobbyist in Twitter's Washington office, who is also Twitter's point of contact with the White House.
	The post was corrosive, Gottlieb wrote.
	He worried it would end up going viral and driving news coverage.
	These people are obsessed with infectious diseases.
	Through JIRA, an internal system Twitter used for managing complaints, O'Boyle forwarded Gottlieb's email to the Twitter Strategic Response Team.
	That group was responsible for handling concerns from the company's most important employees and users.
	Please see this report from the former FDA commissioner, O'Boyle wrote, failing to mention that Gottlieb was a Pfizer board member with a financial interest in pushing mRNA shots.
	Boss, boss!
	This just in!
	Apparently someone's posting some disinformation.
	Who sent you this complaint?
	It doesn't matter.
	There's nothing about the person that sent this complaint that's a cause for interest.
	Whether it's their agenda, their financial ties to Pfizer, their willingness to censor information.
	That's plainly true.
	You're focusing on the wrong thing, boss.
	A strategic response analyst quickly found the tweet did not violate any of the company's misinformation rules.
	Oh, well, that's good.
	So just leave that there.
	Doesn't violate any of the rules.
	Just leave it there.
	I mean, we can't all just agree with each other all the time.
	I mean, I suppose the point of Twitter is to have a conversation, and wouldn't it be good if that conversation was expansive and included a wide variety of views so that people could come towards truth together?
	Uh, I don't think so.
	Yet Twitter wound up flagging Giroir's tweet anyway.
	Yeah, just do it anyway.
	Just censor it.
	I think they like doing it, don't they?
	Putting a misleading tag on it and preventing almost anyone from seeing it.
	What if we were to prevent almost anyone from seeing it?
	Yeah, that would be good.
	Even though it's true?
	Even though it's true.
	Even though the complaint came from someone with a vested and financial interest in Pfizer doing well and Piva taking those jabs?
	I'm gonna keep saying yes to you.
	Gottlieb is not justified as a board member.
	Oh, no.
	That's just first among its many achievements in life.
	He is one of seven members of the board's executive committee and the head of its regulatory and compliance committee, which oversees compliance with laws, regulations, and internal procedures applicable to pharmaceutical sales and marketing activities.
	But you think that that would somehow bias it?
	You think because Gottlieb oversees compliance laws, regulations, internal procedures applicable to pharmaceutical sales and marketing activities, that he'd have a vested interest in preventing people from considering natural immunity as an option?
	His censorship of that tweet was a surprise for your birthday and you ruined it.
	You're just like your Pfizer.
	Pfizer has a long history of violating drug industry laws and ethics rules.
	So maybe don't get a tattoo of their logo on your body.
	In 2009, it agreed to pay 2.3 billion dollars, the largest healthcare fraud settlement in American history, up against a pretty hot competition.
	May I say?
	For fraudulently marketing several drugs.
	In 1996, he conducted a clinical trial of an antibiotic in Nigeria in which 11 children died and which became the inspiration for John le Carre's novel, The Constant Gardener.
	But just because they marketed a drug that killed some children, that doesn't mean they're anything other than good guys who should be allowed to censor content that you look at because you are an idiot and not capable of making decisions that might lead to the death of 11 children in Nigeria, which they did do.
	Gottlieb, eh?
	At the very least, there's a conflict of interest that the mainstream media will surely be very interested in investigating.
	Let's see how they get to the bottom of it.
	Give them hell, guys!
	Doctor, we go way back.
	I don't know how many times during the pandemic you were on, probably three times a week.
	You turned into a security blanket for us and I think for viewers everywhere.
	I don't want him as a security blanket.
	He looks too much like Eddie Munster.
	Please don't run away.
	And the entire time I don't ever think you dodged the question or politicized the question.
	You talked about the origins and were very straightforward about what could have happened, what didn't.
	You talked about the efficacy of the vaccines and masks.
	All these areas are completely uncontroversial.
	So uncontroversial you wouldn't need anyone to censor tweets or control the narrative because yeah, whether it's masks, the origin of COVID, There.
	Efficacy of the vaccine?
	There's just literally nothing else to learn on any of those subjects.
	And that's why we're lucky to have a security blanket that looks like a vampire and a raven had an albino baby.
	Please don't run away.
	You'd go against the conventional thinking.
	I think it was all science-based and totally objective.
	Science-based and objective.
	Often when I work at a place that gives me $375,000 a year, I see my objectivity just becomes That much clearer.
	So I got to ask you about this.
	I have no doubt that you want to weigh in on it.
	So on Tucker Carlson last night, New York Times reporter, former New York Times reporter, Alex Berenson.
	That guy.
	Former New York Times.
	Because, you know, the mainstream media, as you yourself know, Chuck or Jad or whatever monosyllabic name you've got, know is a reliable place for good information, Alex Berenson.
	You got him kicked off of Twitter.
	This is a kind of a convoluted conspiracy theory that somehow you told Twitter to get rid of him because he was asking too many questions about the efficacy.
	Gottlieb wouldn't do that.
	Look how tightly he squeezes his lips together.
	Look how much he purses his lips like Simon Cowell's Transylvanian brother.
	Please don't run away.
	And safety of the Covid vaccine.
	Do you just want to respond to that and tell us your side?
	Yeah, look, I'm not going to comment directly on that, and he's threatening litigation, too, so another reason not to respond.
	I've raised concerns around social media broadly, and I've done it on these networks, around the threats that were being made on these platforms and the inability of these platforms to police direct threats, physical threats about people.
	There's two things, two things that are a menace on social media.
	One is physical threats.
	Yeah, we all agree with that.
	No one wants physical threats.
	Are we right, guys?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Second thing is former FDA directors saying that natural immunity might be as effective as vaccines.
	Yeah, there's no drop-off between this.
	Physical threats, then there's former FDA directors saying natural immunity might be as effective as vaccines.
	They're basically the two things.
	The next thing after that is murder.
	That's my concerns around social media and what's going on in that ecosystem.
	So it wasn't as much about And you know what?
	I had COVID.
	I had three vaccines.
	How's those vaccines working?
	The vaccine... those were one of the great scientific discoveries of our... and I've seen all the... I still see it.
	It does this.
	It does that.
	We didn't know this.
	We didn't know that.
	All of that.
	All of that stuff.
	A hundred billion profits.
	75 years you can see it.
	I've seen it.
	I've seen all the information and I still don't care.
	That's how stupid I'm willing to be.
	That's the way that it, for me, it was basically like a mild cold because, I think, of the vaccine.
	So I'm not questioning that.
	So you were... Look, look, you were... Oh, shit!
	Oh, no!
	It's a bad cold, because if it was just a little cold, you wouldn't need...
	I'm unconcerned about debate.
	I'm unconcerned about debate taking place in platforms.
	Because I censor any information that I don't like, personally, because of my relationships within Twitter, which is totally corrupt.
	I am very concerned when threats... I'm very concerned when threats... Very concerned with threats.
	And also, as I said, the FDA and saying natural immunity.
	Threats and the natural immunity.
	That's the two things.
	This had to do with... I'm very concerned about physical threats.
	Very concerned about... He's panicking now and he's gone too far.
	He knows that a lie is near the surface.
	Physical threats... Vaccinate me now!
	It was all my own fault.
	I was acting like a real dope.
	Being made against people's safety and the people who gin up those threats against individuals.
	That concerns me.
	It's just righteousness.
	There's a person that's actually done things like gone, hey listen, can you get that other dude off because that's going to affect sales.
	Acting like he's sort of Nelson Mandela.
	Additionally, according to a bombshell new report by Just the News, the Biden White House put immense pressure on Facebook to remove often true content, according to bombshell new documents obtained in a federal censorship collusion lawsuit by Missouri and Louisiana Attorneys General.
	In recently released documents, White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty put a huge amount of pressure on Facebook to remove a Washington Post article on vaccine hesitancy.
	So they're removing posts of former FDA officials within social media.
	Now the White House are directly removing things from the mainstream media.
	And of course, you can assume that if these practices are taking place here, do you imagine that these are the only two examples?
	Or do you imagine that it's cultural, institutional, Normal, regular business practice to remove information that's not expedient.
	Let me know in the comments.
	Let me know in the chat.
	Do you think that the only information you're allowed access to is the information that's amenable to their agenda and objectives, which are about power and profit?
	Let me know in the chat.
	In a March 14, 2021 email with the subject line, you are hiding the ball.
	White House Director of Digital Strategy, Rob Flaherty, showed a Facebook executive a Washington Post article on Facebook's research into drivers of vaccine hesitancy on its own platform, including fears of worse than expected adverse events.
	In the email, Fred was also President Biden's COVID response team senior advisor, Andy Slavitt.
	The Facebook executive, whose name was redacted, replied to the email saying there was a misunderstanding.
	Flaherty then fired back, telling the executive that he's been asking you guys pretty directly about the extent to which borderline content is creating vaccine hesitancy.
	We are gravely concerned.
	Facebook is a top driver of vaccine hesitancy and want to know if you're trying, Flaherty continued, as he put pressure on Facebook to censor COVID information.
	The executive agreed Facebook needs to share information faster with the White House and a week later provided a list of changes Facebook was making.
	One of them was reducing the virality of content discouraging vaccines that does not otherwise violate a policy but can be framed as sensation, alarmist or shocking.
	Facebook then responded to Flaherty with next steps where they would censor often true content just because the White House didn't like it.
	So there you have it.
	That's a direct quote.
	Often true content, just because the Y.O.U.S.
	didn't like it.
	Hey!
	I don't like that!
	But, uh, it's true.
	That's why we don't like it.
	So you want us to censor it?
	Yep, that's how the system works.
	So of course, everything Everything we've been experiencing over the last couple of years, the suspicion, the doubt, the hesitancy, the curiosity, the necessity for a conversation, the need for opposing scientific views to be tried out and tested in the place of true science.
	Experimentation.
	Authenticity.
	Transparency.
	Honesty.
	You were right.
	You knew all along and now it's been proven.
	That's exactly how the system works.
	In a sense, the pandemic was a great privilege, a great luxury, because it was a revelation of what many of us have long suspected, that there is a globalist agenda.
	That's how the globe was able to respond to a pandemic.
	Admittedly, in the event of a genuine pandemic, a global response would be necessary, advisable, expedient, in fact.
	But when you see these kind of exchanges, it shows you that the White House and social media companies are in locks.
	step when it comes to controlling the narrative. Not only that, the mainstream media are involved
	and of course there are corporate interests. What other than that are we telling you on
	this channel? What other than that are you discussing in the comments below? And of course,
	anybody who conveys these counter-narratives, because we cannot be censored and controlled
	because we're bloody careful and we use reliable sources and we try not to slip up, you have
	to label us conspiracy theorists.
	That's why you have to be called conspiracy theorists.
	That's why we have to be called conspiracy theorists.
	Why?
	Because we're telling the truth.
	And the truth is at odds with their agenda.
	This is a quote from that email.
	So it's discouraging, but it's true.
	So just let me say that again.
	It's discouraging, but it's true.
	been focused on reducing the virality of content discouraging vaccines that does not contain
	actionable misinformation. So it's discouraging, but it's true. So just let me say that again.
	It's discouraging, but it's true. Censor it! This is often true content which we allow
	at the post level because experts have advised us that it's important for people to be able
	to discuss both their personal experiences and concerns about the vaccine.
	You shouldn't need an expert for that.
	That's just what communication is supposed to be.
	We got an expert in and the expert said you shouldn't censor people telling the truth about their experience of being alive because that would be, well, tyranny.
	Yeah, that's the one we're going for.
	The last words you said, tyranny?
	There you go.
	You keep saying it, but you're not doing it.
	But it can be framed as sensation, alarmist, or shocking.
	We'll remove these groups, pages, and accounts when they are disproportionately promoting this sensationalized content.
	More on this front as we proceed to implement.
	Did you, during the pandemic, think the information that was true was being censored?
	Did you notice that discussion was being shut down?
	Did you get called a conspiracy theorist for saying and believing those very things and other things that have since been proven to be true?
	Well, let's learn from this.
	Is there anything going on at the moment that you're not allowed to discuss where it seems that there's an agenda?
	Of course there is.
	Every single issue is framed in this manner.
	Every single issue is presented to you in a manner that's amenable to the interests of the powerful.
	What do you think power is other than the ability to control outcomes?
	What are the means of controlling outcomes?
	Control the power, control the messaging, censor opposition, demonize dissenters.
	All we're doing is describing exactly what's happening.
	Thank you for being on this journey with us.
	Thank you for keeping us informed.
	Let's not give up now.
	Even though it may feel darker, it's about to get a lot brighter for all of us.
	But that's just what I think.
	Let me know what you think in the comments and chat.
	I'll see you in a second.
	Wars, pandemics, lies, trickery.
	My cats keep having kittens.
	The last one's personal.
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	stars. Hey listen I've got a bunch of your comments here.
	Joshu, CDC has every single American COVID test swab and are messing with our DNAs.
	Don't be so silly!
	Markovsky, Pfizer cannot be held responsible by law for the ill effects.
	People knew that legislation would be put in place and still took it.
	Freedom Forest, I got celiacs and thyroid issues after flu shots.
	Could be a coincidence.
	I'll never know.
	We'll never know unless someone does the trials and the tests.
	Thank you for your feedback.
	Lots of lovely stuff from the video as well.
	But I really want to speak to our fantastic guest who's joining us from the Lever, David Sirota, the Oscar-nominated writer of Don't Look Up, and fantastic investigative figure.
	David, thanks for joining us on the show today.
	Thank you.
	Thanks for having me.
	David, I wanted to talk to you in particular about the pharmaceutical industry and their practice of reinvesting in their own stocks and shares to manage prices.
	And my understanding is that this is something that they invest more money in even than clinical trials.
	In fact, it could be said that that's what defines their business model.
	Is that correct?
	Absolutely.
	Look, the pharmaceutical industry, their business model is to take government money, government subsidies for research and development, and turn them into not only profits, but money for stock buybacks, which enrich shareholders.
	There was a recent study out that showed that the pharmaceutical industry spends far more money
	on buying back its own stock to boost its share prices to essentially enrich its shareholders
	than it does on all of its own research and development.
	This goes against the story that the pharmaceutical industry tells us
	when they jack up prices.
	What they say when they jack up prices, and there were a recent slew of price hikes just announced,
	what they say is they need to recoup the money that they spend on research and development,
	that the price hikes effectively fund scientific and medical research.
	But what the data actually shows is that those price hikes far more so fund the enrichment of shareholders, even, and this is an important point, even when the medical research, the R&D for those drugs is funded by the government, a.k.a.
	you, me, and the rest of the public.
	Even in the event that the research has been funded by the public, they claim that the price hikes are the result of clinical trials and research.
	It leaves them in an interesting ethical position, David.
	Did you see that some of the Twitter file revelations include the repression of activists pushing for a generic vaccine that would bypass their ability to continue to patent and profit from that medication?
	And if so, is that further evidence of what the prevailing and driving mentality is within these corporations?
	Right, and I think the intellectual property stuff is really a part of this.
	If you remember, I think it was a year, must be almost two years ago, the Biden administration announced that it was going to secure a WTO waiver for the IP for COVID vaccines.
	And we at The Lever reported at the time, by the way, and we were the only ones really to go out and say this, but we said, you know, this is going to test The Biden administration's pharmaceutical industry ties about whether they would actually push for that waiver.
	The waiver was necessary to give other countries access to the vaccine recipes.
	And they went to the WTO and effectively what happened was the wealthy countries got together and effectively blocked The WTO did come out and say that they granted a waiver.
	It was wildly watered down.
	were asking for waivers that those developing world countries said were necessary.
	So it doesn't surprise me that there are revelations out there about what happened at the WTO
	and how those waivers were not granted.
	Now, ultimately, the WTO did come out and say that they granted a waiver.
	It was wildly watered down.
	It was, I think it was two or at least a year and a half late after the pandemic had surged
	across the world.
	It certainly wasn't the waiver that lots of countries were asking for and that a lot of
	experts said were needed.
	IP, intellectual property protections, are in a lot of cases some of the biggest scams
	in the pharmaceutical industry in this way.
	I go back to talking about the United States here.
	I mean, the United States has a market in which under the law, you are not allowed as
	a consumer to purchase medicines from places like Canada or European markets, even though
	those medicines that are FDA approved are made in factories in those other countries.
	So they're a kind of closed market system where, you know, you hear a lot about free trade and the free market, a very closed market system in the United States where the pharmaceutical companies can jack up prices.
	Uh, knowing that the consumer can't go anywhere else and also knowing that the strict IP enforcement makes it much harder for generic companies to produce generic versions of the drug.
	And here's the key.
	Much harder to produce generic versions of drugs that we, the taxpayers, already paid for.
	There was a study that came out, I think it was three, four years ago, that found most of, the vast majority of FDA-approved medicines, the top-selling FDA-approved medicines in the United States, were originally created with funding from the federal government, through the National Institutes of Health.
	So the business model of the pharmaceutical industry is, let's get lots of money to subsidize our research, then we get to charge whatever prices we want in a closed market where the consumer can't go anywhere else, and in a system in which IP enforcement is so tough that generic competitors that could produce the same drugs at a more reasonable price, those can't be produced.
	I'm astonished that they are able to deploy rhetoric around free markets and entrepreneurialism and individual expertise while simultaneously being so pejorative around aspects of socialism, welfare, mutual support, when their entire business model is funded by taxpayer dollars until it comes to the moment where profit is extracted, then those roots are forgotten.
	David, another area that you've spent a lot of time researching and writing about is the evident bifurcation occurring within media spaces and the tailoring of information for particular, shall we say, constituencies.
	David, I know that The Lever's great work and your storytelling elsewhere has focused on attacking the establishment from the left at this time of divisiveness and division.
	Do you feel that there's a need and a necessity to bring people together, particularly around issues that demonstrate establishment power in controlling media narratives, an inability and unwillingness to hold the powerful to account?
	Even, for example, around the pharmaceutical industry, around the pandemic, numerous narratives have emerged.
	The story has changed over time.
	In particular, I would say around the efficacy of lockdown and those medications.
	Is it possible, without straying into the realms of conspiracy or any information that isn't grounded in clear data, to question the way that the pandemic was perhaps utilised to create opportunity for profit, much in the manner that you have described In your previous excellent answer.
	Look, I think we have a situation in media right now where there's more and more use the word bifurcation.
	I think that's right.
	Where partisan media, media that perceives that its audience are either liberals and Democrats or conservatives and Republicans on the other side, that facts are elevated or suppressed based on whether those outlets believe that those facts will satiate or offend the partisan affinities of those audiences.
	We went through this, just as a separate example, when we reported a lot on Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, when it came to the airlines.
	We reported that he had been warned for months by state attorneys general to get tougher with the airlines.
	Our reporting was then elevated by very conservative media, Fox News and the like, because those media outlets saw a chance to attack a Democratic Secretary of Transportation.
	Our reporting was basically omitted, if not suppressed, shadow banned effectively, by corporate and sort of left-of-center Democratic-affiliated media, because it was perceived to To to go too hard on a Democratic regulator in a position of power.
	Now, the point is, regardless of where you stand on the airline issue, it's a microcosm of a problem where facts cannot be stipulated unless and reported on.
	Unless they are seen to placate a news outlet's given audience.
	And the problem with that is that that protects us, that essentially prevents us from getting to the actual truth of any matter at all.
	It also protects public officials in positions of power who know that their own constituencies, Pete Buttigieg as an example, that lots of Democratic voters aren't going to hear very much.
	about what he could have done to better regulate the airlines.
	This goes across every single issue.
	And the thing that I'm concerned about, Russell, is that we need a media, I mean, put it this way, use the metaphor of a trial.
	The theory of a trial, of a free and open trial, is that one side, that the facts are stipulated,
	one side interrogates the facts, another side interrogates the facts in a different way,
	and that brings us closer to the actual truth of the matter.
	If we're living in a society in which facts are only preference stipulated,
	accepted, and debated, if they are seen to satisfy one side's
	political proclivities, and then they're suppressed from the entire other side,
	that doesn't get us closer to a stipulated set of facts that we can know then what to do with for policy.
	That goes for COVID policy, that goes for climate policy,
	that goes for every policy.
	Because I feel that what we're lacking are real virtues and principles at the heart of our once cherished institutions.
	Our institutions of government, of reporting, even science, it seems to me, have been biased by the great magnetism and gravity of the pursuit of profit.
	It seems that there are too many routes for corruption into the establishment, whether it's lobbying or conflict of interest or ownership of stocks by people within Congress.
	And now the way that media functions has altered.
	There's proliferation of information across so many platforms now.
	That there is no mainstream narrative that can't be significantly countered.
	And as you say, because it has become so partisan, and because there is a lack of virtue and principles, and because there is almost a lack of honour, and the emergence of contempt in the political space, it's difficult to imagine, David, a new type of union emerging.
	It does leave so much space to demagogic figures.
	And I know that you're close to Bernie Sanders, and wrote to Bernie Sanders, and he's coming on our show, thankfully.
	You're so excited to talk to him.
	I wonder, David, if you sometimes query the inability of either political party to truly represent American interests, because it seems that they have both been so thoroughly co-opted by corporate interests.
	And do you ever feel like a vagrant politically, that you're still waving a flag for ideals that were lost in the 60s, if not the 1980s?
	I really appreciate you asking that question.
	Look, I came of age in the late 90s into the 2000s when this political tribalism, and that really is tribal politics, team politics, the team before everything else, really came into its own as the dominant zeitgeist of American politics.
	And it has been a disillusioning experience because Look, I came to journalism and the work I've done in politics with the idea that this is a pursuit of truths, truths that if they're inconvenient, we need to reckon with them and build policies around them that fix real crises.
	I think right now, as you allude to, you have two parties that are so vested in their own self-preservation and on an individual level in terms of the people inside of the establishment.
	On self-enrichment, that the truth is secondary if it exists as a priority at all.
	And that's really the central problem here.
	And to your point about profit, I mean, think about it from an experiential point of view.
	If you are a journalist today, a pundit today, a politician today, there is a huge and vast reward system for you.
	If you serve the people in power and you serve the corporate interests that are making so much money, you have promises of future employment, lucrative employment, you have promises of campaign cash, you have promises of all sorts of opportunities.
	And by the way, this exists whether you're on the Democratic side or the Republican side.
	There are almost no rewards.
	like that, for doing the opposite of that, for telling the truth, calling out that corruption.
	There are almost no incentives to do that.
	Now look, there are going to be some people who nonetheless call out the truth, who nonetheless try to call out the system.
	But the point is, on a mass scale, in terms of individual decisions, people coming out of college, people coming looking for a way in to work in the political system and the like, All things being equal, the two paths where they diverge, I can go be complicit or I can go challenge power, the rewards for being complicit are greater than they've ever been and the punishments for calling it out are maybe not as bad as they've ever been, certainly dissent throughout human history have been bad, but there's not nearly the reward system or the incentives or the ability to survive if you're trying to call it out.
	In a sense, a kind of banalised tyranny has been achieved when dissent can be excluded systemically without it really being queried.
	I often wonder, and we talk about frequently on this show, Whether the culture wars, wokeism, anti-wokeism, are similarly being escalated in order to create conflagration that prevents a simple union, potential alliance, and a willingness to accept difference, to witness that libertarianism and, for example, the more extreme end, and who decides where extremism is, of identity politics are ultimately about
	The respect of individual rights.
	And I feel that there is more to be achieved by looking for ways that we can communicate openly, even around contentious issues, and I would say contentious issues is particularly where the conversation is required, that is not being encouraged because I feel that they benefit from ossified camps behaving in the manner that we are, lost in irresolvable conflicts around culture.
	Look, I certainly agree that, I put it this way, the billionaire class, the corporate class, must be overjoyed that while they are fleecing the entire country and the entire world, the big debates are about things like M&Ms.
	The big debates are about, you know, oh, you're going to tear out my gas stove.
	You know, made-up culture war controversies.
	So it certainly serves the fossil fuel industry when it comes to climate change, the establishment, the billionaire class, the corporate class, that the culture war has become most of politics.
	But I also think it's not just that there are a couple of people in a smoky back room twisting their mustaches saying, ha ha ha, how can we distract the public?
	I also think it's bled into the psychology of the country at large in this way.
	If the social contract has been torn up, if we have been taught over years and years and years to never trust what the public sector does, public officials, and we have been taught that lesson by those public officials, lying us into the Iraq war, lying us into the deregulation that gave us the financial crisis, lying us into tax cuts that obviously only benefit the wealthy and do not trickle down.
	I could go on and on and on.
	Uh, promising programs that are going to help people that end up being bogged down in a bureaucratic morass and not actually delivering help.
	The point is, is that if the social contract is shredded year after year after year, I think lots of people come to the conclusion that nothing can be fixed.
	Nothing can be done.
	That politics is just about professional elite politicians and lobbyists arguing with each other about things that don't matter to people's basic lives because nothing from that sector has seemed to matter or and lots of things from that public sector has seemed to be dishonest and not true.
	Then people conclude that politics is just about a culture war.
	That is what politics is.
	It's not about anything that affects my actual life day to day.
	Politicians have proven that year after year after year.
	So politics is a sport.
	It's something like you tune into ESPN or you tune into Sports Talk Radio and you listen to the debate about the last hockey game or the last football game.
	And ultimately, we have to ask ourselves, Whose fault is that?
	Now look, I think that the government, a better government, a more ethical government, pushed to be, not ethical on its own, pushed to be with an actual mass movement of people demanding change, real policies that affect and improve their daily lives.
	I think I don't think getting a public sector that actually delivers is a lost cause.
	What I'm saying, though, is that I fear that people's experience of watching what has happened over the last few decades to that public sector, to that social contract, has made a lot of people conclude that nothing can be done.
	Brilliant.
	Mark Fisher, the sadly deceased British philosopher and intellectual, wrote that the apathy that people feel has been induced and is a response to conditions rather than some kind of naturally occurring nihilism.
	Similarly, we are denied a kind of political and cultural analysis of events like the opioid crisis in your country,
	preferring instead to offer diagnosis that numerous individuals are just simultaneously becoming addicted to painkillers
	for reasons that are not connected to the culture or political agenda.
	How much do you invest in the significance of events like the WEF and Davos conference
	when it comes to infiltrating national governments with ideals that are ultimately beneficial to corporations?
	In short, David, do you think of the WEF as a sort of somewhat benign conference or do you think it is a crucible for power and a place where significant ideas begin to penetrate nations?
	So I've covered Davos twice, and I was one of the few, maybe the only reporter when I was there, who used the opportunity.
	You sit in the main lobby.
	I sat in the main lobby, and all these powerful people walk by.
	They think it's a safe space.
	They're not going to get asked any tough questions.
	And for the most part, it is a safe space, but I used it as a way to just shove my mic in front of You know, CEOs, heads of state and the like, to ask them questions they didn't want to answer.
	At one point, funny side note, at one point I got the CEO of GM to somehow defend marketing cars without safety equipment, airbags, to people in the developing world.
	I don't think she'd ever been asked that question before and the story kind of went viral all across the globe.
	I think my takeaway from being at Davos, covering it as a reporter, is this.
	That it's a place where the profit agenda is laundered as an altruistic initiative.
	That if you understand what Davos is really, what is it really selling?
	It is selling this idea that The billionaires of the world, the corporate class of the world can continue enriching itself, gorging the resources of the world, and in a way that deprives resources from everybody else.
	And it can do that in a way that is moral, And altruistic and actually good for the world.
	That is the ideology being sold by Davos.
	That nobody at the top ever has to sacrifice anything or ever even has to limit their own greed impulses.
	And the world can still benefit.
	The world will benefit from the corporate and billionaire classes' benevolence and smarts.
	Now, some people call this ideology neoliberalism, right?
	I mean, I know that word's overused a lot, but in a sense I think that is the core ideology of neoliberalism.
	That the rich can get richer and richer and richer, that it is not a zero-sum game, that That those at the top can vacuum up more and more resources from everybody else, but rising tides will lift all boats, as the saying goes.
	I think that's not true on the merits.
	Meaning, I think what the World Economic Forum, that ideology that it is constantly selling, is a lot of nonsense.
	It's a veneer.
	It is a rationale for the rich To fleece and continue fleecing everyone else.
	But I do think it is influential in creating a kind of political ideology, because remember, there are all these politicians that go there.
	Lots of politicians go there, they hear this, hey listen, if I enrich this oil company or I enrich this tech company or I I give this other financial company more bailouts, that will actually help my constituents back home.
	That's what I was told at the World Economic Forum.
	And everyone there seems really nice.
	And they don't seem like greedy, greedy capitalists.
	They're talking all about helping the world, saving the world.
	So I think the World Economic Forum, as one of many, I should say it's not unique, it's one of many of these kinds of organizations that sell this ideology, that sell greed as a moral crusade.
	Exquisite analysis, whether it's not having to curb your greedy impulses or gorging on resources that ought be afforded to the world.
	I was thinking, David, that the idea that the rising tide raises all boats neglects to mention that most people can't afford a boat.
	Exactly.
	It's the issue that needs to be addressed.
	David, we have to end the show now, but I'd like to recommend that all of you read David's fantastic work at leathernews.com and listen to David's podcast, Leather Time.
	That's how it's pronounced in your country.
	And follow him on Twitter.
	His handle is at David Sirota.
	David, thank you once again for joining us for that excellent analysis and for your beautiful eloquence.
	It's such a joy to talk to you.
	Thank you, Russell.
	I really appreciate it.
	We'll speak to you again soon.
	Thanks again, David.
	On tomorrow's show, we'll be talking to Whitney Webb, author of One Nation Under Blackmail.
	Oh, delightful.
	We'll be talking about Jeffrey Epstein and how the deep state controls us, which should be a lovely chat.
	And guess what?
	Get ready for the finger signal, because BBC accidental guest Dr. Asim Malhotra will be joining us.
	Yes, tomorrow.
	And we'll say, man, if that's what you say on the mainstream, what are you going to say on Rumble?
	Actually, just say whatever you want!
	Go crazy, baby!
	Microchips!
	What are you going to come up with?
	On Thursday, we'll be joined by Alex Berenson.
	Alex Berenson is the journalist that Eddie Munster there was talking about in our hero presentation when he said, these journalists, when they threaten people, that makes me pull my lips together like this.
	So Alex Berenson is going to be on our show.
	Hopefully he'll have some Fauci files fresh for us on Thursday.
	The New York Times, Alex Berenson.
	Isn't it amazing?
	Not a fringe conspiracy theorist.
	You're not a conspiracy theorist if you're at the New York Times.
	It's just amazing how people that were once at the New York Times just have to be extracted from the mainstream.
	We've got so many fantastic stories for you.
	Thank you for joining us this week.
	Join us tomorrow, not for more of the same, but for more of the different.
	Till then, stay free.

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