In the past two years, measures taken to deal with Covid have resulted in extraordinary losses of freedom in the West - in fact, all over the world - driven by government mandates and lockdowns. Now that it's clear that we're no longer in the throes of a pandemic, what next?
For how long are citizens prepared to accept these extraordinary extensions of state power and loss of their civil liberties? Have we slid into permanent tyranny in the name of “protecting us?”
Joining me on this episode are two people who refuse to accept this tyranny. Dr. Naomi Wolf, author of seven best-selling books, who writes on Substack as the extraordinary and fierce “Outspoken with Dr. Naomi Wolf” (see below) and
Jenin Younes, litigation council for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, NCLA, a former public defender, and a warrior against the massive encroachment of the Administrative State.
Both Naomi and Jenin have made an intellectually and emotionally difficult break with the Left over governments’ totalitarian response to Covid, and in this episode they explain why. It’s not so much that they’ve changed their views, rather the ideological tectonic plates have shifted.
Some excerpts:
“I do think there's been quite a realignment” Jenin explains … “it's now more like authoritarianism versus freedom. I get contacted by disaffected Democrats every day. So I think a lot of people are seeing through this.”
“When I met Jenin maybe a year and half ago,” says Naomi, “she and I were like refugees from the left. Having a glass of wine and saying, "What is happening to the people around us?” I agree with Jenin a 1,000% again. It is a realignment, a different axis of authoritarianism versus freedom”
We’re living in different information worlds.
“We are, as a country getting two absolutely different information streams … I was always told that Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are evil, but they're doing better reporting on this than the New York Times or the Washington Post, let alone CNN and CNBC.”
And it’s driven people mad.
“It's been called a mass formation psychosis, but there are other names for it. It’s a kind of mass hysteria and you can't really chip away at it with facts or logic and that's sadder than anything. I mean, it's dividing families. It's dividing friends.
“… it's scary to see people (on the Left) be unwilling to hear evidence to the contrary of what the narrative is. They've changed. They don't say, "That doesn't hold up or those sources are not good." They say, "Don't show me that" It's like a religion and that's scary.”
This episode is filled with insightful, brave and personal truths from Naomi Wolf and Jenin Younes. Another must listen.
By the way, you have to love an author whose most recent essay is titled:
Episode 175: "The West’s New Totalitarianism" with Dr. Naomi Wolf and Jenin Younes