"I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."
Said a statement at the website of Joni Mitchell, quoted in "Joni Mitchell pulls music from Spotify, saying she stands with Neil Young in covid protest" (WaPo).
Spotify did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post but in a statement a Spotify spokesperson told The Post earlier this week regarding Young: "We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to covid-19 since the start of the pandemic."
Neil is a big loss, and Joni is an even bigger loss — much bigger — for us Spotify users. To boycott for censorship — to withhold yourself to gain withholding from others — it's a nasty business. Once you get started, where do you end? Freedom of speech is the better choice, perhaps more understandable to Americans than Canadians, but Americans have been losing our grip on the concept in recent years.
Did Joni make this decision personally? Is she really doing this sort of thing these days? I remember when she was so busy being free.
Posts
229 comments:
1 – 200 of 229 Newer› Newest»...she told Spotify they could put up a parking lot.
Eventually more and more people will recognize the flaw in the walled garden paradigm. The benefits of Substacks and individual control will shine.
Unfortunately, a lot of people will try to prevent this for as long as they can, because power.
I don't hear either of them complaining about the gun violence in Chicago and the "bail reform" that is costing people their lives.
Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives."
What Are these "lies"? Who are these "people" that lost "their lives"?
What is being told, that is hurting people?
Separating the wheat from the chaff. A good thing. Now all that's needed is a few more willing participants.
BREAKING: Nickelback threatens to release new album unless Spotify removes Joe Rogan.
BREAKING: Neil Young now says those four kids in Ohio, "Kinda had it coming"
BREAKING: Nickelback threatens to release new album unless Spotify removes Joe Rogan.
Joni who?
I’m getting the sense some of you raisins approve of this iteration of cancel culture?
Good. That much more music NOT to listen to anymore. I can't remember the last time I sat to listen to her anyways. Sick and tired of WOKE celebrities trying to blackmail people into hating others. Grow up or go away. Nobody cares.
Was it just 40 or 50 years ago when their music was all about freedom and railing against the government? I've never listened to Spotify or Rogan, but I sense a great deal of hypocrisy in their actions. I also believe the the final, sober, analysis will show that Rogan has been more correct than Fauci and the CDC bureaucrats.
Young is the only one of the three that I have much interest in, but I "canceled" him a while back because of his stupid remarks about digital audio and his "Pono" player scam, er, gizmo.
The Baby Boomers as a group have been very disappointing. The Hippies even more so.
Neil Young may have removed himself from Spotify, but he is now the star of "This Week in Pictures" via Power Line. It's worth a view.
Why is Covid the only thing you can give misinformation about it and be banned. It’s not for safety, because Fauci admitted to lying about masks to protect the supply of them when few were infected in the US. Now the US Government is giving masks out of the “strategic reserves”. Both Biden and Harris questioned the vaccine when Trump was President. So those lies about Covid were fine.
Yet these heroes of truth aren’t concerned about misinformation about Jan. 6th (armed insurrection is bulkshit). The lies about Afghanistan that resulted in lives lost. 3 years of Russia Hoax and no one is censoring CNN. Only the Convington kid got traction there, but only via the courts and not public opinion. So this isn’t about misinformation nor safety.
The [Mitchell] letter, signed by more than 270 experts, accused Spotify of “enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals.”
That reminds me of a quote from some random guy:
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."
They made Spotify, but Joni Mitchell is turning it into a parking lot.
There's a new term for these people. BOOMERS for CENSORSHIP. Peter Frampton joined the woke Boomers!! Again....NO LOSS!!
The over 70, quasi-folk music crowd is going to be devastated.
So what do we think the ven diagram between those people, and people who use Spotify, really is?
I notice that, as usual, They don't print the actual "lies that are costing people their lives", but here's one:
Rogan: “If you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, ‘Should I get vaccinated?’ I’ll go no.”
“If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this,” he said, adding that both of his children got covid-19 and it was “no big deal.”
Is that incorrect?
I don't agree with boycotting my Bro Joe. Young and Mitchell are speaking but it's not free. They are paying through the nose to make their points. This is how free markets work.
There's infinite ways to get their music besides Spotify. Isn't America wonderful.
They must never watch CNN or MSNBC (or any of the Main Stream networks) if misinformation frightens them so much. Do they hate Dr. Fauci?? Why not?? He spread more misinformation every time he opens his mouth. These people just show how crazy progressives are making America.
Do they ever mention exactly what speech they want censored or do they just go along with the leftie government-industrial complex explanation of disinformation?
Mitchell spreads lies that are costing people their lives!
Mitchell: "The average age of JRE listeners is 24 years old and according to data from Washington State, unvaccinated 12-34 year olds are 12 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those who are fully vaccinated."
"Data" says: "Unvaccinated 12-34 year-olds in Washington are
• 5 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with fully vaccinated 12-34 year-olds."
She's spreading harmful panic among the peasantry!
Also: "COVID-19 case rates among 12-34 year-old individuals are 2 times higher in the unvaccinated population than in the fully vaccinated population"
That's not much higher.
Also: "COVID-19 hospitalization rates per 100,000 population from December 15 to January 11, 2022
Age: 12-34
unvaccinated 103.0 per 100,000 [=one person out of 1,000].
vaccinated: 21.2"
I notiuced they don't mention "deaths" even though we're talking about lies which are costing people their lives...ah,
here it is:
"Deaths are only shown for Washingtonians 65 years old and older due to the relatively smaller number
of deaths in other age groups and *associated instability in rates when assessing by vaccination status." (page 10)
* That means: too few deaths to count accurately and meaningfully.
Wait until they can keep deplorables from hearing their music.
Part of making art is deciding who can interact with it.
You know that program on Nat Geo where they set up crazy fights between two animals, real or imagined- two creatures that would/should never occur together in nature? These geezer folk singers vs Joe Rogan feels like a goofy freak-show of an undercard…and it’s not even a fair fight.
Yesterday, some woman singer/song writer from Los Angeles posted on twitter Barry Manilow pulled his music from Spotify. By the afternoon, it became a mainstream cold. hard fact.
Then Barry Manilow posted on twitter he heard a rumor about he and Spotify. He knew nothing about it, didn't come from him. Understandably, people were upset. Not that somebody just made it up, and they were duped by fake news. Nope. How about "I'm so disappointed. You're killing your fans!". Mind you, Manilow doesn't own his music. He sold it.
Subsequently, Peter Framton took to twitter to announce he was pulling his music from Spotify.
This is another over-riding theme:
"Uninstalled"
Spotify today.
No Joe Rogan
For me, either.
Yes, if you can access Spotify, you have to listen to Joe Rogan.
One final note: Yes, Spotify does censor Joe Rogan. 42 episodes to date. The first one they removed was his most famous podcast. The one that put him on the map. His podcast with Alex Jones.
Two great scientists, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, team up to get that ignoramus Joe Rogan to stop talking about stuff only scientists should be talking about.
She feels threatened, too? She's in frail condition, as I understand it. Still, sorry to read that.
I've seen Spotify from both sides now. I really don't know Spotify at all.
Joni Mitchell along with Joan Baez and Judy Collins had the no-vibrato pure note folk style that I always liked, making the voice more like an instrument, which it is in music. I don't know that it confers wisdom but it does spread harmless pleasure.
Big loss? I mean I enjoy their music but it’s not like I’ll be struggling without it.
Apparently Yoko Ono has threatened to make her music available on Spotify if they don't remove Rogan.
Seriously, though, it's ironic to consider that Mitchell is famous for singing that she'd looked at life from both sides (and concluding that she really doesn't know life at all).
70% of listens come from the long tail of older recordings, back when music was not made on computers. This is a hard one for me, Joni Mitchel and Neil Young were kind of the backbones of my favorite playlists, but c'est la guerre. Kind of sucks, but I am keeping Spotify, even though I don't even listen to Rogan and to be honest, a lot of the stuff people say about COVID and the vaccines is frustratingly stupid, I have no idea though what Neil Young is actually complaining about. He and Joni should go on Rogan's show and tear him a new one, using facts and logic.
Of course I also have Prime streaming for music, but will I boot it up just to listen to those two? There are still tens of millions of songs. I noticed that XM has been running Neil Young heavily in their rotation, at least for the short time I listened in somebody else's car.
Her analyst told her she was right out of her head.
She's recording a duet of "The Future Belongs to Me" with Neil Young to raise money for Censorship Solidarity, in advance of the March Against Free Speech -- set, naturally, for May Day.
In other news the Biden Administration will be repurposing several pallet loads of "Question Authority" T-shirts by stenciling in new messages provided by heroic luminaries above the iconic line. Merrick Garland supplied "You're a Domestic Terrorist if You", Anthony Fauci decreed "Only Science Deniers" and many (but most notably Greta Thunberg) offered "How Dare You".
Hope I die before I get as old as these two.
They have become what they fought.
So Joni Mitchell is still alive.
You learn something new every day.
And to think Neil had "Rocking in a free World' from the 'Freedom' album. No bigger hypocrite than a Lib.
That’s great … just f*cking great. Unlike Neil Young I actually listen to Joni Mitchell on Spotify.
All these brave artists … were they always this full of shit, useful idiots, purveyors of state propaganda? Or are they just doddering old fools now?
Seems like it’s one or the other.
Both of them can go to hell.
I remember reading a story about Joni Mitchell, that the reason she didn't play at Woodstock was because she was scheduled to appear on The Today Show that next Monday morning and was afraid she wouldn't make it back in time.
When I read that, I thought to myself, hmmmm, now Woodstock's not all that far from NYC where The Today Show was televised and I guess it's possible that bad weather or something could cause a delay in getting back to the City so on the one hand, that's a very responsible way of handling things but on the other hand, that's a very responsible way of handling things. Just not what one expects from someone who's supposed to be a radical, turning on, tuning in, dropping out and so on, such a safe, risk-free way of doing things. And The Today Show? Jeesh, how much more bourgeois can a person get?
Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, all these elderly baby boomers asserting their privilege. I'll start taking this deplatform campaign more seriously when it's Bruno Mars and The Weekend pushing it.
“Hope I die before I get old” … “better to burn out than it is to rust” … yeah well too late for that, poser assholes.
Ever since Dylan sold his catalogue for $300m and his masters for another $200m, musicians have been making a bee-line to cash out. Springsteen is said to have gotten more than half-a-billion!
Neil Young just sold half his catalogue for $150m. Half! And he and Joni Mitchell have the same agent. No doubt their people hope this "boycott" might do a little to juke those numbers even higher for the second half of Neil's catalogue.
And Joni, of course, is yet to make the sale.
Hipgnosis, the company that bought half of Neil Young's songs, markets itself as a company that respects artists intent ever after they sell out.
This is an inexpensive way for Hipgnosis to brand itself in a way that allows musicians like Joni Mitchell to sell out while keeping their crunchy granola reputations intact.
Expect Joni to make a sale soon. Will she sell to Hipgnosis you ask? Oh man, I'm not that cynical.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell’s 60s virtues were all a big, fat lie. Keep on rocking in the free world? Ha ha ha. They paved patadise and put up a parking lot (where they’re now doing free testing, btw)? Pave on O Road Crew! I always liked Neil Young and found his voice iconic and true but the message he and Joni and most of my 60s celebrity brethren and sistern peddled struck me as phony as trans swimmer’s penis.
The problem with Woodstock wasn't so much the weather as was the crowd to get there unless they could helo in.
Cover of a Neil Young song used to support the Canadian truck drivers:
Truckin' the Free World
Ain't art great?
Natural selection in action
They believe that Rogan is spreading lies, but what about the lies the medical establishment is spreading? Isn't Rogan truthier than the people attacking him?
But I guess it's a pretty good career move for people whose careers are pretty much behind them.
"'Hope I die before I get old' … ;better to burn out than it is to rust' … yeah well too late for that, poser assholes."
Townshend's lyric was not his personal feeling. It was a defiant declaration by the confused protagonist of "My Generation, (modeled on the young Mods Townshend observed around him), a declaration revealing the Mod's fear of adult life that he saw rushing swiftly toward him.
Joni and Neil have always been tight:
"In 1965 I was up in Canada, and there was a friend of mine up there who had just left a rock'n'roll band (...) he had just newly turned 21, and that meant he was no longer allowed into his favourite haunt, which was kind of a teeny-bopper club and once you're over 21 you couldn't get back in there anymore; so he was really feeling terrible because his girlfriends and everybody that he wanted to hang out with, his band could still go there, you know, but it's one of the things that drove him to become a folk singer was that he couldn't play in this club anymore. 'Cause he was over the hill. (...) So he wrote this song that was called "Oh to live on sugar mountain" which was a lament for his lost youth. (...) And I thought, God, you know, if we get to 21 and there's nothing after that, that's a pretty bleak future, so I wrote a song for him, and for myself just to give me some hope. It's called 'The Circle Game.'" link
Just not what one expects from someone who's supposed to be a radical, turning on, tuning in, dropping out and so on, such a safe, risk-free way of doing things.
Just so we’re not singling out Joni in this context: I’ve heard from more than one Woodstock attendee Sha Na Na was enormously popular…
That’s an interesting Joni story, btw…
Now old friends they're acting strange, and they shake their heads and they tell me that I've >changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained.
"So, everyone must stay on Spotify or there's no free speech. Yeah, that's the ticket."
I guess that saying that she's wrong to do it takes away her free speech rights, is that how you understand the situation?
It sounds more like they’re in the censorship business as opposed to the podcast business.
I don't use Spotify, and I have pretty much her entire catalog downloaded already anyway. I will always love her music regardless of her political stances. A pioneering genius.
now Woodstock's not all that far from NYC where The Today Show was televised and I guess it's possible that bad weather or something could cause a delay in getting back to the City
The New York State Thruway is closed, man…
F both of them.
Rich white leftist anti-free speechers.
Edward Snowden
Nobody has stronger opinions about Joe Rogan than people who have never listened to Joe Rogan.
Starting to get a Rush Limbaugh vibe. Not to compare Rush to a dope smoking Bernie Bro, but the early days of Rush's skyrocketing popularity equaled by hatred and censorship demands feels very familiar.
Can these raving leftist Soviet elites names what the lies are?
I watched the Joe Rogan + Dr. Malone interview.
Malone is not anti-vaxx. He has warnings and concerns about giving it to children. He has concerns about young men and heart issues. He has concerns about the propaganda used to smother the use of after market therapies... drug therapies that are being used with success. (including in nursing homes where the nursing home owners would like to keep their livelihood and their patients alive.)
Dr. Malone (highly educated in elite institutions - btw) also notes the agreement between Biden and the government of India - who used after-market drugs to help stop the spread of covid - and the Indian government was forced to keep quiet about it.
It's these f*ING LEFTISTS who want people to die.
@tim in vermont: “… I don't even listen to Rogan and to be honest, a lot of the stuff people say about COVID and the vaccines is frustratingly stupid, I have no idea though what Neil Young is actually complaining about. He and Joni should go on Rogan's show and tear him a new one, using facts and logic.”
He and Joni should go on Rogan’s show with medical experts like Malone and McCullough who will reveal new information to Neil and Joni, implying it might be the two of them who are misinformed”.
Rogan has guests that have interesting things to say, for the intellectually curious, especially if they defy narratives that the information gatekeepers don’t approve. Hence the “spreading misinformation” trope (which is Ministry of Truth level bullshit).
People judge it for themselves, just like at every other time in our history. Freedom is like that sometimes, and Joni and Neil are actively on the other side.
Soon you won't be able to find any Boomer-tier music on Spotify at all!
I wouldn't be surprised if that fact finds its way into Spotify advertising campaigns.
someday people will say, Big Yellow Taxi, what is a taxi?
The neo-segregationism has taken hold all across the left.
I should say from the start that I enjoy the music of Neil Young and Joni Mitchel. What they don't understand it that musical talent doesn't translate into any special insight on medicine or politics.
Especially medicine: They both took tons of illegal drugs. Back then, it was because they didn't trust the authorities. you know: The people who banned harmful drugs. Now, they are so trusting of authorities that they are collaborating with them to censor people who doubt the authorities. We've come full circle.
I would have thought Joni and Neil would've kept a more healthy sense of skepticism, given the life they've led. Especially Joni, she who has what is widely regarded as a psychosomatic disease: Morgellons disease
I don’t get the hysteria? What deadly information? That ivermectin can be used as a treatment? Or, that cases of heart issues are being seen in higher rates, especially in young me who have be “vaccinated”? I don’t get it.
Who made them the gatekeepers of “truth”?
$$- by Pink Floyd says it all
‘Paying The Arsonist’: Biden’s COVID Test Contract With China Draws Ire on Capitol Hill
this is the kind of stuff Neil and Joni can get behind.
There seem to be a lot of people who only know two — and it's the same two — Joni Mitchell songs.
My opinion of Joni is now in the toilet.
What can I say? They became their parents.
It's highly ironic that these talented people, who have created sublime beauty from their creative intellects, become paralyzed when it comes to comprehending nuance in their personal daily existence. Their artistic expressions depend upon nuance. Conversationally, on current events? Nuance is AWOL.
But I do know what I, personally can do if Joe Rogan, or Neil Young, or Joni Mitchell says or sings something I don't are for: I can change the channel. All these two imbeciles have done is to withdraw from the conversation without making any impact, or offering their own alternative views and articulating them well enough to change my mind. So long, farewell. If I need your music, I can still find it, free.
Leftists want people to die.
@Robert Cook: Townshend’s lyrics reflected an attitude that represented and was adopted by the entire 60s-70s Rock and Roll generation, and Neil Young was just reinforcing the idea with different lyrics for the punk and New Wave audience.
It’s all connected.
Tom T. said...
Apparently Yoko Ono has threatened to make her music available on Spotify if they don't remove Rogan.
Thread winner right there!
Hell- I waffle on her name!
Johnny?
Joanie?
Don’t really know- and I’m not on Spotify,either- but might have to, now- for Rogan.
Joni Mitchell is a once in a generation singer/song writer talent. Nobody is disparaging her talent or her music.
She voluntarily stepped into the censorship fray, as did Young and others. She didn't say don't listen to Rogan. She demanded a 3rd party not allow others to listen to Rogan.
I think the whole damn thing has become funny because after years of lecturing us; Neil and Joni are taking their ball and going home because they can't win this one.
It's also funny because I've seen so many people say; "Neil who?", with zero trace of irony in it.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/tedros-thanks-neil-rogan-spotify
A pretty pat on the head for dear Neil.
Joni said she thinks Neil is a mean old daddy -- with a kinder, gentler machine-gun hand -- but she likes him. (Then she skated away on a river looking for acid booze & ass, needles guns & grass.
"There seem to be a lot of people who only know two — and it's the same two — Joni Mitchell songs."
Which tells you just how much she'll be missed.
Rogan sure has people in a twist.
But it's not really Rogan. It is his guests. In this case experts in the field of discussion. The experts happen to have a different view than the official White House view.
What do YOU do when MD's give conflicting medical treatments?
GP physicians don't exist in small one or two doctor offices anymore. Clinics. MD, DO, PTA, ARNP, ect. My old MD retired, he required a digital rectal exam, as followup to a PSA blood test. I've since been passed around to various medicos, with varying initials behind their names. Some say the DRE is no longer required.
Who is responsible for spreading disinformation?
(I always ask for the finger. Better safe than sick.)
People spit out "follow the science" with no knowledge of science. Especially medicine. It equal parts science, art, and God. YMMV
Barry Manilow has announced that he has no plans to remove his music and anyone saying that is lying.
The reason Rogan is so popular is correlated with the lack of trust in the government agencies and people managing this pandemic, now endemic. It has to be ok to ask questions and discuss the issues of the day, especially if some people think its a life or death issue and others don’t see it that way now. How the heck are we supposed to learn from and support each other?
If the government was doing a great job at communicating the data, from symptoms and age-level risks to treatments and status of hospitalization and deaths, Rogan would not be so popular. These celebrities aren’t addressing the root cause with their boycotts.
Makes me Blue. (Sorry, had to!)
Isn't joni suffering from an imaginary disease, Morgellons?
Yeah, we should be taking scientific advice from her.
As to the 42 "censored" jre eps, Rogan talked about them the other day. They were all pre-spotify. They are still available, just not from Spotify.
Rogan said, 2-3 says ago, that Spotify has not censored him.
His contact, as I understand it, allows him to walk, keeping the $100mm of they try.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
I love that: more understandable to Americans. I'm Canadianian,I know the divisiveness in the U.S. can go too far, but on many questions there is some debate in the U.S., none in Canada.
I'd like Dr. Joni and Dr. Niel to inform the class why the boosters are no long effective against the omicron variants.
Why are boosted individuals still getting covid?
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a hippie sandal stamping on a human face—for ever."
Blogger Ann Althouse said...
There seem to be a lot of people who only know two — and it's the same two — Joni Mitchell songs.
That says more about Joni than it does about them.
"There seem to be a lot of people who only know two — and it's the same two — Joni Mitchell songs."
The ones pushed by Spotify. That's exactly what motivated me to start making my own playlists, the thought that "Dammit! Joni has written a lot more great songs than 'Big Yellow Taxi'!" But that song makes the political point the curators are pushing. Seriously.
https://media.vogue.co.uk/photos/5f983518de77fb365334393e/master/w_2580%2Cc_limit/joni2.jpg
LOL Meade! That print on that dress gives kind of a Basic Instinct vibe, though.
I guess the trouble with too much fame and fortune is that you lose perspective. You start to believe you really are something special and it’s your job to save the planet. And that’s actually hard work, and likely to embarrass you by exposing that you really are pretty clueless: at least, outside of the very narrow groove which brought you fame and fortune. So you end up doing something easier and less embarrassing; like speechifying about how much you care and pushing other people to show they care. And you can indulge your conceit by taking your ball and going home, sulking and boycotting and blackmailing the very people who made you successful.
Message to fans: I cashed out. You are all just pawns in my senescent tantrum.
I have only created on piece of art in my lifetime.
Lizzie Warren took a tax,
Gave your paycheck forty whacks.
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave your checkbook forty one.
If Joe Biden somehow started using my poem, entitled All of Your Money Belong to She to advance his causes, I would be upset, I admit.
I love Joni's music. Blue is at times my all time favorite album and it's always in the top five. Just a few nights ago, my wife and I watched the Neil Young Heart of Gold music documentary for probably the tenth time, for me. I once again brought up my disappointment in how Young left his wife of thirty-six years for the celebrity jumper. My wife noted that I had been talking about that "for years." Of course, I don't know anything about the Young's marriage, but it bothered that he left his wife at that stage of their lives. It diminished my respect for him and made me not even want to listen to his music for a while. But, I try and seperate the art from the artist. I've never really elevated artists to heroes. The only person I have ever asked to even sign a book or anything is Bill Rodgers, the great runner. I've talked to him a few times at marathon expos. Now if Bob Dylan were to pull a stunt like this, I would probably shake me as he is a whole different level to me than the rest. He is the closest to me of hero status of any artist, and a lot of my reason for this is his steadfast refusal to be pigeonholed into poltical positions and "spokesman for a generation" stuff. Having said that, I've never really wanted to sit down and talk to him. I just love his music. I don't know how much Joni is managing her affairs these days and as for Neil Young, his behavior is consistent with what I expect from him. I don't really need him around, anyhow.
On the other hand:
There’s been a lot of talk about vaccine mandates and venues. People saying, ‘I’m not going to that venue because of the vaccine mandate’ and this, that and the other. Trust me, we’ve done all our research on this and the consensus says that all this is going to be done — if there are any at these venues. I’m not aware of any, but if there are any, they’re going to be gone by the time we get to your city. If they’re not, trust me, you don’t have to worry. You’ll be getting your money back because I won’t be showing up either,”
Kid Rock said.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
I don't use Spotify, and I have pretty much her entire catalog downloaded already anyway. I will always love her music regardless of her political stances. A pioneering genius.
I have a lot of Springsteen albums, CDs and digital. Never listen to them. Because of his political stances.
What Young and Mitchell are really advocating by their actions is a society in which people who hold "bad" beliefs will not have access to goods and services provided by people who hold "good" beliefs. So, for example, if you aren't in favor of doing something about climate change, you won't be able to shop at Kroger's or whatever. Good times.
Spotify could censor Joe Rogan, but it won't stop the facts from coming out.
It's already happening
If your job depends on the First Amendment for protection, this is not a position you should be taking.
The problem with getting old is that your true nature starts to seep from behind the facade you created when younger to make money.
#Teardown the Nonwoven Polypropylene Curtain
"To boycott for censorship — to withhold yourself to gain withholding from others — it's a nasty business."
Prog MO. They like nasty. But woe to righties who "censor" school books.
"Once you get started, where do you end?"
With complete Gleichschaltung and prog rule.
Joni Mitchell…no great loss for me. I was never a big fan. Now if Paul Simon leaves, that would be a great loss. But it’s interesting to me how these left wing, left-over hippies have no tolerance for Rogan’s opinion. They had their chance to be anti-government and demonstrate a different POV, but don’t want Joe to express his opinion. So, I guess the outsiders are now the insiders and Joe is the rebel? Why are they so afraid of him?
A guy who spent years inhaling coke by the pound and punishing his liver with booze, and a woman whose stroke was quite likely brought on by the damage of a her multi-packs-a-day cigarette habit are worried about the world's health.
An old friend of mine from Berkeley was Young's coke supplier in the '70s. Young used to call down from the stage, "Jaaack, wheeeeere's the cooooooooke?" So he'd long ago become a joke to me.
But Joni? Geezus. So very disappointing.
New worthwhile crusade: get boomers to age with the grace and intelligence of our host here.
John henry said...
“Isn't joni suffering from an imaginary disease, Morgellons?“
Has she tried Ivermectin?
I'm not a fan of Rogan, being unable to listen to him for long. Too slow and no content. It's the fault of the guests I think, but what can you do. I like compact.
Bob Wright interviews have the same problem with his (usually young) experts, who as far as I can tell never say anything worthwhile but posture a lot. Mickey Kaus is always a good interview though, every two weeks. Quip contests are fun.
The world winner for compact is the Richard Epstein interview on Econtalk.org, back before it was feminized, running through rule of law for an hour.
podcast
Talk about guests making the show.
Fauci is a prevaricating pouch of poo.
Did Joni make this decision personally? Is she really doing this sort of thing these days? I remember when she was so busy being free.
That was Joni's freedom, which is "important".
Not someone else's freedom, which matters not at all to her.
I appreciate people who are willing to self identify as Nazis. Thank you Joni and Neil for doing so
Let's see if a bunch of these folks bolt. The bulk of Spotify's streaming is classic rock-era stuff. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I think this is a move to force them to pay higher royalties.
X to doubt that the quote unquote loss of Neil Young's and Joni Mitchell's music from Spotify is a loss to Spotify at all.
@Michael K 9:27 said: "Barry Manilow has announced that he has no plans to remove his music and anyone saying that is lying."
@Noam Blum read this too and said (which I thought was very funny):
Oh mandates
you came to me unvaccinated
and I sent you away
oh mandates
you masked me and stabbed me and boosted
with that mRNA.....
Who?
Seemed like the easy thing
To let it go for one more day
They’re singin' the same old song
But twistin' the words
In a different way
Where did their spirit go
I searched high and low
I can't find it no more
They can't get it back
I can't listen no more
I can't listen no more
No more, no more, no more, no more.
Neil and Joni sure have sold out to the man. And the “man” is NOT Joe Rogan. I guess they don’t have a Republican president to bitch about ( instead a demented old man who has been more bigoted in his lifetime than most politicians and who is a frequent misinformation distributor ) so they bitch about Joe Rogan actually having open conversations.
When did they become spokesmen for the government? Oh yea, when a democrat is in office, I forgot.
Rogan has THE most in depth free flowing interviews on the planet from what I see. Very few places can you listen to intelligent people discussing something for a ( almost too long ) time.
Joni and Neil have always been tight
There's a great follow on Twitter, @EsotericCD, who these days stays as far away from politics as he can manage and among other things produces the Political Beats podcasts, exhaustive reviews of musician's careers (the name referring to his guests, typically from the politco/journo world IIRC). Anyway he's a music encyclopedia.
I had no idea of the following, from his feed:
Both Young and Mitchell also suffered from crippling childhood polio. Polio is just a historical reference to us nowadays, but imagine a disease 4,000x worse than COVID, one which *loved* to infect and permanently physically cripple small children. Imagine what that vax meant.
Joni had permanently weak muscles as a result of her polio - as a result she started playing in alternate tunings because her fingers were otherwise too weak to successfully fret barres at first or stretch. Polio changed her music, and changed popular music as a result.
Similarly, Neil's polio (along w/endemic epilepsy) contributed to a physical frailty on his part (including agonizing back problems) that utterly affected his personality and artistic expression.
Young & Mitchell caring about vaxxes is more than theater to them, it's personal.
Hey, I still think it's the wrong decision for all manner of reasons. But it is a bit strange so see so many confident opinions about the motivations of artists like Mitchell or Young from people with absolutely zero familiarity with how their life experiences shape their views.
By the way, this kerfluffle is one reason I buy all the music I care about. CD + ripped to FLAC. I happen not to be a big Neil Young fan but Joni, I'll always have you, you genius.
Freedom of speech is the better choice
What about freedom of association? What if they just don't want to be associated with Spotify because they don't like the company's standards? Isn't that freedom?
“ What Are these "lies"? Who are these "people" that lost "their lives"?
What is being told, that is hurting people?”
Who are these people anyway, to determine who is telling the truth and who is lying here? Yes, I do know who they are, and that is part of the problem. They are musicians, who got famous a half century ago, and done nothing of real consequence since then. Did they go out and get an MD? A PhD in immunology? Or even an MPH? (We have individuals here with 2 of 3). Can they even read scientific and medical papers, and understand enough to determine what they say, and more importantly, don’t say? I would put the probability of any of those things as comparable to someone under 30 without obvious comorbidities dying FROM the virus.
Or course they have no understanding of the details of the scientific debate. They have little understanding of the merits on either side. They very likely have no relevant training or experience. Zip. Zero. Nada. They are (likely formerly) drug addled professional musicians older than most of us here. They just know what they were told that the science currently is. Not even the specifics, but more the generalities, like “masks good” and “boosters save lives”.
The irony probably escapes no one here. A half century ago, they were in the vanguard of telling the rest of us not to trust the government. Now they are telling us just the opposite - to trust the government, and esp the government bureaucracies. They have become the Man that they so hated back then.
Rules for thee but not for me?
I'm sure Joni has vetted the 50,000 podcasters on Apple......you know, for misinformation.
Oh mandates
you came to me unvaccinated
and I sent you away
oh mandates
you masked me and stabbed me and boosted
with that mRNA.....
Nice.
Except now I have to get that song out of my head.
Mitchell’s “Just Like This Train” is one of my faves from the past. Brings back so many memories…
Oh well…
John Althouse Cohen said...
“What about freedom of association? What if they just don't want to be associated with Spotify because they don't like the company's standards? Isn't that freedom?“
This is very close to the argument I remember being made by segregationists during the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s.
shut up and dance - definition
An admonition for entertainers commonly ignored by entertainers, typically due to their erroneous belief that their presence in entertainment media translates to an importance of their views.
Brandi Carlile will be next. Wait for it.
The Narcissist is always a narcissist, and Boomers especially.
The 60’s ‘rebellion’ was about them and their desires: sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. They ‘rebelled’ against rules restraining their foul hedonism.
Today is no different.
They’re old, weak, vulnerable.
Who is at risk from Covid?
Them.
To hell with school kids, the working class, the small business. Save THEM!
No, it’s not freedom of association. They want Spotify to REMOVE to ERASE Rogan, to SHUT him down. They have turned into the fascists that they supposedly abhor. If not, they are leaving due to his freedom of speech. No tolerance here from the 60’s freedom fighters. These “artists” are not to be admired. It’s their way or the highway. Typical progressive leftists. I don’t think Rogan has demanded that any recording artists be removed from Spotify due to their song lyrics.
“What about freedom of association? What if they just don't want to be associated with Spotify because they don't like the company's standards? Isn't that freedom?“
Now do Colorado bakers and wedding photographers.
John Althouse Cohen said...
Freedom of speech is the better choice
What about freedom of association? What if they just don't want to be associated with Spotify because they don't like the company's standards? Isn't that freedom?
Spoken like a true segregationist.
What about freedom of association? What if they just don't want to be associated with Spotify because they don't like the company's standards? Isn't that freedom?
Somewhat!
@EsotericCD said much the same in that thread I quoted:
Like it or don't; freedom of association also means freedom of disassociation. It's their call.
Yes. But it damages the free speech culture. No Voltaire for us!
I'm in my 60's and it deeply troubles me to think how less free the country is today than when I was young. I wouldn't trade every part of that culture for today's, but freedom of expression hasn't been this restricted since President Wilson's sedition laws.
Spotify is in a tough place financially because of Neil Young’s withdrawal. Spotify stock lost two billion dollars in value since Young pulled his music, and additional defections will probably hurt it even more. 50% of the stock is held by institutional investors like Black Rock, and roughly 30 percent is owned by mutual funds. Vanguard is also a big owner. I suspect that the new emphasis on stakeholder, green, and sustainability investing might explain some of this decline, as these institutional investors dump the stock for political reasons. Institutional
investors may be using their power to enforce political orthodoxy. Let’s hope Spotify can weather the storm.
I guess we never sang "We Are The World" enough and became better people.
The actions of Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Young bring to mind another song from the early 70's. "You're so vain". Might change Carly Simon's lyrics a bit which go, "You're so vain you probably think this song is about you, don't you, don't you".
To something along the lines of "You probably think someone cares about your views".
The world has grown tired of posturing purveyors of pandemic political correctness. Joni and Neil--too soon old, too late smart.
At 59, I'm only aware of a few of their songs. And I find myself wanting to do searches to discover what else they did. Those old fogies are pretty clever.
No one is saying these Doctors... er I mean artists, cannot stomp off in ignorant fashion.
Stomp off and away.
These doctors... er I mean "artists" are doing so to apply Soviet pressure.
I just want to say I hope more Fascist scum openly self identify before the fun starts.
We wouldn't want to leave any deserving people out.
John Althouse Cohen @ 10:51: “
What about freedom of association? What if they just don't want to be associated with Spotify because they don't like the company's standards? Isn't that freedom?”
I thought the point of being an artist was to compete in the marketplace of ideas and tastes and imagination, and find a way to connect with your audience. It’s a funny way to do that, by withdrawing your art from earshot or viewing.
Would Joni or Neil have refused to set foot on a stage that had been sullied by the previous presence of artists with whose opinions they disagreed?
"Spotify stock lost two billion dollars in value since Young pulled his music,"
Which happened during a general market correction.
Back to the irony a bit. The interviews that really set off the firestorm against Joe Rogan were those of Dr Robert Malone, and then other vaccine skeptics. If you read (I don’t listen) to the big Malone interview, along with other stuff has has put out recently, there is an insane amount of detail. That’s part of why I like reading transcripts - if I don’t recognize something, I can just highlight it, look it up (usually an automatic option for highlighted text with an iPad), and start down another rabbit hole. I have spent hours doing this on Malone’s stuff. And it all hangs together - though Malone doesn’t know all the answers, but readily admits it. He clearly knows more of them though than almost anyone else out there. So, the two main hypotheses are, to me, \that either he is mostly right, or is behind an elaborate fake. But surely there are those who could expose the elaborate fake fairly easily, and have all the incentives in the world to do so (e.g. government funding, fame, etc). Instead, the response is to try to deplatform and silence him. And that is the real debate, what appears to be extremely in-depth science, down at times to the molecular level, but mostly at the cellular level, versus a group of geriatric musicians, who rose to fame telling us to not trust the Man. telling us now to trust that same Man about the science.
I love the way people that revel in the technology that Boomers created, and that did not exist prior, are so dismissive of the tech savvy of Boomers. OK, GenXers had a hand in it.
Back in the day when they were anti-war and anti establishment, did they refuse to let their music be played on any station that allowed pro-war or pro-establishment content?
I stopped listening to classic rock and roll a long time ago. Boring to listen to the same songs over and over and over again. Moved on to jazz which is very diverse and contains the best instrumentalists. And totally about just the music and nobody virtue signaling their political opinions.
Christopher said...
Young & Mitchell caring about vaxxes is more than theater to them, it's personal.
You didn't hear a peep out of either one of them 15 years ago when all the hairy armpit, nose ring, neo-hippy moms refused to let their children receive common vaccines (including polio) because Jenny McCarthy said it causes autism.
I’m so old that I remember when people would respond to Rogan and Young/Mitchell with the commonly-accepted view: It’s a free country, right?
Isn’t listening to Spotify a choice for which you pay money? Didn’t Rogan choose to sign with Spotify so he wouldn’t be censored? Didn’t Young/Mitchell choose to sell the rights to play their music to Spotify for their personal financial gain?
So what is the problem here? People have choices in a free country. It’s still a free country, right?
Dunno. Rogan got through Rona pretty easily with his heretical treatment.
Joni and Neil should sandle up their pasty white asses and hit the hood where jab rates are lowest.
Good God, another old singer pushing her way into the headlines. She's almost 80 fucking years old. All her greatest hits were done 40-50 years ago. She's one of the greatest song writers of all time per Rolling stone. Her hits include: Ladies of the Canyon etc.
And I've never heard of her. Hold it....went to Youtube and her a song of her's i know:
Both Sides Now
Although I think its better when covered by other singers.
I've updated my favorite Joni song to make it a bit more relevant...
I was a masked man in Paris
Completely fettered but alive
Fauci was blabbing about social distance
A normal future to deride
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the vaccine alarm
Stoking the fear making machinery
Behind more Pfizer in my arm
As with Neil, I have hours of Joni's music on LPs, CDs and MP3s, so it's really not going to change my world
Neither Neil Young nor Joni Mitchell is a baby boomer.
I'll wait here for apologies.
Leland said...Fauci admitted to lying about masks to protect the supply of them when few were infected in the US.
--
Had it right the first time, then the power of usesless visible compliance found value.
The problem with Young and Mitchell is they want to censor Joe Rogan. Its not they "don't want to be associated with Spotify". They're willing to be with Spotify if they censor Joe Rogan.
its no different from my wife and I going to the owner of our local coffeshop and telling them to fire a barista we dislike because she posted a liberal tweet we saw, or else he loses our business.
No one is forcing Mitchell or Young to listen to Rogan. No one in the Government is implementing policies because of Joe Rogan. Mitchell and Young just want to crush Joe Rogan because they don't like his politics.
So what is the problem here? People have choices in a free country. It’s still a free country, right?
And they made a choice, which is going to cost them a good chunk of money. It's still a free country, isn't it?
Bruce Hayden @ 11:32: What you said. Dr. Malone impressed me as qualified to comment on the virus, on its predictable (and predicted) evolution/escape from control by the “vaccine” (more of a mitigating factor than a perfect barrier to infection and illness), on the increasingly inept and contradictory policies imposed by “experts,” on the increasingly tyrannical attempts to throttle free speech and even honest inquiry. He also more or less *begged* people to bring forward new facts and better science to refute or improve what he said.
Joe Rohan’s crime was to listen intelligently and guide the conversation. Well, that right there is plenty enough reason to send Neil and Joni into a terminal sulk.
Hard to believe this is really happening.
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
It ends when the man comes
To take you away
“ Neither Neil Young nor Joni Mitchell is a baby boomer.”
Good point. Theirs is known as the Silent Generation.
Obviously, Althouse like many others like these warbling guitarists, who write relaltively sophisticated lyrics.
I like a few of their songs. But too many of their songs sound the same to my ears. Plus, no beat. No dancing. And not really beautiful. And they usually aren't the greatest vocalists in the world.
That's just my take.
I'll wait here for apologies.
Technically you are correct.
However I maintain that they are both far more representative of the Baby Boomers than the Greatest Generation.
Maybe the old are more susceptible to "mass psychosis formation".
Mitchell born 1943. She's bascially a boomer. 20 when JFK died. twenty-five in 1968. Not much difference between the true boomer of 1946 and her. She was 5, when TV started in 1948. 12 when Elvis was on the Sullivan show.
These old artists are seeing their music and their influence on the culture fading and found a way to feel involved and relevant. And maybe gain a few younger fans. Good for them.
But, unfortunately they've chosen to be on the wrong side of history, haven't they? Have those in favor of censorship ever been on the right side of history? Too bad for their legacy, unless hypocrisy was their goal.
Someday, probably in the not too distant future, the numbers will be published that tell the whole, ugly story about the harm caused by the heavy-handed and oppressive response to a virus that has a survival rate over 99%. And all the Neil Young's and Joni Mitchell's will look pretty damn stupid.
So are Neil and Joni be going door to door to interrogate us to see if it is acceptable for us to listen to their music?
I think they are going to get a lot more "who are you?" than they expect.
Richard Dillman said...
Spotify is in a tough place financially because of Neil Young’s withdrawal. Spotify stock lost two billion dollars in value since Young pulled his music, and additional defections will probably hurt it even more.
Meh.
The entire market is down across the board. Not just stocks.
Bonds would be inverted if there was more than one customer for them.
The question is whether we make it to Web 3.0 before the Regime pulls the entire market down.
Technically, basically, yada, yada, yada.
Facts is facts.
Freder Frederson said...
So what is the problem here? People have choices in a free country. It’s still a free country, right?
And they made a choice, which is going to cost them a good chunk of money. It's still a free country, isn't it?
They are totally free to be fascist shitheads.
And right now fascist shitheads are somewhat protected by the state.
But the BLM movement and the Regime in general are trying to tear down our social contracts.
What happens to known fascist shitheads when social order falls apart?
Down by the river,
I vaxxed my baby.
Down by the river.
Dead, ooh, ooh, vaxxed her dead, ooh.
And they made a choice, which is going to cost them a good chunk of money. It's still a free country, isn't it?
Neil Young and Peter Frampton sold the rights to their music long ago. Young for $150 million bucks. Same with Joni Mitchell, with Reservoir, and I don't think she'll be on food stamps anytime soon.
Frampton has complained he was paid only $1,700 from Spotify for his streams.
In other words, none of these artists have much skin in the game to play their fascism games.
I sing the song because I love the man
I know that some of you don't understand
Milk blood to keep from running out
I've seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie's like a settin' sun
On the bright side, if inflation keeps going up, the riots in the cities return in the summer, Uncle Joe gets us into a war with Russia, and so on - then maybe popular music will get good again.
rcocean said...
Both Sides Now
Although I think its better when covered by other singers.
I am particularly fond of Dave Von Ronk and the Hudson Dusters. A lot of people including joni m do it kind of uptempo. Dvr is more of an old time bluesy.
John LGBTQBNY Henry
I find the anti-war left.... strangely silent over Joe's and Putin's war with Ukraine.
Especially troubling considering that the Biden family is ultra-wealthy now due to the insider deals the Biden family made with Ukraine while Joe was VP.
You'd think Joe could show some gratitude.
"This is very close to the argument I remember being made by segregationists during the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s."
Yep. It was right then, and it's right now.
This is just the latest iteration of elite artistic snobbery and politics. Used to be the artist would not allow people they dislike to use their music in political campaigns or at campaign events. Of course, it was always only one party that always got denied. Then there were the poets who refused to attend an event sponsored by Laura Bush. Now, they are trying to censor other content creators.
I've got to say I agree with Jonathan Althouse Cohen. Freedom of speech without freedom of association compels every speaker to endorse every forum as well as potentially every other speaker they choose to host. Neil Young has a right to choose the contracts and business models that suit him - whether with Spotify or anyone else. I would think every other artist should, as well.
Continuing to make these things about "free speech" is more and more evidently becoming an anti-free enterprise approach. Artists should have the right to choose if they want to distribute their works through Spotify, Pandora, both, neither, some other channel, or any combination of the foregoing. I don't see why Neil Young should be deprived of that right on Joe Rogan's or Spotify's account. The latter are already doing well enough and don't need to compel implicit associations by artists that have a different interest whether personal or commercial.
In the case of Young - a childhood polio survivor, that interest seems to be backing away from carnival barkers profiting from the spectacle of anti-medical propaganda. If I applaud that am I censoring Rogan or just associating instead with Neil Young's own freely exercised associations (Pandora) and speech preferences? (Rejecting misinformation). No one person or network hosting him should require the monopolization over others to make the case for the freedom they offer.
"It's still a free country, isn't it?"
Yep, and we are free to criticize their choice to attempt to deplatfom Joe Rogan, although nobody here is suggesting that Neil Young be deplatfomed for his unAmerican ( I know, they are both Canadian) stand on free speech.
What are odds that Rogan invites them on his show?
Ferdinande says: "Data" says: "Unvaccinated 12-34 year-olds in Washington are
• 5 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with fully vaccinated 12-34 year-olds."
She's spreading harmful panic among the peasantry!
"Deaths are only shown for Washingtonians 65 years old and older due to the relatively smaller number
of deaths in other age groups and *associated instability in rates when assessing by vaccination status." (page 10)
* That means: too few deaths to count accurately and meaningfully."
And of course, these "data" leave out the health conditions of the people hospitalized or dying. Overall pattern: less than 10% involve people without "comorbidities." Adjust for that, and the risk to healthy 12-34 year olds is nearly nil.
The only reason I have Spotify is to listen to Rogan. I don’t agree with much that he has to say and I think some of guest are loons. It just that damn entertaining and you almost never listen to a show without having to think. As far as Joni and Young go there are a million other ways listen to their music and I have yet to listen to anybody’s music on Spotify so it’s no loss. It’s just sad see them turn into fascist.
Maybe I should leave iTunes for Spotify.
It would be in keeping with buying a pillow, a cookbook, a self-help book, a hunter gatherer guide to the 21 century, and couple of Dr Zeus children's books.
As Althouse might say: don't put your wallet in your mouth ;)
@rcocean. No. Born in 1943 doesn’t make her a Boomer. That started in either. 1946 or 1949: depending on your definition. Completely different set of experiences. The oldest Boomers were starting HS when JFK was assassinated. Not young adults like her. Our fathers were the ones who had fought, returned, and were making up for lost time. Our mothers had worked, and were then pushed out of their jobs to make room for the returning vets, due to a concerted campaign by the govt and the MSM that their job was to raise kids (the cause of the Baby Boom was not larger families, but a much higher percentage of married couples having kids - the birth rate for married couples was on a fairly straight line graph decline from colonial times. Most of the maiden aunts and uncles of the former generation got married in the Greatest Generation, thus the Pig In A Python Baby Boom generation). Of course, the problem has always been that most of the leaders of the Baby Boom generation were really several years older, from the War Baby generation.
Jupiter said...
"This is very close to the argument I remember being made by segregationists during the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s."
Yep. It was right then, and it's right now.
Only in the presence and strict enforcement of strong anti-trust laws.
Even Oligarchies are too restrictive if you allow complete freedom of association.
Censorin' man, better keep your head
Don't forget what your good book said
Censorin' change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast
Censorin' man
"This is very close to the argument I remember being made by segregationists during the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s."
Yep. It was right then, and it's right now.
You forgot to add the part where it's right forever.
I just pulled up Spotify. Joni is on there, for now.
As to only two songs are noted here: Taxi is #1 in her downloads. Both Sides is #5.
The reality is that it is becoming ever more obvious that the science is not on their side. So, why are they picking this hill to die on? I think that the answer is that they had been given orders to take the hill, and hold it until they received further orders. But they never got the orders to pull back. They were never given the orders, because there was no one, really, to give them.
President GW Bush was a Decider. Trump could, and did, pivot on a dime. Biden can, maybe, decide what ice cream to eat, and little else. Whenever he does decide something else, his supporters are, inevitably, embarrassed by his decision. This was, pretty much by design. The Dems were very happy with the Obama Administration, where cabinet posts, departments, and agencies were awarded to interest groups as fiefs. He didn’t intrude much in this, except when it started to embarrass him. They kinda did it again with Biden, except that in many areas, it is the bureaucrats really in charge. No one has truly overseen the operations of the public health bureaucracies. So, we apparently have Fauci going around the laws and regs in funding Gain of Function research on SARS type bat borne coronaviruses, by paying the ChiComs to do it through cutouts, that very likely brought us COVID-19. Maybe worse, the FDA still, better than a year into the FJB Administration, in the midst of the pandemic (thanks, again, Dr Fauci), has yet to get a Senate confirmed Director. That means that FDA bureaucrats are running the agency, essentially unsupervised. That might not be an issue, except that they are notorious for long ago having been captured by Big Pharma (agency capture). There has long been a revolving door between those companies and the top tiers of the FDA. One of the most egregious of these has long been Pfizer. There should be no surprise by anyone that the agency has approved their drugs despite clearly inadequate testing, and for several key demographics, no real testing whatsoever, while ham handedly squashing any treatment alternatives (e.g. HCZ, Ivermectin, and now clinal antibodies) that might cut into their sales. So, what we have are FDA officials socializing, carpooling, etc, with Big Pharma employees, making these decisions, and also knowing that their next, much more lucrative, job will be with one of these companies. So, what are some incidental deaths from their vaccines, or the withholding of effective therapeutics, if Pfizer, etc, profits increase?
That is why no orders to retreat were given - because the fox is in charge of the henhouse, and retreating would very likely affect Big Pharma profits.
Imagine 1970 Joni watching 2022 Joni.
I could not give a shit about Neil Young. Though I like some of his music, he has always been an asshole who got more mileage out of bad guitar playing and horrible singing than anyone I can think of. (Dylan sounds like Sinatra compared to Young caterwauling "Rockin' in the Free World").
But Joni...
That's an entirely different level of 'Oh'.
I have to say it's disappointing, but not surprising. Now that she's pulled the trigger, expect to see an all-out assault by Hollywood and music industry lefties who spent their careers singing about freedom and decrying The Man, only to grow up, get old, and beg the man to keep them safe and secure from those rambling citizens below screaming for this thing called 'freedom' and offering up their own damned opinions. Who do these citizens think they are??
The good news is that I don't subscribe to Spotify and I have enough Joni in my own iTunes collection to get me through as far as I need. The bad news is that I do listen to an occasional Joe Rogan podcast. Not many, but a few. I also listen to all of Bari Weiss's podcasts. Sure would be a shame if she were to turn into collateral damage. We've seen the Left get wholeheartedly behind censoring now for a few years. How do they reconcile being on the same side as Presidents Xi and Biden in looking at their fellow citizens as less than human, undeserving of freedom and the ability to live for our own sake?
Bruce,
That all sounds like stuff a Liberal protest-y type would sing about.
I guess fear driven submission to an irreversible, but yet repeatable, procedure creates helluva confirmation bias.
Btw, Malone is in Hawaii doing this and that.
Nothing at all, really...sumpin' about tip of the iceberg or some such nonsense.
How do artists who've sold the rights to their music decide where it will be played?
Those who used to rail against "the man keeping people down" are totally digging being the man, keeping people down.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/01/the-week-in-pictures-neil-old-edition.php
For sh:/$ and giggles
"And they made a choice, which is going to cost them a good chunk of money. It's still a free country, isn't it?"
It's still a free country, so we're free to criticize them. Also, it would be a little less free if they had gotten their way.
Two hippies down, many to go. Why do I think Eric Cartman is behind this somehow?
shauna
@goldengateblond
in a world of Eric Claptons, be a Neil Young
Rolling Stone
@RollingStone
“They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young,” Neil Young wrote in a letter to his manager and label, “Not both." Young demands Spotify remove his music over "false information about vaccines" https://rol.st/3nXPaML
8:40 PM · Jan 24, 2022
--
Good work blondie!
Neil, a polio survivor, is pissed at Malone..who worked at Salk Institute.
The biggest lie Joni ever told was the one to herself:
"Two packs of Camels a day aren't destroying my voice."
Meade @12:13PM…
Yes!
I wanna live
With a mask on my face
I could be happy
The rest of my life
With a mask on my face
I worship teh Fauci
I live in Marin
I hate David Crosby
I can’t snort teh ‘caine with
A mask on my face
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