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ICYMI: Six Big News Stories From The Past Week

In this installment of their weekly Sunday Six conversation, PF Whalen and Parker Beauregard of The Blue State Conservative break down six major news stories from the turbulent past week.

#6: Cancel culture sharks smell Joe Rogan’s blood in the water.

PF: If the old saying “any publicity is good publicity” is true, then Joe Rogan is on a roll. Two weeks ago he was making headlines due to the ultimatum issued by has-been rocker Neil Young to Spotify, demanding the streaming service either remove Rogan’s podcasts or Young’s music from their catalog. Spotify held their ground and let go of Young’s tunes, but made a dreadful mistake in the process, and Rogan has unfortunately followed their lead. What were the errors of Spotify and Rogan?

Apologizing.

After they sent Young packing, Spotify inexplicably agreed to pull some of Rogan’s podcasts and issue “misinformation” warnings on others, all because Rogan had the nerve to bring on guests with varying opinions on COVID and vaccines. At that point, the cancel culture vultures began to circle, having sensed Spotify’s weakness. Then, a hit job was performed by digging up old audio of Rogan using the n-word while referencing rap song lyrics. In the clips, Rogan hadn’t advocated for the word or used it in an inflammatory manner, he was just reciting lyrics. Accusations that Rogan is a racist followed, and calls to de-platform him intensified.

When Rogan issued an apology on Instagram, explaining that he’s not a racist, the dam broke. Personalities such as Andrew Yang and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ran away and threw Rogan under the bus on the way out. When Rogan issued an apology on Instagram, explaining that he’s not a racist, the dam broke. Then Spotify issued another apology – so much apologizing – this time to their employees, which was another dreadful mistake.

Calls to cancel Rogan haven’t subsided, they’ve only increased. Rogan and Spotify need to toughen up and say, “enough.” Stand firm. There’s nothing wrong with discussing opinions on COVID with qualified individuals and Joe Rogan isn’t a racist just because he uttered a racist word while discussing song lyrics. The left’s entire effort to silence Rogan is happening because they don’t like what he has to say, and no amount of contrition will stop it.

#5: The Freedom Convoy backs Justin Trudeau into a corner – and he’s sounding more and more maniacal.

Parker: The Freedom Convoy is still the story of the week. Entering its third week, it’s really been the main story since January 29th, when thousands of trucks and protesters entered Ottawa proper. There has been nothing but increasing momentum ever since, with similar protests cropping up throughout various Canadian cities and some much-needed economic blockading on major international ports of entry.

It seems safe to say at this point that elitist punks, Justin Trudeau chief among them, did not expect a sustained rally for freedom. Likely, they thought if they ignored it (by him scurrying away to an “undisclosed” location at the start) they could weather the proverbial storm. They could not have been more wrong. Cold temperatures, confiscated gasoline, and police intimidation have not deterred the freedom fighters from making their voices – and car horns – heard.

It’s remarkable how hard the ruling class has tried to shut them down. The corporate media has done everything in its power to label them white supremacists and terrorists, Trudeau and others (like Gretchen Whitmer) have bemoaned the economic harm (ha!) inflicted upon the people of Canada and Michigan in the midst of the blockades, GoFundMe tyranically and embarrassingly attempted to steal $10 million of legitimately raised funds, and the Canadian government even tried to shut down GoFundMe’s more conservative rival GiveSendGo, which gave them the middle finger in return. All the while, the entire leftist establishment, which for its entire existence has tried to frame itself as the liberator of the oppressed working class, has exposed itself as the massive fraud we always knew it was.

There are too many clips of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau pretending to have “heard” the protestors but asking them to go home before he has to take further, unspecified action against them. The soft-spoken reminder of his intended tyranny is pathologically frightening.

#4: Blue states reverse position on mask mandates without any data to cite.

PF: Governors in several blue states have read the political tea leaves with COVID and mask mandates, even if Joe Biden is still trying to figure things out. On Monday, Democratic governors in the deep blue states of California, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware all announced either complete elimination or significant easing of indoor mask requirements, even though the Biden Administration continues to stand by mask mandates for schools.

The reality is mask mandates have never worked. Statistics show that schools, states, and countries that have implemented mask mandates have seen no differentiation in infections compared to those that haven’t. Telling people they must wear masks doesn’t mean they’ll wear them properly, particularly when we’re talking about kids. One might say ‘better late than never’ regarding these states finally coming to their senses, but it’s clear these decisions were purely political.

There has been no change in the data regarding masks and mask mandates. None. And none of the blue state governors who reversed course even tried to cite any during their announcements. There’s never been data to support mask mandates, and that hasn’t changed. But what has changed is public opinion. Americans have had it with COVID, but more importantly Americans are fed up with authoritarian government officials treating us like puppets. And with Democrats heading towards flaming defeat at the ballot box in November, they’re trying to minimize the damage. But it’s too late. Politicians like New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and California’s Gavin Newsom have lifted their skirts for all to see. They have been exposed.

#3: The Covid narrative is crumbling!

Parker: This is such a big story that it warranted piggybacking off you a little bit. Even then, there is simply too much to review in a few paragraphs. Let me just recap a few things and refer back to some other stories we covered this week. Big picture is that countries, provinces, states, and localities are rolling back vaccine and mask mandates left and right. Multiple European countries like Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and The U.K. abruptly canceled their harsh and restrictive measures. Since the Freedom Convoy entered Ottawa, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec have likewise announced ending previously draconian efforts at killing freedom. All are acknowledging that we must simply live with Covid as an endemic virus.

Here at home, like you said, blue states from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Nevada, among others, announced the end of state-wide mandates on masking. After threats of a dark winter of death from the White House just a few weeks back, this swift reversal is based on anything but science.

My own Minnesota roots demand that I share an absolutely absurd rollback in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. It’s great for freedom, but it pains the mind to think of how clueless and helpless voters are that keep returning people like this to office. On January 19th, just three weeks ago, the two inept boy mayors (Melvin Carter and Jacob Frey) announced vaccine passports for all establishments serving food and/or drinks within city limits. Mask mandates were and remain in place. Again, to highlight the amazingly tight turnaround, just a few weeks later they have lifted all such vaccine restrictions. A three-week vaccine passport implementation? How stupid is this, and how stupid do they think we are? (Don’t answer that.)

These idiots put in passport systems with no benchmarks for success, no long-term vision, no exit strategy, and no thinking whatsoever with the hopes of making life miserable enough that their idiot constituency accepts vaccination as the only path forward. When that failed, and when businesses rallied to sue on account of losing money and patriots across Canada and the U.S. began showing up in droves to protest tyranny, these power-hungry fools pretended that the worst of Covid was behind us.

#2: Stacey Abrams commits a massive political blunder.

PF: On Tuesday, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams apologized (is it just me, or does there seem to be way too much apologizing going on nowadays?) for not wearing a mask in a classroom with dozens of young, masked schoolchildren during a reading session celebrating Black History Month. The apology rang hollow, of course, because the only thing for which Abrams is truly sorry is the negative backlash that’s been received from the widely publicized photo. She’s not sorry for not wearing the mask while the kids were, she’s sorry about the repercussions.

That photo will be used in virtually every campaign ad by her Republican opponent leading up to the general election in November, and rightfully so. The picture shows the utter hypocrisy of Abrams, wearing her Cheshire Cat grin while the students wear mandated masks and suffer the long-term damage they cause to their social skills, personalities, and learning ability. Abrams’ colossal misstep is an absolute gift to Republicans and is one of the worst political errors in recent memory.

But what is most astonishing to me with this story is the complete lack of self-awareness from not only Abrams, but from scores of other Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Democrats have always employed double standards. The rules don’t apply to them, only to us peasants. But they used to be good at hiding it. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Al Gore never practiced what they preached on an entire litany of issues, but they were adept at concealing their duplicity. But modern Democrats, most of them it seems, don’t even bother to try and disguise their disdain for the common people. It’s remarkable to watch, and we can only hope there’s a political price to pay soon.

#1: The Oscars and the Super Bowl remind us just how much the elites hate us.

Parker: This isn’t a groundbreaking realization, but we need to keep this fact at the forefront of peoples’ minds. The elites and the ruling class hate me, they hate you, and they hate our freedom. The elites and ruling class truly believe – they know it in their own hearts – that they are better than us and know better than us and therefore are doing good by subjugating us. To borrow a quote from C.S. Lewis:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

How many examples do we need, and more importantly do the brainwashed sheep need, of self-serving tyrants doing whatever they want during Covid while simultaneously telling us to be afraid and locking us in our homes for our own good? Barack Obama threw a gigantic birthday party. AOC flew to Florida. The list goes on and on. Now, despite Los Angeles requiring proof of vaccination to do pretty much anything, the Oscars event announced there’d be no vaccination litmus test and the Super Bowl would be hosting hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city. Just a few weeks ago the local party leaders (Newsom, Garcetti, etc.) were photographed without masks while hobnobbing at the NFC championship game.

When fame, money, or inconvenience to the ruling class is on the line, just know that the rules are never the same for them. The next time a friend or family member votes Democrat, let them know they are simply voting for more and more programming that invariably hates them too. Remember, the useful idiots are always the first go, too.

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Featured photo is a screengrab from YouTube that has been cropped

This story syndicated with permission from The Blue State Conservative