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To expand on the original post, I keep a list of 'informative sources' for my kids, and share it along with a similar 'medical information that seems legitimate' list for patients.
Here's the most recent update. The internet is sometimes super-informative, but there is a lot of garbage to filter out.
Perhaps the most interesting stuff I've listened to recently is the highly varied and 'controversial' interviews Tucker Carlson has posted.
I know that the conventional wisdom among the self-anointed ‘intellectuals’ is now to hate Carlson, because the way we deal with political differences now is to pick a side, then just attack everyone who doesn’t 100% agree with us. The problem with that is not only that there are thus never any good (peaceful, cooperative) solutions, only name-calling and ‘cancelling’, but also that most topics are far more nuanced than the bumper-sticker level of dialogue typically able to penetrate the ‘mainstream news’ or the ‘social media’. There are, however, a handful of people who are sincerely interested in exploring different topics, contextualizing them in terms of history and prior human experience, discussing what if any differences our modern technology introduces into the situation, and then seeing how we might develop safe ways to explore new options, to decide what, if any, public policy directions might be socially beneficial without further threatening the stability and safety of what we have now.
Typically, although it is polite to ‘equivocate’ and say “Well the Left and Right are both full of kind and good people, and both have their bad apples,” and leave it at that, there is often little symmetry in the ways the Left and Right behave, because at fundamental levels they have different values and different tolerances for violations of things like the Constitution – in fact they often can’t even agree on what the Constitution says. The ends-justify-the-means philosophy, and the tolerance for censorship and violence are examples of areas where the political spectrum is far from symmetric, with the ‘left’ or current crop of Democrat Party adherents finding far less of an issue with these things than the ‘right’ or current Republican Party adherents do.
Of course the view of our political ‘spectrum’ as a one-dimensional axis of “Left vs Right” is simplistic and ridiculous – at a minimum we have an ‘economic’ and a ‘social’ axis, as the libertarian’s “Nolan Square”, or probably better yet a “Friesian Cube” like
https://friesian.com/quiz.htm or beyond, reflective of the full spectrum of human interaction and values.
Anyway, Tucker Carlson is pretty much dismissed by the Left as a “racist” or “right wing extremist”, because he dares to interview people all across the spectrum. Of interest, those on the political Right seem pretty comfortable with such interviews, and exposure to ideas that even include ones they disagree with; typical the conversations in these long-format interviews are also respectful and civil. Sadly, the only individuals the Left considers ‘broad minded’ or ‘inclusive’ are the ones who refuse to interview or discuss topics with Conservatives, so the Left continues to live somewhat in a ‘bubble’ of ignorance and misinformation.
Here's some examples of the varied Carlson long-format interviews I’ve found fascinating:
• Matt Walsh – (‘conservative’ Christian advocate)
https://rumble.com/v6ssihl-matt-walsh-a ... right.html
• Ben Cohen (Liberal founder of Ben & Jerry’s) -
https://rumble.com/v6t1ff7-the-tucker-c ... errys.html
• Shawn Ryan (special forces veteran) -
https://youtu.be/7KufJvBEYZQ
• Ray Dalio (hedge fund operator) -
https://rumble.com/v6orcj6-the-tucker-c ... dalio.html
• Catherine Fitts (economist & former HUD chair) -
https://rumble.com/v6sot71-catherine-fi ... oncom.html
• Alex Jones (conspiracy theorist) -
https://rumble.com/v6rx23x-the-tucker-c ... jones.html
• Glen Loury (black economist) -
https://rumble.com/v6t6ceh-glenn-loury- ... one-t.html
• Bret Weinstein (evolutionary biologist) -
https://rumble.com/v6ta5vx-tucker-debat ... stein.html
• Glen Greenwald (helped expose surveillance-state along with Snowden) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ndIxdM1BA
Other informative and I think credible ‘podcasts’ and individuals to keep up on current events and put them in historical context:
o Making the Argument (Nick Freitas – special forces veteran, libertarian, and well-versed in history and economics) -
https://www.youtube.com/@MakingTheArgument
o Triggernometry (Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster – Europeans who tend to interview a wide variety of people on many topics) -
https://www.youtube.com/@triggerpod
o Shawn Ryan Podcast (Shawn Ryan – special forces veteran, bringing many things into world political perspective) -
https://rumble.com/c/ShawnRyanShowRumble
o Darkhorse Podcast (Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying – evolutionary biologists) -
https://rumble.com/c/darkhorse
o Darkhorse Chris Williamson (Chris Williamson - English podcast interviewer) -
https://youtube.com/@chriswillx
o Tom Bilyeu Podcast (Tom Bilyeu – interviews a wide variety of people on many topics) -
https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeu
o David Rubin Podcast (David Rubin – formerly ‘liberal’ gay journalist who realized the Democrat Party is dangerous to liberty) -
https://rumble.com/c/RubinReport
o TimcastIRL (Tim Poole – libertarian interviewer of many people and variety of topics) -
https://rumble.com/c/TimcastIRL
Others who are more often interviewed than interviewing, but worth listening to:
o Jordan Peterson – brings human nature into political context -
https://www.youtube.com/@JordanBPeterson
o Victor Davis Hanson – amazing historic context -
https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273/videos
o Thomas Sowell – economist exposing socialist hypocrisy -
https://www.youtube.com/@sowelltoday
I notice that the ‘Conservatives’ I’ve given this list to often contact me in a few weeks and thank me for ‘broadening their horizons’ and although they may disagree with someone like Ben Cohen, they enjoy hearing his ideas, presented coherently and respectfully, and they react with reciprocal respect. The ‘Liberals’ I give this list to will listen to the ones they think they will agree with, and ignore the others, ridiculing the very idea of listening to someone like David Rubin (a ‘traitor’ because he used to be a classical/real ‘liberal’, then when the Democrat Party went off the rails to censorship, materialism, and violence, he became a contemporary ‘conservative’), or someone like Alex Jones (‘clearly an ignorant crazy person’ – even though if you actually listen to the interview, I think any rational person would find out they’ve been exposed to a selective narrative about Jones and that he does indeed have some thoughtfulness and intellect underneath whatever ‘crazy’ there may indeed be).
It is sad that the Left has come to the point that instead of rational discussions they just attack with censorship, ad hominem, or even physically violent assault – they will retort that “the Right is just as bad”, but that simply isn’t the case, if you look at who burns down the cities, who keeps trying to assassinate the president, etc.
) friends and all of them said they won't listen to anything Tucker Carlson does or any interviews of his.