Matt Taibbi: The Collapse of the Censorship Regime
The award-winning journalist discusses the collapse of a post–World War II consensus, online speech police, and the legacy media on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions.
Are the online speech wars over? Just asking questions.
Award-winning journalist Matt Taibbi joins Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe on Just Asking Questions today to help analyze Vice President J.D. Vance's blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference, where Vance called on Europe's leaders to stop suppressing speech, banning populist political parties, and annulling elections. Taibbi predicts Vance's speech will be "remembered as a moment of grave importance," as it signals the "collapse of the post–World War II order." They also discuss a nonconfrontational 60 Minutes segment about German speech laws, Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation as director of national intelligence, the crumbling legitimacy of legacy media, and why Taibbi is glad Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election.
You can find Taibbi's work these days at racket.news and on the America This Week podcast with Walter Kirn.
Sources Referenced:
- "Vice President J.D. Vance Delivers Remarks at the Munich Security Conference" (Full speech)
- Full 60 Minutes video on Germany's censorship
- "Bipartisan Coalition Finally Tells Europe, and the FBI, to Shove It," by Matt Taibbi
- Sen. Wyden questions Gabbard in confirmation hearing
- Original Romanian government document about the country's nullified election
- United States Department of State: Statement on Romania's Presidential Elections
- "British Man Convicted of Criminal Charges for Praying Silently Near Abortion Clinic," by Emma Camp
- "Trump Officials Attack a German Consensus on Nazis and Speech," by Jim Tankersley
- The Ron Wyden–Andy Biggs Letter to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on backdoor encryption
- Just Asking Questions with Lee Fang
- Just Asking Questions with Mike Pesca
Chapters:
00:00 Coming up…
00:25 Introducing Matt Taibbi
00:54 Analyzing J.D. Vance's Munich speech
24:17 The history of free speech in Europe
32:09 Back to Vance: the end of the post–World War II American and European alliance?
35:58 Fear of populism fuels censorship
45:13 Is U.S. intelligence using the European Union to route around the First Amendment?
50:32 Tulsi Gabbard as the new director of national intelligence
53:53 Who did Matt Taibbi vote for?
58:05 Reacting to 60 Minutes' praise of German censors
01:16:40 Will the Democrats do any real post-election reflection? (No)
01:19:48 What is a question that you think more people should be asking?
- Producer: John Osterhoudt
