We hear a lot of complaints about
cancel culture from the likes of
conservative idiots,
like Josh Hawley, who claim that
companies like Coca-Cola are
going to cancel you, the consumer,
if they don't like you.
Obviously he's trying
to weigh in on Coca Cola and
other companies paying lip service
to people who are outraged over
Georgia's voter suppression bill.
But really, when you take a step
back and look at council culture,
the very people who
cry about it the loudest tend to be
the individuals who implement it.
And that's certainly the case when
you look at certain organizations
that are funded by the Koch
brothers, who literally fund groups
that have the sole intention
of intimidating Intimidating
professors into basically halting
all of their messaging.
Anything that might share real
information with students about our
history how broken
our economic system is.
And I want to give
you this example.
So, the intercept wrote
a fantastic piece.
Alice spiry is the one who
authored it.
And she talks about a group known
as campus reform.
And so over the last year
she writes,
campus reform has targeted hundreds
of college Professors like Hatemi.
And you should read about Hatemi
story in this piece, leading to
online harassment campaigns doxxing
threats of violence and calls on
universities to fire their faculty.
Now Professor Hatemi's story
revolved around the fact that
Members of campus reform approached
him about some advice,
some counseling.
And he decided not to work with
the organization after there was
a little bit of a Google search and
you realize what campus
reform is really about.
And there are too many ties to
white nationalists,
white supremacists, and it was
obviously his right to say no,
I'm not interested in
working with this organization.
While there was consequences to
that, they decided to attack him,
list them on their website, put
them completely out of context and
that led to a very clear harassment
campaign that luckily he was not
intimidated by but others aren't so
lucky.
The professors were targeted over
a variety of liberal positions, but
the majority were singled out over
their comments on race.
And black Professors were
predominantly or disproportionately
I should say targeted.
Those who discuss topics like
an antifa, Black Lives Matter, and
Palestine were especially subjected
to threats.
And guess what?
Not only do the threats come
pouring in, but the people
associated with campus reform also
reach out to college administrators
and essentially pressure them to
fire the professor's, which sounds
a lot like cancelling to me.
But we should talk about, yeah,
I'm going to get to how this is
funded and just how perverse and
prevalent this is, but before I do,
John, immediate thoughts.
>> Sure.
It definitely sounds like
cancellation.
It sounds like these professor's
say things that are politically
incorrect, I guess from their point
of view, campus reform as a group
that we actually spent a long time
talking about on TYT University way
back in the day.
They've been doing this for a long
time and I'm glad that you're
pointing out not only because It's
a demonstration that right wing
canceling and all of that has been
going on for a long time.
But that, it's going on in
the specific battleground that the
supposed free speech warriors on
the right have focused on the most.
They say that the issue with
colleges Is that there's no free
speech for conservatives that if
you are conservative and
you believe the wrong things,
you will be shunned.
You'll get bad grades or whatever.
And this entire time they've been
trying to fire people for
believing talking about the wrong
things that it's so specific and
that they know what they're doing.
They know the game that
they're playing.
I might point out a ridiculous bit
of hypocrisy on like
Tucker Carlson's part when it comes
to cancel culture, because we need
to understand that he's doing it.
But I'm far more frustrated with
people like Bill Maher and
articles about canceled culture
that try to pretend that this is
genuinely some sort of left wing,
things we really have to allow for
politically incorrect speech
with which the left is coming for.
No, just some people don't like
some things and sometimes the left
does it sometimes the right to does
is sometimes a centrist that does
it, just how the world works.
That is indisputable, but
the narrative about censorship,
I think that is something that we
actually need to engage in.
We can't simply just let Bill Maher
win and just say you're right,
it's just on us.
Because that allows them to do
stuff like campus reform and
get away with it, because there's
no convenient narrative to fit it
in like they have for cancellation.
>> Yeah, you're exactly right.
And I think the big difference
between and look, I think that it
can be pretty toxic right?
I do not agree with progressive
minded people going through tweets
from 10 feet 15 years ago, and
then deciding to engage in
a pressure campaign to get that
individual fired based on what they
tweeted a long time ago.
I think people are capable of
changing and I think that that
culture is incredibly toxic.
I don't like it.
But the difference between
what we're talking about here with
campus reform and
the toxicity I just mentioned,
is that this is a well funded.
Orchestrated effort to essentially
propagandize students, propagandize
individuals, watching the news and
trick people into thinking that
their ideas are the right ideas,
the popular ideas we
certainly see that with troll farms
on social media.
Anytime a conservative tweets
something that's
obviously incredibly unpopular, and
actual professional polling shows
that these policy proposals
are unpopular.
They'll just have troll farms that
pretend as if it's incredibly
popular in order to sway public
opinion and persuade people into
thinking that their thoughts.
Thoughts are actually incorrect.
And look, there have been
consequences unjustified
consequences for these professors.
There was a survey done on some of
these professors who were targeted
by campus reform and 12% reported
facing disciplinary action as
a result of a campus reform story.
And three people said that they
actually ended up losing their jobs
as a result.
So, this is exactly what
Ben Shapiro and Ann Coulter
pretended to be so concerned about
on college campuses.
They don't like us.
They don't like our speeches,
they're trying to cancel us.
This is supposed to be a place
where you have a free marketplace
of ideas, free exchange of ideas.
Understand that that was nothing
more than a personal branding
exercise that unfortunately In the
short term did work out for them.
But again,
you take a closer look and
you see what the reality is.
So, let's talk about how
Campus Reform is funded.
Campus Reform is published by the
Leadership Institute, a nonprofit
that has trained conservative
activists for four decades,
to your point John, through
the generous funding of billionaire
donors like the Koch family.
The institute reported more than
$16 million in revenue in 2018
alone, and they certainly do have
ties to white supremacist groups.
Just to give you a few examples.
False Matthew Heimbach a neo-Nazi
activist former YAF chapter leader
and once-Leadership Institute
trainee told Huffington Post in
2016 that the Institute quote.
Trained this entire next generation
of white nationalists.
The institute also employed
Kevin DeeAnna, another former YAF
leader who started the campus-based
white supremacist group Youth for
Western Civilization.
And when they're approached by
these organizations understand that
especially for college students,
the offer is pretty lucrative and
hard to pass up.
And I think that you're also
seeing this with progressive,
independent talk show hosts,
all of a sudden, suddenly they're
spouting right wing talking points.
I think they get approached with
money offers and I'll give you
proof of that in a minute.
But In the case of campus reform,
the site paid $50 per story or $100
if they included video or photos.
Soon campus reform established
a tiered system after publishing
for articles of corresponded could
rise from bronze to silver and
make $75 a piece.
After 15 articles, they would rise
to gold and receive $100 per story.
Look, I'm going to keep it real
fruit with you guys.
That's actually more money than
what some professional writers make
writing freelance and
it's just for a college student.
That's certainly appealing.
It's very lucrative, and
that's how they get people hooked.
And john, before I get your final
thoughts on this, I do want to show
what I was talking about when
it comes to left wing hosts,
getting approached by right wingers
to essentially shill for
the right wing, David Pakman shared
an experience he had and
I think it's telling.
Let's watch.
>> Had a lunch with them.
And they said to me, listen what
you're doing is interesting,
it's fine.
My show was much smaller
at the time, but
the right is far more well funded.
And what I'm wondering is,
would you for X amount of
dollars become a conservative and
do conservative radio like how much
is this about your politics versus,
how much of this is about money and
business?
Because I think that you're good.
But the left just this was when
online was far less dominant and
terrestrial radio was still
the thing.
The left just doesn't do well on
talk radio the right does and
I can get you a job making x.
If you were to do right wing radio
and somehow shift to the right
at the time X number of dollars
was about three times what I was
making, and I said no.
I mean, I couldn't live
with myself.
I'm not playing a character here.
>> So, I believe David Pakman.
I believe him because it goes along
with what I've seen personally in
the media.
But also, It's the same John.
They ripped a page out of
the playbook from campus reform.
Campus reform offers a way for
student writers to build up
a portfolio a chance for their
stories to go viral and access
to a steady stream of media gigs.
Pay close attention,
with the most high-profile being,
appearances on "Fox and Friends",
or "Tucker Carlson tonight".
Even non writers can benefit,
making $50 for tipping the site
off to suppose it liberal abuse.
>> Yeah, if I were in college
I would just I would have me and
a friend just abuse that keep
calling each other lefties to get
the money.
Yeah, I'm not surprised that these
organizations exist.
They don't have to truly turn
a profit they get given
huge amounts of money.
That's then just flooded
in these things.
Those articles that the kids
are writing probably aren't
earning anything like that for
the actual companies, but
it doesn't matter, it's
a service that the right needs.
They need to generate the illusion
of content and authenticity, they
do the same thing with shows too.
Infusing huge amounts
of advertising into the lamest
independent voices.
And if you put enough advertising,
online billboards,
all of that you can get some people
some trolls to watch this stuff.
And it doesn't have to actually
earn money.
It might eventually, but
it doesn't have to because the true
money is in things like tax cuts,
deregulation, all of that,
which this helps to ensure it's
frustrating.
It's very frustrating,
but I can understand if you're in
college getting $100 to write
a little article that would be
really appealing.
I worked as a barista and
as a waiter in college,
that might have seemed really
appealing if they'd offered it and
I'm sure if you're higher profile,
you're probably pulling in on
a lot more money.
I mean, look at people like Dave
Rubin who supposedly was a lefty
and then started getting paid big
amounts of money to give speeches
about free speech on campus sadly,
specifically to put a bow on this
I'm getting huge amounts of money
that he never could have earned.
Actually.
Doing something like what he truly
believes if he can be said to have
any true beliefs.
>> Right.
And, it's the best thing to I guess
combat it is to know that it's
happening and.
It's a well oiled machine well
funded and you see it everywhere.
I remember when the Koch brothers
had the strategy of just infusing
science departments with a tonne of
cash in order to prevent any real
academic work on climate change.
That was their initial strategy,
but obviously this is a much
darker strategy.
And of course,
Campus Reform has a website that
makes it appear as though they're
doing actual unbiased reporting,
but clearly with their agenda in
place it's anything but unbiased.