Our For-Profit Disinformation Industry

I’ve never found it helpful to speak of "the Left" or "the Right" or "conservatives" or "liberals." And trying to dissuade people from speaking of themselves and others that way is a move I’ve been making ever since Marsha Blackburn and Bill Lee’s kids were in my class at Christ Presbyterian Academy. I can despair a little when I worry over what became of the moments I shared with now-grown young people and their families in those days, but Bob Sherman once assured me that no ground gained in the work of moral development is ever completely lost. We may become estranged from our center, every now and then, but what was good is always somehow still there. At my best, I believe him.

I’m thinking of that language (“the Left,” “the right,” “liberal", “conservative”), because I want to share this piece by Justin Brown-Ramsey with all of you, despite the fact that that those terms appear within it. I still caution most anyone who wants to talk about their word choice to steer clear of such labels like the plague, but I nevertheless recommend reading Justin Brown-Ramsey’s testimony There’s candor, courage, and conscience here. I’m deeply encouraged by it.

He speaks as one who broke free of the for-profit disinformation industry which, if you didn’t know, is largely based in Nashville. He also does us the great service of sharing how the circumstances of his own life made someone like Jordan Peterson and his acolytes compelling for a time. What Jordan Peterson seems to represent for a number of white males these days (including my Congressman Andy Ogles), Rush Limbaugh once represented for me. I see some patterns in my own life reflected here.

I was especially moved to note that it was assigned readings by Black authors which appears to have begun to break the spell men like Ben Shapiro (or the online persona of Ben Shapiro) had over him. If you know someone in the grip of the madness he describes, please consider sharing the piece with them and seeing if they’d be up for discussing it with you. We need more talk about these sad things.

If you’re like me, you know a lot of people dwelling in similarly dark corners. My hope in sharing this is to generate light (not heat). Thanks for listening.

Editor’s note: I welcome comments. I even crave them. But if you’re someone who wishes to offer a defense of any of the grifters (And yes, nobody’s just a grifter) mentioned in the article, please focus on the piece itself or my framing of the piece (by quoting one or the other, for instance). I don’t want links to any content from Daily Wire or Salem Media or Turning Point USA on Dark Matter. Thank you.