I’m suddenly in WAY over my head

[00:00:00]The Trump White House has decided that criticizing the president should come with a price, and the target on Independent Voices is now bigger than at any point in my career.

[00:00:10]You've seen some of the attacks on me.

[00:00:13]The white House media offenders list attempts to interfere with my first book, potential attempts to interfere with my forthcoming second book, smears amplified by Don Jr and Caroline Leavitt and Steven Chung.

[00:00:24]All of that stuff coming and being reinforced by the MAGA ecosystem.

[00:00:28]I'm not going to relitigate every incident.

[00:00:30]The larger danger is the system taking shape around them.

[00:00:35]It starts with publicly designating someone an enemy that tells millions of supporters and government officials and businesses and tech platforms we have identified acceptable targets.

[00:00:46]These are acceptable targets.

[00:00:48]Then comes the contamination campaign.

[00:00:50]You associate the critic with something sinister.

[00:00:53]Is it communism?

[00:00:54]Is it terrorism? Is it treason?

[00:00:56]Whatever will work. Accuracy doesn't matter.

[00:00:59]They want publishers, advertisers, guests, casual viewers to wonder, is it worth the trouble to associate with Packman or whoever?

[00:01:09]Right.

[00:01:10]Eventually the target starts wondering the same thing.

[00:01:14]Is this worth it for me?

[00:01:17]Should I soften my critiques a little bit?

[00:01:20]Maybe there's a journalist that drops a story.

[00:01:22]Maybe a publisher avoids an author.

[00:01:25]The government never has to formally ban the speech, usually because fear makes people self-censor.

[00:01:31]And we've seen a lot of examples of this throughout history.

[00:01:35]Vladimir Putin's Russia.

[00:01:36]Brands, independent journalists and outlets, foreign agents stigmatizes them as enemies before even needing legal and financial pressure to suppress them.

[00:01:46]But then they use the legal and financial pressure as well.

[00:01:49]Victor Orban's government in Hungary vilified critical media and steers state resources to friendly outlets, and allows political allies to totally dominate the information system, drown out the critical journalism.

[00:02:02]American institutions are stronger for now, but institutions only survive when people defend them.

[00:02:10]Authoritarian control usually starts through accumulation.

[00:02:14]We do a blacklist here, a little bit of economic pressure there.

[00:02:18]A bogus investigation, make people get lawyers and spend money.

[00:02:21]A threatening government letter.

[00:02:23]Critics start to think, man, maybe I should just shut up.

[00:02:27]And this is way bigger than me.

[00:02:30]We must support whichever independent journalists and creators and authors and organizations we value.

[00:02:38]I would love it to be me, but there's a lot of people out there.

[00:02:41]It's a big ecosystem.

[00:02:42]Subscribe to them by their books.

[00:02:45]Share their work. Donate if you can.

[00:02:47]Subscribe if you can.

[00:02:49]We have to make these attacks counterproductive.

[00:02:52]The biggest way to get these people beat back from the path to attacking us is to make it so that when they attack us, we get bigger and we get stronger.

[00:03:03]We have to make the attacks counterproductive.

[00:03:06]If someone has millions of followers and access to lawyers, they may be able to withstand the pressure in the attacks.

[00:03:14]A local reporter, a tiny creator, a whistleblower, an ordinary citizen may not be able to do that.

[00:03:20]In my new book, Pay Attention, I actually explain how propaganda and information overload weaken our ability to recognize the process while it's going on.

[00:03:32]You get too far down the road, you turn back and you go, damn, I should have noticed that when it was starting.

[00:03:37]I hope people will preorder the book.

[00:03:40]Limited signed copies available. David Pacman.

[00:03:44]We expect the administration will come after this book.

[00:03:47]They came after my first book.

[00:03:48]My show was way smaller than okay.

[00:03:50]If you value this program, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow me, whatever, etc. but we need to not play games with this because when people play games, you end up ten miles down the road and going, how did I get here?

[00:04:03]I thought it was just a couple of steps and then your ten miles down the road and we've seen it in countries, we've seen it in Latin America, we've seen it in Eastern Europe, we've seen it in Africa, and it's happening here in the United States.

[00:04:17]So we've got to turn that around.

[00:04:20]And we have to.

[00:04:22]The best way to defuze the attacks is for every time they do it, for it to make the people being attacked even stronger.

[00:04:32]Now, on the bonus show today, the Tate brothers again are in trouble.

[00:04:38]Rape and sex trafficking charges, the manosphere.

[00:04:43]Terrifying stuff.

[00:04:45]Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino brutally booed before Trump tried to crash Spain's celebration at the World Cup.

[00:04:54]Totally humiliated.

[00:04:55]We will talk about that and much more on today's bonus show, which you can get instant access to by signing up at Join Pacman.

[00:05:04]Appreciate you watching.

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