59 Comments

I get all of my current news spin from Glenn, Bari, Matt and Krystal/Saager, even though I doubt we've ever voted for the same President. I also still go to WSJ Op/Ed and RCP, which I personally believe is the most balanced aggregator out there.

Thank you Matt for doing what you're doing. Also, thank you Ben, Fox News, Bill Mahar (and others) for giving all of the above a forum that used to be closed to them.

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Please continue having conversations like this. I'm a rightist for sure, and subscribe to you and Greenwald, listen to Russell Brand almost daily. We're already going down the rabbit hole, the only way out of it is to talk to one another in a civilized manner.

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When I saw you pop up on his Sunday show I thought “oh shit Matt’s ran out of fucks to give” . I thought it was a great discussion.

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Jun 27, 2022·edited Jun 27, 2022

Please keep doing what you, and the other independent journalists on SubStack do Matt.

The fact that two articulate, intelligent people can have an informative and respectful discussion and yet disagree on all of it, seems to now count as a refreshing pleasant surprise. And yet we are increasingly desperate for just that. Thanks for reminding folks how most mature grown ups used to navigate these issues.

Joe S

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If the political specrtum were a football field, I'm convinced the vast majority of us could be found around mid-field - bewteen the 40s (okay, maybe the 30s). Yet the team captains are the yahoos living at opposite 5 yard lines. Our "leaders" want us to believe we're each closer to them than we are to the folks on the opposite 40. We've swallowed that tripe for too long. Deepest thanks to you - and Rogan and Weiss and Greenwald and Brand and Carlson and Shapiro and .... the list continues to grow - for pointing out that our leaders are the outliers, and idealogical purity tests are just a form of intellectual slavery. No one - no idea - ever got better by NOT being challenged.

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It was glad to see your interview with Ben Shapiro like you I don’t agree with many of his views. But my nephew does so I told him to check out your interview with Ben he has a distorted view of people on the left I told him there was more than one left a real old school left and a establishment left .

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"This is what counts as heretical now: two people who don’t agree about everything Zooming for an hour without screaming at one another." Hilariously, this is so true.

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I watched the whole thing and was struck by not just the uniformly civil and respectful tone, but the vast swathes of common ground marked out.

When I forwarded on the link to a friend of mine accompanied with a note containing the above sentiment, he responded "well, Ben's normal and Matt's normal, so it makes sense."

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Can't wait!

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I just added Matt here to my list of heterodox and varied sources of information and opinion, after listening to him on Shapiro’s show.

Ben is a complicated figure who makes a valuable contribution to the national conversation, who unfortunately mixes in reasoned, skeptical, even generous-towards the-other-side views, with sometimes completely unexamined assumptions, and dishonest straw man portrayals of the opposition…

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For most people, it's beyond heretical. You'll have to use a different adjective. Racist, treasonist, transphobic, homophobic. Typical descriptors the left uses to describe anyone that disagrees with them politically.

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Good on you Matt! Sad how finding common ground or “ agreeing to disagree” is now deemed counter productive because you must hate and discredit the “ opposition.” We need to graduate to a more mature playing field… thank you leading the way to hopefully more civil and constructive dialog. The knee jerk assuming of “ if you’re this, you’re that” needs to stop.

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Yeah, just watched the interview.

I hate Ben and think he's part of a dangerous political movement and his stance/rhetoric towards Palestine is abhorrent. It seems like the only shows that'll invite Matt on these days are folks like Ben or Megyn Kelly. Its a shame too. Ben's audience is not interested in having their worldview challenged. Ben invited you on to provide them with more examples of liberal/left wing intolerance and nothing else. But no one in the leftwing sphere really wants to hear what Matt is rightly talking about.

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It’s so disorienting for a lifelong liberal, a blue no matter who voter, to suddenly be categorized as “right wing” just for saying, “hey, we might not agree, but it’s important to listen to the other side”. The funny thing is, once I got ejected from the democrat’s titanium echo chamber I took my vote with me. Their strategy for growing their electorate has disregarded basic arithmetic - they seem to do more subtracting than adding.

I do feel like I’m in good company though.

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I've always been middle, which I guess is the majority, otherwise known as "common sense". The thing that strikes me is the ignoring of "scale". I know I lean to the right side of the spectrum. If I were King, abortions would be capped at 8 weeks, and I would heavily invest in destigmatizing speaking up about rape and incest. The left is the side that has thrown out all the traditions that have made our country a one-of-a-kind place, even with all its faults. Think of the left in the last 40 yrs. Bork, Thomas, Kavanaugh, nuclear option, filibuster etc... In my opinion, do not treat these two imposters the same

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Without civil discourse between people of different opinions, the polarization will continue to separate us and eventually Balkanize the USA. 2024 is when the shit really, really hits the fan.

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