“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Neil Young and Joni Mitchell Don’t Have a Lick of Common Sense
On Sunday, Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, published a blog post responding to the controversy facing the streaming service’s most high-profile podcaster, Joe Rogan. After a group of medical professionals published an open letter asking the company to take action against vaccine misinformation shared on Rogan’s podcast, musician Neil Young removed all of his music from the streaming giant.
That was followed by a similar request from Joni Mitchell. Both Young and Mitchell explained that they weren’t comfortable having their music on a platform that promotes the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. By the end of the week, more than $2 billion had been erased from Spotify’s market cap, extending a slide over the past year.
Then, over the weekend, researcher and best-selling author Brené Brown, informed her audience that she would no longer publish new episodes of her two podcasts, both of which are Spotify exclusives. Brown didn’t specifically refer to Rogan or the current controversy.
Also, watch the video below:
I want to begin by saying that I have been vaccinated, 2 Moderna shots, and boosted, 1 Moderna shot. I expect to get another booster shot when it’s available. I need to go to Israel as soon as it opens up again. To go there, I need to comply with Israel’s requirements.
That said, where COVID is concerned, I believe we are being fed a bill of goods by our government. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think we have been misled about the existence of the disease. I think we have been misled about what we need to do to deal with it.
After almost 2 years of dealing with COVID, we know a lot about the disease. For example, it has virtually no effect on young, healthy people. Most of them who have gotten COVID didn’t even know it. However, on rare occasions a young, healthy person gets the disease and is hospitalized. Very rarely, a young, healthy person dies from COVID.
Old people with multiple comorbidities are most likely to contract the disease and die from it. That’s why New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision to place COVID patients in New York nursing homes was so evil. They were very vulnerable to the disease to start with, and they were sent to places where others who were equally susceptible to the disease would be exposed and possibly infected. The result was horrific. Lots of people died unnecessarily because of what Governor Cuomo did.
We have been told that washing our hands and sanitizing them frequently is very helpful. I’m sure that’s true, because it’s true in general. Washing our hands and sanitizing can’t hurt, and it does help.
We have been told that wearing masks is a must, but evidence tells us that wearing masks is only marginally helpful some of the time. It boils down to the fact that very few masks are capable of filtering out the COVID virus. In most instances, wearing masks is for show. That’s why many people refer to chronic mask-wearers as virtue signalers. Wearing a mask is their way of communicating something about themselves, their moral superiority. The worst of that lot can been seen wearing masks in their cars with the windows up.
One of the most recent findings from Israel suggests that people who have received 2 vaccinations and 2 boosters and have had COVID are the least likely to get the disease again. They are also the least likely to suffer serious consequences from the disease.
Deciphering that explanation isn’t easy. It could be that being infected by COVID is the best way to become immune to the disease and that the shots are only marginally helpful. That wouldn’t surprise me. After all, science is a process of testing repeatedly until you know the answer. Even then, scientists keep searching until they find better answers. In other words, science isn’t fixed. What we call “good science” changes with time and discovery. Every good scientist knows that. Anyone who doesn’t know it is ignorant.
This is something I know. Our government is not serious about telling us the truth about COVID. That fact has been evident since the 2021 Major League Baseball season started. It was on full display during the 2021 college and pro football seasons. People who attended those games didn’t follow any of the COVID protocols, and government officials said nothing about it.
The people who attended those games didn’t social distance. They didn’t wear masks. They didn’t avoid contact with each other. Tens of thousands of people were packed into stadiums like canned sardines. They were hugging, dancing, yelling, and kissing. That happened thousands of times for many months all over the country, and there was not one example of a COVID outbreak in any city where a game was played.
I don’t listen to Joe Rogan. I didn’t even know who he was until the brouhaha between Spotify and Neil Young captured media attention, but I can assure you that there is plenty of room for skepticism about what we are being told about COVID and vaccinations by governments around the globe.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have adopted the cancel culture mindset. Today, they are examples of the people they used to detest and write music about. Their demand that Spotify remove their music from its platform because Joe Rogan’s podcasts are on it, too, is a type of virtue signaling. Their desire to eliminate Rogan’s voice even though he makes more sense than they do is a perfect example of unbridled authoritarianism. It’s like demanding that their music not be played on radio stations that broadcast commercials with which they don’t agree. Giving in to their demands is absurd.
As far as I am concerned, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are has-been geriatrics. I don’t pay any attention to what they say, and neither should you. Spotify certainly should not allow them or others like them to dictate what they include on their platform.
Young and Mitchell are outmoded rockers who don’t have a lick of common sense. It looks as though they are losing their grip on reality. They are not the kinds of people who should be dictating policy decisions.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are outmoded rockers who don’t have a lick of common sense. It looks as though they are losing their grip on reality.
A short while ago, people like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell joined forces to attack Eric Clapton for writing a song and making a video questioning the insanity surrounding government COVID policies. Clapton is from their generation of musicians. Maybe Young and Mitchell should demand that Spotify cancel Eric Clapton, too. He doesn’t agree with them any more than Joe Rogan does.
Eric Clapton has 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Neil Young has 6 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Joni Mitchell has 3.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Clapton is more popular among Spotify listeners than Young and Mitchell put together. Joe Rogan has more than 11 million daily listeners on Spotify. Somebody is singing off key. It’s not Clapton or Rogan.
It’s time for all of us to take a stand. Questioning what we are told by government officials isn’t wrong. It’s necessary, because governments have failed to prove their case. By now, they would have if they could have. Below is Clapton’s video:
Where music is concerned, Eric Clapton makes Neil Young and Joni Mitchell look like thumpers. Clapton is a world-class musician. They are not.
Where freedom of thought is concerned, Eric Clapton makes Neil Young and Joni Mitchell look like neo-Nazis.
Where common sense is concerned, Eric Clapton makes Neil Young and Joni Mitchell look like ostriches with their heads in the sand.
Where science is concerned, Eric Clapton makes Neil Young and Joni Mitchell look like Neanderthals.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
