Neil Young Returns to Spotify
Bewildered musician ends his two-year protest of free speech.
Today I received several messages from friends, mocking Neil Young for being a self-important ninny. As readers of this Substack may recall, the Canadian rocker boldly pronounced in January of 2022 that the bosses at Spotify could either boot Joe Rogan off their platform or he would leave and take his music with him.
The source of Young’s extreme displeasure was two interviews that Joe Rogan conducted in December of 2021—one with Dr. Peter McCullough and one with Dr. Robert Malone. When Spotify decided to stick with free speech and keep Joe Rogan, Mr. Young carried out his threat and left the platform in protest.
Today he announced that he is ending his protest of free speech and will return to Spotify.
Some of my friends who texted me today suggested that Mr. Young is an overrated songwriter and musician. I disagree. “Heart of Gold,” “Old Man,” and “Out on the Weekend” are great songs.
The trouble with a lot of guys of Neil Young’s generation—guys who reached adulthood during the Vietnam War—is that they somehow forgot that the whole point of free speech is to allow the expression of ideas that challenge prevailing orthodoxies and majority sentiments. To say that people can only express ideas that agree with one’s own is to abolish free speech.
A great advantage of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is that it provides us with a clear principle of what we should expect and allow in public discourse. If Mr. Young had simply accepted the validity of the First Amendment, it would have relieved him of the impulse to make a fuss about things he doesn’t understand, thereby making himself ridiculous.
I'm a 58 year old veteran, healthy, unvaxxed, and well aware of all the lies. I have always liked many musicians, bands, and most genres of music-Neil Young is still no exception for me. He is equally prolific as Bob Dylan, and I love many of his songs.
I was surprised at his vehement stance against Rogan, like you Peter and John, particularly since he was a big part of the 60's counter-culture movement!
It really pissed me off, in fact.
In Young's stead, I happily found that Van Morrison, teamed with the likes of Clapton, took the opposite stance against government totalitarianism, the "vax," and the illegitimacy of covid and lockdowns altogether!
The old "Divide and Conquer Tactic" worked very well for globalists, but those like us have fought back harder than ever.
As the smoke clears, a lot of people, organizations, and so-called leaders are left looking pretty foolish, quick to judge, and even as far as to have said, "Vax or die!"
Those who stood strong, (and here I would like to thank Peter, Joe, and David, AmericanFrontlineDoctors, and a number of others very much for doing so,) have proven to the world that we all need to think critically and question ALL "authority figures" and every narrative.
That, my friends is the point-"Love thy neighbor as thyself," even if they wished death upon you by whole- heartedly believing an obvious lie.
However, it is definitely time for Neil Young to have the spirit of Steve Marriott serve Neil some "Humble Pie!"
What a fool. So much for all those old time rockers whose whole schtick was sticking it to the man. Turns out it was all for show.