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by RON PAUL
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Last week I had the pleasure to again appear on Tucker Carlson’s popular broadcast. Although the program appears on several different platforms, on X alone the episode has been seen by more than two and a half million people. That does not include the various clips and shorts that people made and posted themselves. It is incredible how the reach and influence of the independent media has grown over the past decade or so.
As I have often said, while there are many evil things out there on the Internet, at the same time we have the tools to communicate the unfiltered message of freedom like never before.
Even though Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News was enormously popular – number one in the nation – the network still yanked the show from underneath him because they didn’t like some of the things he was saying.
Now, Tucker and other independent media figures answer not to studio executives with their own agendas, but rather they answer directly to the American people in the marketplace of ideas. Carlson’s reach as an independent is arguably greater than when he was on Fox.
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There are many more like him with large – and not so large – audiences who are appealing directly to the “consumer,” without the middleman to tell them what they can and cannot say. Admittedly, sometimes what people say is ugly, but we do not have free speech to only talk about the weather.
Big media and big government are in bed together and they hate the fact that we can communicate with each other without their filters and influence. They long for the days when they could shovel down our throats just what they wanted us to hear and believe.
While we may be winning this battle for free expression, we must not fool ourselves into thinking that we have won the war. We must remember just a few years ago during COVID that all it took to have your platform wiped off the face of the earth was to dare question the “wisdom” of Anthony Fauci.
Even today there are forces seeking to use the power of the state to silence opinions they disagree with.
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“The good news is, the system is going away.” Ron Paul looks back at 90.
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 12, 2026
(0:00) Monologue
(23:59) Is America Going Bankrupt?
(25:50) Why Haven't America's Gold Reserves Been Audited?
(35:27) Who Are the Truth Tellers in Washington?
(40:33) Have Any of These Foreign Wars Made… pic.twitter.com/IPROa1yfCa
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In Europe, free speech is under attack by totalitarian measures like the Digital Services Act, which creates a police state in the name of “protecting” citizens from “disinformation.” Of course, “disinformation” is simply information that governments or elites don’t want to get out. You can go to jail for an X post in Europe, while violent criminals are set free.
Make no mistake – many in the US would love to have such a system in place to protect speech they like and punish speech they don’t like. We have already seen attempts to intimidate – or even deport – people who have protested the recent mass killings in Gaza, for example. And the US government forced sale of TikTok was not a victory for free speech.
The truth is, “cancel culture” exists in both the left and the right and everywhere in-between. If we want to maintain and expand our ability to communicate freely and grow our voice in the independent media sphere we cannot let our guard down. “Free speech for me but not for thee” – using government force to shut down unwanted voices – will result in free speech for no one. And once it is gone, it will not be easy to get back.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Ron Paul is a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column – reprinted with permission – can be found here.
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2 comments
The Trump FFC loomed large over CBS and its decision to prevent Stephen Colbert from broadcasting his interview with James Talarico. Talarico is a candidate for Senate from Texas and I suppose Trump may be worried. Look up the interview on YouTube. it has almost 5 million views in the last 24 hrs.
On one side, we have Trump’s weaponizing of the FCC, threats of lawsuits, and bullying networks using the power of the government.
On the other, we have corporate-owned media controlling the narrative for whatever purposes suits them at any given point in time. For instance, Jeff Bezos’ influence over what WaPo publishes.
Then there’s online media, awash in big money donations, professional studios slapped together for media-trained talent to cosplay as “up and coming” speakers, fake subscriptions/donations, botted views and comments, pay-to-write, pay-to-say, influencers, pundits, podcasters who long since sold their souls for the bag.
All of this ties into the control of social media by various bad forces, who are able to control algorithms on a whim. Billionaires like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg feeding their user base into an algorithm that is nothing short of a far right wing pipeline is just seen as normal.
Ron Paul isn’t equipped to deal with this problem at all because he’s a slave to ensuring that the rich and powerful always have an upper hand. Of course, his “choice” here is to go on a conspiracy nut white supremacist’s podcast (what a surprise, guess those newsletters gave us a spoiler though).
There’s only two types of “media freedom” left – a radical redefinition of the term freedom warped beyond recognition in order to serve only mammon, or outright rejecting the vast propaganda machine hellbent on controlling the working class.