The Oddity That Is Glenn Greenwald

by David Sims

GLENN GREENWALD is an oddity. He’s (biologically) Jewish, and he is a leftist, but he has acted courageously in accordance with principles. He quit a job in the mainstream press when he became disgusted by the way the MSM helped to cover up the dirty, sinister deeds of the federal government, specifically in regard to spying on US citizens.

Greenwald is the journalist who published the information from Edward Snowden, alerting Americans and the British to the way their government intelligence services were targeting them as if they were enemies of the state. This had previously been unknown by the ordinary citizen in both countries. Reporting that information won Greenwald the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

In order to make governments more honest toward their own citizens, Glenn Greenwald founded an organization called The Intercept. But he didn’t retain the power to fire the editors of its publications. Instead, Greenwald held a contractual right to have his own articles published without editorial review, but when he tried to publish an essay critical of Joe Biden, his leftist editors refused to honor the contract and censored the article. Since Greenwald couldn’t fire those editors, he’d have had to take to court the news organization that he, himself, had founded.

Instead, Greenwald resigned, giving up a large paycheck, and decided to go lone wolf.

Greenwald made two mistakes when he founded The Intercept. First, he failed to ensure that his editorial staff was ideologically diversified. He hired only leftists like himself, in complete disregard of the fact that most leftists are, unlike himself, morally deficient where such things as honesty and keeping promises are concerned.

Second, he failed to maintain administrative control over the editorial staff, probably because he believed that he should apply to himself the same standard the he’d expect everyone else to live by. Why is that a mistake? Because it is not only social systems controlled by a bad boss that are bad social systems; also, social systems that aren’t controlled by any boss become bad over time, simply because bad people strive harder to get power than good people do. And a combination of wisdom and power, the kind of combination that makes for a good boss, is almost impossible to achieve via elections.

The only social system that stays good is one that is controlled by a good boss, and it stays good only as long as good bosses keep it so. The same thing happens in White nationalist organizations.

Other than that, the only criticism I have today for Glenn Greenwald is about his negative statements about Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil. Bolsonaro is a good leader who understands what I said about social systems being good only when controlled by a good boss. Bolsonaro isn’t making with Brazil the mistake that Greenwald made with The Intercept.

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