The social media platform Bluesky is so left-leaning that users block criticism of the Hunter Biden pardon as beyond the pale, even as they celebrate the murder of CEOs.
Some self-proclaimed libertarians have moved to Bluesky recently, but they don’t seem very libertarian, despite their present and past affiliations with the libertarian Cato Institute. They have become Marxist fellow travelers who hate free speech. They peddle messages by Marxists such as the communist poster “Read the book Abolish Rent,” whose Bluesky profile describes himself as “Anti-capitalism.” They approvingly share material by the left-wing users such as “New York Times Pitchbot.” It is run by a self-described “committed Democrat” of the “hardcore left,” who is hostile to free speech, and claims the New York Times is too right-wing.
When the Marxist Bluesky user “Read the book Abolish Rent” ridiculed the NYPD’s search for the killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, saying “lol,” the Cato Institute criminal-justice fellow Radley Balko reposted what he wrote. That Marxist thinks the CEO deserved to be shot. He criticized the “pearl clutching about this CEO killing” and claimed without any evidence that “the CEO himself was killing people legally every day.”
Radley Balko himself is so left-wing he attacked his own employer, the Cato Institute, for hosting an event “on classical liberalism” and free markets with a prominent CEO. He also reposted a link to an article in a left-wing publication that attacked the Koch Brothers, the pro-free-market brothers who help found the Cato Institute. That article disparaged the “Bill of Rights Institute” for “being founded by one of the right-wing Koch brothers,” and attacked Hillsdale College, a pro-free-market college in Michigan.
The longtime head of the Cato Institute’s Libertarianism.Org, Aaron Ross Powell, linked to an article in the communist Jacobin magazine yesterday, reposting a message by socialist professor Matt McManus peddling that article. Jacobin magazine has celebrated violence by communist regimes, and its staff have advocated killing innocent people.
As the editor of Libertarianism.org, Aaron Ross Powell did an approving podcast with a self-proclaimed “libertarian,” Cory Massimino, who said that “libertarians ought to…oppose … capitalism.”
As director of the Cato Institute’s Libertarianism.Org, Aaron Ross Powell palled around with socialists and Marxists. Powell complained that socialists have been unfairly maligned by libertarians, who have taken too negative a view of socialism. He produced a podcast called “An Introduction to Marxism for Non-Marxists” with Ian Bennett.” It gave “a sympathetic soapbox to a Marxist to make the case for Marxism, and leave with listeners the impression that Marxism has been unjustly maligned.” Aaron Ross Powell claims that true libertarians are to the left of both socialists and conservatives, the former being what Powell calls “the unstable middle.”
Aaron Ross Powell has repeatedly depicted the New York Times as right-wing, such as falsely claiming that “New York Times editors are already looking for ways to blame the earthquake on trans people.” Powell’s claim is ridiculous, because the New York Times is a progressive newspaper that has long backed legislation to protect transgender people against discrimination in employment, housing, education, and public accommodations. The Times has also consistently supported the more liberal presidential candidate in every election since 1960.
Bluesky is so left-wing that even liberal minority group members are sometimes treated like right-wing hatemongers if they don’t parrot the left-wing party line. A gay free-speech advocate at the liberal Brookings Institution, who claims Joe Biden did lots of “good things” and supports paying reparations to some gay people, was branded as a right-wing hate-monger by Bluesky users. They did this solely because he followed the posts of the centrist Democrat Jesse Singal on Bluesky. Bluesky users hate Singal and view him as a right winger, because Singal points out the shaky science behind child sex-changes, which can have negative health impacts. So they blocked the gay free-speech advocate who followed Singal’s posts, Jon Rauch of the Brookings Institution. Rauch explains that “For the crime of following@jessesingal.com, this morning, I am now on 40+ blocklists…including…Jesse Singal and followers; Anti-LGBT; Right wing turd; Misinformation; Pedos 2 block; dog brains and piss drinkers. Fun!”
