I spent nearly ten years building the We Are Libertarians Podcast Network. I worked more than 20 hours a week on it and invested tens of thousands of dollars. COVID-era censorship is a big reason it is now functionally dead. To support our new family, I had to shift into teaching and coaching podcasting. From 2021 to 2023, I mourned the loss of a childhood dream of doing talk radio for a living, along with the reality that moderate, libertarian talk does not have the same place it once did.
At our peak, we reached 10,000 listeners per episode and brought in $2,500 a month. Then a couple of memes wiped out the group that had been our main pipeline for new listeners and donors. I can show the direct correlation between losing that group and the decline of Patreon, which made it clear the model was not sustainable long term. It did not matter how careful or respectful I tried to be. The Biden administration had “jawboned” social media companies, leaning on them in a Tony Soprano kind of way, and those companies rolled out ham-fisted AI solutions with no recourse.
So forgive me if I do not believe Democrats are suddenly champions of free speech, when the next administration will almost certainly repeat what Biden and Trump have already done. I would love to hear someone say, “We got that wrong, and we are recommitting to these principles,” but I will not hold my breath.
And yes, I see the hypocrisy of Republicans becoming “the libs” just to own the libs, and I find it disturbing.
Still, I will keep playing the fool who points back to the best foundations for a free society, knowing most people will not listen.
As a former listener and fan of your moderate approach, I know how much work you put into it and I feel for you in terms of it going downhill. But you'll need to explain this a bit more for me. If you had 10k listeners...I'm not sure a Facebook page getting shut down is what led to them stopping listening. Podcast hosting services notify listeners of new episodes, and understand that Patreon was a source of income, but wouldn't your patrons need to actively withdraw their regular contributions?
I also wonder if your audience evaporated as libertarians basically went hard right and the former moderate libertarians jumped ship.
I don't know what Biden did to censor social media or even what leverage he had to be able to do that. If it is how you describe it is obviously wrong. The rhetoric though I believe was attempting to stop disinformation campaigns by bad actors. Can't say whether that is fully the motivation or whether that was the excuse. However, that's a lot different than arresting and detaining a green card holder for weeks or using the FCC to strong arm networks because they said things you didn't like. And there was no excuse. It was straight up you are not allowed to criticize the president.
I hate to agree but I do. Hard not to be cynical when it is happening all around you. I really need my faith more than ever.