[For those who want to listen to this on-the-go, the audio version should be up on Apple’s podcast website soon. You can also listen here.]
Dear millions of fans and faithful followers:
The world must know I am being silenced.
From the people who refuse to subscribe to my massively popular Substack to the corporate media owners who reluctantly book me for countless panel appearances in primetime, it is clear that, at every turn, there are efforts being made to silence me.
When I made the choice to leave my highly coveted job as a New York Times columnist—wherein I was paid six figures to write about anything I wanted in one of the most popular English-language newspapers in the world—it was in protest of the startling revelation that there are people who don’t agree with my worldview.
It has always been my personal conviction that people must believe—and agree with—everything I write, and The New York Times is infamous for having a readership that agrees on everything, except for my late column. Coincidence? I think not.
This lack of agreement feels targeted given that my opinions are so carefully considered and respectfully offered. After all, I respect diversity of background; I believe there are many pathways to agreeing with what I have to say.
Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets refuse to recognize the extraordinary actions being taken to silence me. For example, on each of my five appearances on primetime CNN in the past month, I have been challenged on my political philosophy in ways that made me very uncomfortable.
Anchors ask me questions like “do you have any evidence to support this claim” and “where is that happening” and “can you cite a source for that”, which feels quite personal because that doesn’t happen anywhere else in my life.
If everyone in my selective group of family and friends all agree that I’m right, doesn’t it seem suspicious that any other adult with agency would disagree?
I’ve discussed this at length in my #1 New York Times bestselling book All the Ways I Am Silenced, which, in part, explores the question of what may happen to civil society if people continue to denounce the ways in which I respectfully and civilly call for trans people to no longer exist.
It is a strange development in our country that suddenly anyone off the street can say they’re entitled to human rights. Isn’t limited access to human rights what makes them so special?
You wanna talk about human rights? I was recently at a PTA meeting—I don’t have kids, I just like to attend—where, during the Q&A portion of the evening, after I rose to the microphone and said that I have more of a comment than a question, there were audible, exasperated sighs from many parents in attendance. This is what’s happening to our campuses! There’s no longer intellectual honesty in the Academy, or in this case: the public elementary school down the street from my place.
When I told that story on NPR’s most popular news program in an extended segment on how voices like mine are being excluded from radio programming, the host interrupted me to say that it was my fourth appearance on their show this calendar year alone, completely underlining my point with the way they talked over me. This is what people like me experience every day.
You see, I believe in a little thing called the Marketplace of Ideas, where everyone sets up their little ideological lemonade stands and the people can choose which drink they find most delicious. This is meant to be a civil space, which is why I find it deeply concerning that people are saying my lemonade stand should be avoided just because I’m offering glasses of crowd-sourced urine.
It is my right as an American to pass off pitchers of lukewarm piss as a refreshing alternative to authentic lemonade, and no social justice warrior is gonna convince me otherwise.
This is the way it’s always been for me. From my days as a child at an elite prep school paid for with tuition from my wealthy parents to the rarefied circles I inhabit in business and politics as a nationally-known pundit, I have always felt the crushing pressure of being obligated to “fact check” my claims and “tell the truth”.
The Coastal Elites—you know, people who are elite and influential and live on the coasts, other than my family and friends and colleagues and really anyone with whom I have a meaningful relationship—will never admit that facts have a well-known progressive bias.
The modern media environment is afraid to hear from people like me. The only things standing between myself and censorship are my bestselling books, ongoing appearances on radio and television, corporate-sponsored podcast The Silenced, enormously popular blog Silencio, and media gatekeepers who let me say whatever the hell I’m thinking with laughable pushback.
As you can see, this is a precarious situation, and it’s why I’m starting my own college, which will be called The University of the Silenced. After several months of painstaking work done by other people whom I hired, I am proud to announce that this institution will serve all those Americans who feel they’re being left behind by a media that refuses to just tell them what they want to hear.
In the meantime, please follow me on TikTok, who have agreed to pay me $5 million a year for my videos on how conservatives are being silenced by tech companies.
Hi, I’m Charlotte Clymer, and this is Charlotte’s Web Thoughts, my Substack. It’s completely free to access and read, but if you feel so moved to support my writing, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription: just $7/month or save money with the $70/annual sub. You can also go way above and beyond by becoming a Founding Member at $210.
You can also follow my work on Twitter.
Is now a bad time to bring up pineapple on pizza? Because, you know, violence.
Excuse my language Charlotte, but you FUCKIN killed it in this piece!!
Bari Weiss is, how do I say this?…..a truly world class grifter whose ability to coax money out of idiots is inversely related to her ability to think.