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Nets GM Sean Marks Is ‘Very Confident’ The Big 3 Will All Sign Extensions By Training Camp

The Brooklyn Nets had a relatively quiet offseason, which wasn’t a surprise given their roster and cap situation. The three biggest questions facing the Nets were what to do with Spencer Dinwiddie (who was sent to Washington in a sign-and-trade), what veterans they’d be able to keep (Bruce Brown and Blake Griffin re-signed, while Jeff Green left for Denver), and whether they’d be able to lock down their Big 3 to contract extensions.

To this point, Kevin Durant is the only one to sign on the dotted line, tacking four years and $198 million onto his deal in Brooklyn, but that could change very soon. Kyrie Irving and James Harden are also extension eligible this summer, with Irving able to sign a 4-year, $186.6 million deal and Harden able to add three years and $161 million to his deal that has two more years left. According to Nets GM Sean Marks, who met with the media on Wednesday morning, those deals should be done by training camp, putting the Nets in position to be the East frontrunners for the foreseeable future.

Many were quick to point out that this means the Nets tax bill will be through the roof, but that’s a problem for Joe Tsai and ownership’s wallets and for Marks to work out in terms of building the roster around them with little money to spend elsewhere. For Nets fans, it’s confirmation that this core will be together long-term and that, health-provided, they’ll be a title favorite in most if not all of the next five seasons. By the end of these deals, Durant will be 37, Harden will be 36, and Irving will be 34, which certainly presents a chance that they age out of being favorites by the end, but that’s a price the Nets are willing to pay (as they should) for what figures to be the best team on paper for some time.

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Megan Thee Stallion And Justin Bieber Lead The Full List Of 2021 VMAs Nominations

MTV has officially unveiled their full list of nomination for the 2021 VMAs, with Justin Bieber and Megan Thee Stallion leading the pack. Thanks to his successful Justice release, Bieber holds seven nominations, including nods for Video Of The Year, Artist Of The Year, and Best Pop. Megan follows behind him with six nominations for categories like Video Of The Year and Song Of The Year.

This year’s MTV VMAs is set to return to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the first time since 2013. It kicks off September 12 and organizers expect to invite musicians and fans to join the event in-person.

See the full list of 2021 VMA nominations below.

Video Of The Year

Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
DJ Khaled Feat. Drake — “Popstar” (Starring Justin Bieber)
Doja Cat Feat. SZA — “Kiss Me More”
Ed Sheeran — “Bad Habits” – Atlantic Records
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” – Columbia Records
The Weeknd — “Save Your Tears”

Artist Of The Year

Ariana Grande
Doja Cat
Justin Bieber
Megan Thee Stallion
Olivia Rodrigo
Taylor Swift

Song Of The Year

24kGoldn Feat. Iann Dior — “Mood”
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic — “Leave the Door Open”
BTS — “Dynamite”
Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
Dua Lipa — “Levitating”
Olivia Rodrigo — “Drivers License”

Best New Artist

24kGoldn
Giveon
The Kid Laroi
Olivia Rodrigo
Polo G
Saweetie

Push Performance Of The Year

Wallows — “Are You Bored Yet?”
Ashnikko — “Daisy”
Saint Jhn — “Gorgeous”
24kGoldn — “Coco”
JC Stewart — “Break My Heart”
Latto — “Sex Lies”
Madison Beer — “Selfish”
The Kid Laroi — “Without You”
Olivia Rodrigo — “Drivers License”
Girl in Red — “Serotonin”
Fousheé — “My Slime”
Jxdn — “Think About Me”

Best Collaboration

24kGoldn Feat. Iann Dior — “Mood”
Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
Doja Cat Feat. SZA — “Kiss Me More”
Drake Feat. Lil Durk — “Laugh Now Cry Later”
Justin Bieber Feat. Daniel Caesar, Giveon — “Peaches”
Miley Cyrus Feat. Dua Lipa — “Prisoner”

Best Pop

Ariana Grande — “Positions”
Billie Eilish — “Therefore I Am”
BTS — “Butter”
Harry Styles — “Treat People With Kindness”
Justin Bieber Feat. Daniel Caesar, Giveon — “Peaches”
Olivia Rodrigo — “Good 4 U”
Shawn Mendes — “Wonder”
Taylor Swift — “Willow”

Best Hip-Hop

Evanescence — “Use My Voice”
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame”
John Mayer — “Last Train Home”
The Killers — “My Own Soul’s Warning”
Kings Of Leon — “The Bandit”
Lenny Kravitz — “Raise Vibration”
Cardi B Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “WAP”
Drake Feat. Lil Durk — “Laugh Now Cry Later”
Lil Baby Feat. Megan Thee Stallion — “On Me (remix)”
Moneybagg Yo – “Said Sum”
Polo G — “Rapstar”
Travis Scott Feat. Young Thug & M.I.A. — “Franchise”

Best Rock

Evanescence — “Use My Voice”
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame”
John Mayer — “Last Train Home”
The Killers — “My Own Soul’s Warning”
Kings Of Leon — “The Bandit”
Lenny Kravitz — “Raise Vibration”

Best Alternative

Bleachers — “Stop Making This Hurt”
Glass Animals — “Heat Waves”
Imagine Dragons — “Follow You”
Machine Gun Kelly Feat. Blackbear — “My Ex’s Best Friend”
Twenty One Pilots — “Shy Away”
Willow Feat. Travis Barker — “Transparent Soul”

Best Latin

Bad Bunny x Jhay Cortez — “Dákiti”
Billie Eilish & Rosalía — “Lo Vas A Olvidar”
Black Eyed Peas and Shakira — “Girl Like Me”
Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, Tainy — “Un Die (One Day)”
Karol G — “Bichota”
Maluma — “Hawái”

Best R&B

Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, Saint Jhn, WizKid — “Brown Skin Girl”
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic — “Leave the Door Open”
Chris Brown and Young Thug — “Go Crazy”
Giveon — “Heartbreak Anniversary”
HER Feat. Chris Brown — “Come Through”
SZA — “Good Days”

Best K-pop

(G)I-DLE — “Dumdi Dumdi”
Blackpink and Selena Gomez — “Ice Cream”
BTS – “Butter”
Monsta X — “Gambler”
Seventeen — “Ready To Love”
Twice — “Alcohol-Free”

Video For Good

Billie Eilish — “Your Power”
Demi Lovato — “Dancing With The Devil”
HER — “Fight For You”
Kane Brown — “Worldwide Beautiful”
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”
Pharrell Williams Feat. Jay-Z — “Entrepreneur”

Best Direction

Billie Eilish — “Your Power” Directed by Billie Eilish
DJ Khaled Feat. Drake — “Popstar (Starring Justin Bieber)” Directed by Julien Christian Lutz aka Director X
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” Directed by Lil Nas X and Tanu Muino
Taylor Swift — “Willow” Directed by Taylor Swift
Travis Scott Feat. Young Thug & M.I.A — “Franchise” Directed by Travis Scott
Tyler, The Creator — “Lumberjack” Directed by Wolf Haley

Best Cinematography

Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, WizKid — “Brown Skin Girl” Cinematography by Benoit Soler, Malik H. Sayeed, Mohammaed Atta Ahmed, Santiago Gonzalez, Ryan Helfant
Billie Eilish — “Therefore I Am” Cinematography by Rob Witt
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame” Cinematography by Santiago Gonzalez
Justin Bieber Feat.Chance The Rapper — “Holy” Cinematography by Elias Talbot
Lady Gaga — “911” Cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth
Lorde — “Solar Power” Cinematography by Andrew Stroud

Best Art Direction

Beyoncé, Shatta Wale, Major Lazer — “Already” Art Direction by Susan Linns, Gerard Santos
Ed Sheeran — “Bad Habits” Art Direction by Alison Dominitz
Lady Gaga — “911” Art Direction by Tom Foden, Peter Andrus
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” Art Direction by John Richoux
Saweetie Feat. Doja Cat — “Best Friend” Art Direction by Art Haynes
Taylor Swift — “Willow” Art Direction by Ethan Tobman, Regina Fernandez

Best Visual Effects

Bella Poarch — “Build a Bitch” Visual Effects by Andrew Donoho, Denhov Visuals, Denis Strahhov, Rein Jakobson, Vahur Kuusk, Tatjana Pavlik, Yekaterina Vetrova
Coldplay — “Higher Power” Visual Effects by Mathematic
Doja Cat & The Weeknd – “You Right” Visual Effects by La Pac, Anthony Lestremau, Julien Missaire, Petr Shkolniy, Alexi Bailla, Micha Sher, Antoine Hache, Mikros MPC, Nicolas Huget, Guillaume Ho Tsong Fang, Benjamin Lenfant, Stephane Pivron, MPC Bangalore, Chanakya Chander, Raju Ganesh, David Rouxel
Glass Animals — “Tangerine” Visual Effects by Ronan Fourreau
Lil Nas X — “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” Visual Effects by Mathematic
Pink — “All I Know So Far” Visual Effects by Dave Meyers, Freenjoy Inc

Best Choreography

Ariana Grande — “34+35” Choreography by Brian Nicholson & Scott Nicholson
BTS — “Butter” Choreography by Son Sung with BHM Performance Directing Team
Ed Sheeran — “Bad Habits” Choreography by Natricia Bernard
Foo Fighters — “Shame Shame” Choreography by Nina McNeely
Harry Styles — “Treat People With Kindness”
Marshmello & Halsey — “Be Kind” Choreography by Dani Vitale

Best Editing

Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic — “Leave the Door Open” Editing by Troy Charbonnet
BTS — “Butter” Editing by Yong Seok Choi from Lumpens
Drake — “What’s Next” Editing by Noah Kendal
Harry Styles — “Treat People With Kindness”
Justin Bieber Feat. Daniel Caesar, Giveon — “Peaches”
Miley Cyrus Feat. Dua Lipa — “Prisoner”

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Cavs Guard Darius Garland Is Ready To Take The Next Step As A Player And A Leader

LAS VEGAS — Darius Garland has spent his summer working.

In the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics, Garland was a member of the Team USA Select Team and, for a few exhibition games, played for the senior roster. In Las Vegas, he spent weeks being coached by Gregg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra and competing with and against experienced stars like Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green.

According to Garland, the experience was a confidence builder for him coming out of his second season in the league.

“It was getting to play against some of the best players in the world,” Garland told Dime. “They gave me the confidence and they gave me the keys to have the ball in my hand a lot in practice and scrimmages.”

Back in Las Vegas for summer league, Garland is taking those lessons from a summer with the best in the world and using them to embrace a bigger leadership role with the Cavs. In-between games, Garland, Collin Sexton, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and others have been working out together under the supervision summer league head coach and Cavs assistant J.J. Outlaw, who was hired in 2019, in large part, to work directly with Garland and aid in his development.

For Garland, he says the goal of the workouts is to build chemistry with teammates he hasn’t seen since the season ended. It’s getting to reconnect with Allen, who the Cavs’ signed to a five-year, $100 million deal this summer, and his backcourt partner, Sexton. It also means beginning to gel with Mobley, the No. 3 pick in July’s draft. It’s also a role several people in the Cavs organization, including Outlaw and general manger Koby Altman, have talked about wanting Garland to take on.

“I just need to communicate more and be around the guys and try to find out what their vibe is and just try to make them better as much as I can,” Garland said. “It’s fun [being here], building camaraderie and seeing faces I haven’t seen in a couple months. Just being around each other, getting the vibes from each other. It’s about building chemistry for this season and it’s a good sign, everybody being here and being locked in and really just sacrificing the time out just to come.”

It’s the surest sign that Garland himself has grown comfortable and confident in his place in the league that he can begin to shift more of his focus outward to teammates. In particular, Garland sees getting Mobley acclimated to the league and figuring out his role on the Cavs as part of his job, even if they won’t actually share the court until the fall. When that moment comes, Garland seems very excited about the possibilities of playing with someone who possesses his natural gifts.

“His size is crazy,” Garland said. “He’s only like 19 and he’s a seven-foot athlete. There’s a lot more to come.”

It’s also getting easier for Garland to build those off-court bonds with his teammates. Last year, Garland says, dinners and team hangouts weren’t really possible due to league health and safety protocols and a condensed schedule. Now, those are far more common, with the team talking to each other about non-basketball topics and learn more about each other on a deeper level. For a young team, that off-court bond lends itself to more trust on it, and for a point guard like Garland, it allows him to be more aware of how to push the right buttons to get the most out of his teammates.

As for himself, Garland believes his confidence is “way higher” than it’s ever been since being draft by the Cavs in 2019. Year 1, Garland says life was “hectic” and he was just trying to get games under his belt as he came off of surgery that ended his Vanderbilt career early. Year 2 was better — “a totally different thing,” he says — but also not good enough for what he and the Cavs want to accomplish.

Now, as Year 3 approaches, Garland feels he’s in a great space, ready to take that next step both as a player and a leader in Cleveland. It’s just a matter of putting in the work.

“I had my relaxation time already,” he says of his rest of summer plans. “It’s time to get to work. The season is about to start.”

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After DaBaby’s Homophobic Rant, Lil Nas X Surpassed His Monthly Listeners On Spotify

Lil Nas X has been on a roll this year. After ushering in a new era of music, the rapper dropped the internet-breaking song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” along with the introspective number “Sun Goes Down” and the viral Jack Harlow collaboration “Industry Baby.” Thanks to the success of his recent singles, it’s no wonder that Lil Nas X has just become Spotify’s most-listened-to male rapper, surpassing DaBaby’s monthly listeners shortly after the rapper’s homophobic on-stage rant.

Lil Nas X now boasts well over 52 million monthly listeners on the popular streaming platform, according to Spotify’s data. That’s about one million more than DaBaby, who currently sits at 51 million monthly listeners. Upon hearing the news, Lil Nas X graciously thanked his followers for their continued support, saying it’s a career record for him. “wow this is insane,” he rapper on Twitter. “this is the most i’ve ever had in my career. thank u to everybody listening.”

The rapper’s victory over DaBaby in streaming numbers arrives shortly after DaBaby was captured on the Rolling Loud stage making some very uninformed remarks about HIV/Aids and the LGBTQ community. Several festivals booted DaBaby from their lineups as a result of his homophobic rant, and many celebrities like Dua Lipa and Miley Cyrus condemned the rapper out for his uneducated comments.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Nicolas Cage Calls ‘Prisoners Of The Ghostland’ The ‘Wildest Movie’ He’s Ever Been In, And It’s Easy To See Why From The Trailer

Nicolas Cage has been in some wild movies over the years. He stole the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure, fought evil animatronics in Wally’s Wonderland, and had a cage of bees placed over his head (after punching a woman in the face while dressed as a bear) in Wicker Man, to say nothing of his time as Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider. But Cage thinks Prisoners of the Ghostland “might be the wildest movie I’ve ever made.” Cage and director Sion Sono (Suicide Club) is a match made in wild heaven.

In Prisoners of the Ghostland, Cage plays a bank robber who’s freed from jail by a rich warlord. The catch: he has five days to find the warlord’s granddaughter, played by Sofia Boutella (Climax, Atomic Blonde), or else the leather suit that he’s in will go kablam. “It’s just crazy,” the actor said about the film. “It’s way out there.”

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

In the treacherous frontier city of Samurai Town, a ruthless bank robber (Nicolas Cage) is sprung from jail by wealthy warlord The Governor (Bill Moseley), whose adopted granddaughter Bernice (Sofia Boutella) has gone missing. The Governor offers the prisoner his freedom in exchange for retrieving the runaway. Strapped into a leather suit that will self-destruct within five days, the bandit sets off on a journey to find the young woman — and his own path to redemption.

Prisoners of the Ghostland hits theaters and VOD and digital on September 17.

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Olivia Rodrigo Puts The Sabrina Carpenter ‘Drivers License’ Drama To Rest: ‘I Resent That Narrative’

When Olivia Rodrigo released her debut single “Drivers License,” it became an overnight viral sensation. The song broke charting and streaming records alike, but it also became embroiled by speculative drama. Fans were convinced “that blonde girl” mentioned in the lyrics must have been Sabrina Carpenter, who her ex-fling Joshua Bassett started dating. Rodrigo has attempted to thwart the rumor in the past, but she’s now shutting it down once-and-for-all.

Rodrigo spoke about the “Drivers License” drama in a cover shoot interview with Variety. When asked about Carpenter and the love triangle speculation, Rodrigo was blatant about her frustrations. “I put it out not knowing that it would get that reaction, so it was really strange [when] it did. I just remember [everyone being] so weird and speculative about stuff they had no idea about,” she said. Rodrigo added, “I don’t really subscribe to hating other women because of boys. I think that’s so stupid, and I really resent that narrative that was being tossed around.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Rodrigo explained how she was filming her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series in Utah when she learned of her “Drivers License” success. “Oh, my gosh, that was the craziest time of my life,” noted. “I was sitting in a grocery store parking lot, and I called my A&R guy. It had just gone No. 1 on Apple Music, which is hard for a pop act to do. We were looking at each other on FaceTime, speechless, and just stared at each other for a minute. ‘What do we do?’ ‘I don’t know.’ That was the moment that I knew that it was going to be something bigger than I expected.”

Read the full Variety feature here.

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Phoebe Bridgers Transforms Metallica’s ‘Nothing Else Matters’ Into A Whispery And ‘Baroque’ Cover

There’s nothing Phoebe Bridgers can’t do. Today, the indie superstar unveiled a cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” her contribution to The Metallica Blacklist, a covers album that will be out this fall. With features from other artists as disparate as Miley Cyrus, St. Vincent and Jason Isbell, and many more, the wide-reaching project is meant to pay homage to the iconic metal band’s first album. It’s also a charity project, with each artist who shared a cover selecting a charity that a portion of the album’s sales will go toward.

Bridgers described her cover saying it “almost sounds baroque” in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music. She also had more to say about her relationship with the band:

I’ve always been a big Metallica fan. I think it’s funny, my intro to them was probably way later than so many people who have always loved them. But when I was a teenager, I went to Outside Lands, and I definitely knew Metallica songs from video games and stuff, but I went to Outside Lands and saw their set and was like, “This is a rock band. It’s kind of a gateway to metal because they’re so hooky and you can hold onto so much of it and it actually can get stuck in your head. So that’s what I’ve always loved about Metallica is that they don’t shy away from a great hook.

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Jason Kidd Once Made The Bucks Cancel Christmas Flights To Practice After A Dec. 23 Loss

The Milwaukee Bucks winning the NBA championship this year was a pretty remarkable story if for no other reason than few imagined they were building a championship core years ago when they drafted Giannis Antetokounmpo and traded for Khris Middleton after a lackluster rookie season in Detroit.

They would come together under the guidance of Jason Kidd, whose tenure in Milwaukee is a difficult one to suss out. The Bucks two eventual All-Stars developed into the first glimpses of the players they would become under Kidd, leading to the idea that he had a way with player development. At the same time, Bucks players beyond Giannis weren’t exactly fond of Kidd for his extremely hard-nosed approach to coaching the team that many felt went too far, something that is extremely evident in an anecdote from Mirin Fader’s new book, Giannis: The Improbable Rise Of An NBA MVP.

In the book, Fader details a December 23 loss in the 2014-15 season after which Kidd demanded the team come back on Christmas Eve for practice, to the dismay of the veterans in the locker room as just about everyone had travel booked to go home for Christmas, and called Larry Sanders “a piece of sh*t” while making them run sprints over and over.

It is a story that tracks with just about everything we heard about Kidd’s tenure in Milwaukee, but is particularly relevant now that he is returning to the head of the bench in Dallas. After a few years in Los Angeles on the Lakers roster — where surely there were no sudden Christmas Eve practices — it will be interesting to see if Kidd has softened his approach to practices, particularly with a young superstar already in place in Dallas in Luka Doncic.

Giannis’ feelings towards Kidd were more positive than most, but few others embraced his approach in the same manner. Finding the balance between pushing players without crossing the line will be paramount to whether Kidd can enjoy longterm success with the Mavs without wearing out his welcome as quickly as he has elsewhere. Scheduling impromptu pre-Christmas practices might be one to file away as an easy adjustment to make from his time in Milwaukee to help with that.

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Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Star Trek’ Would Have Been The Most ‘Gangster’ Version Of ‘Star Trek’

Quentin Tarantino may never give the woman who birthed him an “Elvis Cadillac,” but he had planned to gift the rest of us with the most “gangster” version of Star Trek the world has ever seen. At least that’s what The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith, who Tarantino tapped to pen his idea for a new cinematic Star Trek voyage, says.

As IndieWire reports, Smith was recently asked about what is currently known as the “Untitled Quentin Tarantino Star Trek Project” while a guest on the “Bulletproof Screenwriting” podcast. Smith explained that it was Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams’ company, who contacted him about the project—though on Tarantino’s behalf.

“They just called me and said, ‘Hey, are you up for it? Do you want to go? Quentin wants to hook up.’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And that was the first day I met Quentin, in the room and he’s reading a scene that he wrote and it was this awesome cool gangster scene, and he’s acting it out and back and forth. I told him, I was so mad I didn’t record it on my phone. It would be so valuable. It was amazing.”

One can only imagine that Tarantino lapped up every bit of Smith’s high praise for the idea, which the two then began working on. As Smith continued:

“Then just we started working. I would go hang out at his house one night and we would watch old gangster films. We were there for hours. … We were just kicking back watching gangster films, laughing at the bad dialogue, but talking about how it would bleed into what we wanted to do. Kirk’s in it, we’ve got him. All the characters are there. It would be those guys. I guess you would look at it like all the episodes of the show didn’t really connect. So this would be almost its own episode. A very cool episode. There’s a little time travel stuff going on. … It’s really wild.”

Tarantino has made no secret that he’s a major fan of Chris Pine and his version of Captain Kirk in particular. In 2020, while appearing on The Ringer’s “Rewatchables” podcast, QT called Pine his favorite young actor working today—“hands down.”

As for whether or not we’ll ever have the chance to see this totally gangster Star Trek of Tarantino’s imagining: Probably not. In July, it was confirmed that Matt Shakman—director of WandaVision and, more importantly, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s “The Nightman Cometh” episode—will be standing behind the camera on the next Star Trek movie. But hey, there’s (presumably) nothing stopping QT from publishing the script as his next novel.

(Via IndieWire)

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Rand Paul Is Big Mad That ‘Leftwing Cretins At YouYube’ Suspended Him From The Platform For Spreading Lies, Bullsh%t, And Misinformation

Rand Paul loves to remind the world that he’s a physician (which is true). What is also true is that he is not an immunologist, a virologist, or an epidemiologist. (He’s an eye doctor.) Nor has he been in the trenches with the likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci (who has become a favorite target of Paul’s) in studying the COVID-19 coronavirus specifically, which is still new enough that we’re learning things about it every day. Which is all to say that when the Kentucky senator offers up his medical-related opinion on something, it’s just that—an opinion, not a fact. Which is why YouTube just banned Paul from the platform for a week for posting an anti-mask video full of lies and misinformation… and Paul is not happy!

On Tuesday evening, a clearly fuming Paul—whose face is so punchable that even his neighbor couldn’t resist—tweeted about having his video pulled from YouTube… though he claimed (presumably between clenched teeth) that it was “a badge of honor.”

“A badge of honor . . . leftwing cretins at Youtube banning me for 7 days for a video that quotes 2 peer reviewed articles saying cloth masks don’t work.”

In the now-deleted video, Paul was speaking out about the “danger” of mask mandates, which… what?!? It’s one thing to not like being told to do something; it’s another thing to claim that being told to wear a mask when we’re more than 18 months into a pandemic that has so far claimed the lives of more than 4.3 million people around the world, and is seeing record-high numbers of people being hospitalized across America, particularly in places where mask-wearing and vaccine-gettin’ don’t seem to be a priority. States like, oh, I don’t know… Kentucky? Which has seen a 139 percent increase in COVID cases over the past two weeks, according to The New York Times. While doctors and other health officials at the center of the COVID surge are pleading with people to mask up and get vaccinated, Paul took a different tack in his now-deleted video:

“Saying cloth masks work, when they don’t, actually risks lives, as someone may choose to care for a loved one with COVID while only wearing a cloth mask. This is not only bad advice but also potentially deadly misinformation.”

YouTube quickly removed the video for violating its community guidelines. In addition to his tweet, Paul’s office issued an official statement on the matter, in which the good doctor claimed:

“I think this kind of censorship is very dangerous, incredibly anti-free speech, and truly anti-progress of science, which involves skepticism and argumentation to arrive at the truth. As a libertarian leaning Senator, I think private companies have the right to ban me if they want to, so in this case I’ll just channel that frustration into ensuring the public knows YouTube is acting as an arm of government and censoring their users for contradicting the government.”

Noted.