Penn Jillette Goes to the Dark Side

Penn Jillette came out as a shill in an interview published August 2nd, 2016 on ReasonTV.

Penn now says that we should focus on likeability in a candidate, but that is the same as asking us to not use our brains and to just focus on the image the media creates for each candidate.

Instead of using our brains to investigate and go where the facts take us, the media, and their masters, would love for us to focus on the image they create for each candidate. For example, the media created the Myth of Obama based on ... nothing. Obama just has to not step out of character, and the media will do all of the attacking and defending for him – for free. They even fabricate dirt on those they don't like while covering up the dirt on Obama, thus leaving Obama looking like a really nice, cool, smart guy ... at least to those who would rather conform than think for themselves; whereas, the media thus force any candidates they don't like to spend a lot of their resources to directly defend themselves and to attack the media, Obama, and other bad guys. Then the media spin such necessary and legitimate self-defense and attacks as petty, mean, racist, and ignorant.

Any smart well-informed libertarian like Penn Jillette knows that likeability is a media fabrication, and yet, he now says we should focus on likeability in a candidate. Penn also adds that Obama is a nice likeable guy, even though he knows that Obama is a creation of the media, and that Obama has killed or ruined the lives of tens of millions, and worsened the lives of hundreds of millions. He also knows that Obama claims the authority to kill or indefinitely detain any American without due process, and that he has already exercised these powers. Penn knows that Obama used the IRS to neutralize grassroots efforts that would have cost him reelection. He has also audited and/or jailed those who embarrass him.

Penn now says that Obama is smarter than pretty much anyone, including Bill Clinton! As an example, he says you will learn something new every 15 minutes in conversation with Obama.

If Obama is so smart, then why does he use a teleprompter more than any previous president, and why did he recently sound like a moron when his teleprompter went out; whereas, when Bill Clinton's teleprompter went out, he went ahead and gave the speech. Without his teleprompter, Obama thought Austrians speak Austrian, that there were 57 states (then corrected himself and said there were 60 states), and that good solutions to our energy problems were overinflating our tires and clean coal.  He even tried to enter the Whitehouse thorough a window that he thought was a door – just like George Bush did. If you read the parts of his books that were not ghost wrutten, you can see what a mediocre mind he has. He was given a Nobel prize for nothing, a degree from Columbia having never attended class, and editorship of the Harvard Law Review having never written anything for it – then or later.

You will learn something new in conversation with Obama every 15 minutes? That sounds pretty unimpressive. Consider that you will learn something new from an average libertarians every 5 minutes.

I have never heard a single intelligent or impressive statement from Obama, except this statement he made in 2006:

Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘‘the buck stops here.’’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.

However, after Obama became President, he said he had been wrong, and he recanted his one intelligent statement.

Under Obama, there has been no economic recovery, the lost jobs are still gone, the stock market is just inflation, food stamps are at an all time high, and healthcare has gotten worse.

Given how everything Obama has was given to him, and how he is told by everyone among the seemingly diverse crowd around him how he is The One, and how he seems unaware of smart people and smart ideas outside the mainstream, and how he never has to think about attacking others or defending himself … because his fans, such as the media, do it for him … he would naturally always be in a very positive mood and frequently repeating cool stuff that actual smart people in his crowd told him … unless he had an amazing gift for introspection and independent thought; whereas, he seems to have no introspection or independent thought at all. Obama is thus understandably delusional. Hence I stand by my article from 3/21/2010 Pity Obama.

If Penn knows some reason why Obama is so smart, then why didn’t he tell us? Why was his reasoning so laughable? Also, why would he give up all of his credibility with smart, honest, well-informed, independent thinkers in order to infinitesimally enhance Obama’s credibility with mediocre, low-information, conformists? Why would he help such a bad and powerful man at all – let alone at the cost of his own reputation?

After squandering his whole reputation on Obama, Penn then goes on to say that to be healthy, we should eat nothing from animals, which is the same as saying we should eat like a serf. In addition to recommending that we eat like a serf, he is simply wrong. To be healthy, we should eat lots of animal products. For health advice, go to Dr. Mercola's site.

Penn Jillette is the fourth famous libertarian/voluntaryist whom I have observed to have recently, and suddenly, made such shocking statements that I watched them go from being a libertarian hero to being worse than most other shills. (I recently covered Gary Johnson’s fall.) For example, they started praising some of the worst individuals alive today (i.e. Hillary and Obama), and they started misdirecting us. In a nutshell, they are trying to neutralize us. They are thus worse than most in the mainstream media and politics because they definitely know better; whereas, many "journalists"  and politicians are mostly just stupid and ignorant conformists.

Unfortunately, I have no choice but to assume Penn is some kind of shill if he is telling such huge lies to persuade us to live like a serf, to look up to Obama, to have faith in the system, and most importantly, to look away from what is actually happening – like a magician.

The only thing necessary for the people to win is to shine a light on what is really happening, but given that they are neutralizing any honest leaders, like Penn, we can no longer rely on anyone else to educate us.

In order for the people to win, you don’t have to do much. Just think for yourself, and then educate others. You will then just be one of millions. They would have to do a Stalin-like purge to neutralize most such grassroots efforts, but then they would automatically lose the argument for 100 years – so they won’t do that. You’re safe as long as you think for yourself and educate others.