The prevaricating Glenn Greenwald has gotten a couple of profiles written about him recently. One, in the Huffington Post, where he claims that his memory is more important than facts (more about that later), and the second in The New Yorker (paywall).
One takeaway from both pieces is that Greenwald does not bother to vote and sees virtually no differences between electing Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren and Republicans such as David Duke. When a man tells you what he thinks, you should believe him. And Glenn Greenwald believes that the election of Donald Trump was immaterial. Greenwald thinks that if Hillary Clinton had been elected things might have in fact turned out to be worse.
As someone pointed out in the comments section of the Huffington Post piece, it is easy for Greenwald, a white male, to say that his personal life is not affected by whether Trump is president or not. But to people of color, the fact that Trump emboldens white supremacist, it is a big deal. Of course, Greenwald is not a person who understands about empathy, so he does not care. This is but one difference between Trump and Clinton, who won the popular vote by over one million votes. To Greenwald, the polemicist who thinks Barack Obama was worse than George W. Bush, this is inconsequential.
Greenwald does not care, because all he cares about is to dominate a discussion. Greenwald is all about winning the argument at any cost, even when the cost is the truth. But, in Greenwald’s world, the idea of objective truth is as irrational as it is to Rudolph Giuliani.
It is telling that in his Huffington Post discussion with Wyl S. Hylton, Greenwald makes the argument that Donald Trump Jr., never claimed that his meeting with Russians was not about getting political ammunition against Clinton. This is absolutely wrong. It is factually incorrect, yet Greenwald has the mendacity to say that as far as his memory serves him, his recollection is correct. Greenwald has the audacity to say to Hylton, when Hylton corrects him “That’s not my memory, but it’s not really relevant to your question.” It is telling because it shows that Greenwald does not care about coherence, he only cares about appearances, and to him the perception that he appears to be smarter than his opponents is of most importance.
Greenwald is a moralizer, but in the hypocritical Christian fundamentalist fashion. Greenwald uses his moral outrage against Democrats exclusively, because they do not live up to his exacting standards of perfection. So to Greenwald, who identifies as a leftist, the Democratic party is more corrupt and less worthy of governing than the Republican party. As Jonathan Chait puts it, Greenwald believes that he is incorruptible, which is why to him the Democratic party is the greater of two evils.
Can this be true? Is it possible that Trump, who refuses to release his tax returns is worse than Hillary Clinton? Well, one thing that might reveal more about Glenn Greenwald would be to ask him where exactly it is that he pays taxes. Since he resides in Brazil, Greenwald is more than likely no longer paying taxes in New York state. However, he is still required to file federal taxes, whether he lives in Brazil or not. Tellingly, Greenwald has set up his company, The Intercept, as a tax exempt, non-profit.
The Intercept is financed by eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar, which means that The Intercept has deep resources. According to the New Yorker article, Greenwald was paid a half million dollars during the first year of operation. Whether Greenwald still gets paid $500,000 a year by his non-profit “charitable foundation” is a question that should be answered by Greenwald, particularly if he is–as some people are saying–perhaps not paying taxes to any US authority. Whether Greenwald is aware or not, he is required to pay federal income taxes to the United States just as the rest of us do. As a lawyer he should know. Remember that Obama raised taxes on those making over $250,000 a year, which may explain Greenwald’s hatred of Obama.
So, is Greenwald soft on the Republican party because he is keen on paying less in taxes than under the Democrats? It’s hard to tell, but this would be clear if Greenwald were to release his US federal taxes.