Covid has turned Blumenthal into a crazy person. This is when the split with Ben Norton happened, and it seems Ben Norton did not handle that well at all, which turned Blumenthal even more crazy. You could say he's even a patsoc in some regards. He's heavily influenced by the likes of Jimmy Dore (who hosted him a lot during Covid), who in turn is heavily influenced by Joe Rogan. It's likely he hosted a Jiang interview because Jimmy Dore suggested it.

Fortunately, Aaron Mate and Kit Klarenberg still do good journalism through the Grayzone.

I think Max Blumenthal is just a really weird guy, who can do good journalism and work with really interesting people, but also prone to falling for extremely stupid nonsense and of course having a huge ego and difficult personality. I know people like him and they are too volatile for me to ever work with professionally, and so i completely understand why Ben broke with him, but at the same time, if you filter out the crazy he can be a valuable resource for anti-imperialists. Treat him like radioactive material: very useful for certain purposes in the right doses but has to be handled with lead gloves and you may need a decontamination shower afterward.

I don't think he's controlled opposition. He's published too much that has been genuinely damaging to US imperialist interests.

Jiang on the other hand is pretty clearly either grifter or intelligence asset or both.

I looked up that video and it's so cringe. Even if Ben did steal from Max, which Ben denies, he's confronting him by pushing a camera in his face on a bus full of FSLN supporters. Way to make it all about you. Not a good look.

Kit Klarenberg is a treasure though.

Just listen to one of his interviews. He's a cauldron of conspiracy theories and he knows how to pluck the right chords to make you interested in what he has to say. For example, he will start talking about the Epstein files and how billionaires corrupt politicians, and then he'll end up linking it to satanic cults and the Jews controlling the world.

I remember the last time I saw him, he was praising ethnosupremacy as the thing that will save us all from AI and global warming, through a mix of fascist and theocratic regimes.

He's heavily anticommunist and against the People's Republic of China. He's also not a professor.

Misogynist, anticommunist. Likely a CIA asset. Here's a thread on X explaining his history.