Glenn Greenwald Scandal Proves Tolerance Is Not A Virtue — It’s High Time Conservatives Start Acting Like It

The so-called “slippery slope” hasn’t proved a fallacy so much as an immutable law. Where one form of degeneracy is permitted, more is sure to follow.

Look no further than the sexually explicit video of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald recently leaked on X: footage depicts Greenwald, dressed in women’s clothing, sitting on his knees as a Portuguese man verbally degrades him. Greenwald kisses his feet. The man demands Greenwald transfer him 10,000 Brazilian Real, the equivalent of more than $1700 dollars, to which Greenwald complies. Viewers have alleged that a meth pipe is visible in the footage.

Greenwald claims the videos were published without his “knowledge or consent.” 

“Though we do not yet know exactly who is responsible, we are close to knowing, and the motive was a maliciously political one,” Greenwald alleged in a statement published to X. 

“I’m trying so hard to see past that video, but the demonic eyes and meth pipe really bother me more than the sexual deviance,” an X user wrote. “Would love to hear some acknowledgement of your use of this dangerous, brain altering drug or why that meth pipe was present if not used.”

Greenwald was asked specifically about the apparent meth pipe in the video and he didn’t deny it. Instead he said he’s proud of his personal life. How can anyone defend this? There are three children in that home. Does anyone really think that a home with hard drug use and male… pic.twitter.com/1rdPlBikIM

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 2, 2025

Greenwald did not address the meth pipe allegation directly — at first. “The point I’ve made from the start is that the moral and ethical code I believe in for my own life is one I am satisfied I am fulfilling,” he wrote in response to the user. “… I feel no obligation to confine myself to the various moral codes others profess to believe in when it comes to private behavior.” Megyn Kelly appeared to agree. (RELATED: SANDOVAL: Woke Talking Point Could Kill Republicans’ Momentum)

“Love & respect [Greenwald],” Megyn Kelly wrote on X. “Can’t wait to have him on again soon and ignore this attempt to embarrass him as the irrelevant BS it is.”

To restate what seems to be Greenwald and Kelly’s argument: “What does the total moral degeneration of society have to do with you?”

A lot, I’d argue. Greenwald is a public figure. Conduct as remarkable as what the footage depicts is worthy of discussion, particularly given Greenwald has thrown himself into culture war skirmishes as a progressive. 

Greenwald is a proponent of adoption by same-sex couples. The journalist adopted three children with his spouse, David Miranda. Miranda died in 2023 following a “nine-month struggle with an abdominal infection,” according to The New York Times. It’s little wonder Greenwald did not take kindly to conservative commentator Matt Walsh’s critique of same-sex adoption. 

“A child being in foster care is, is far from an ideal scenario, it’s very, very sad,” Walsh said on an episode of The Tucker Carlson Show. “A child going to two gay parents, I think is worse … It’s just more disordered, it’s more confusing for the child.” 

Greenwald responded to Walsh’s remarks on X: “One has to be morally deranged – or totally ignorant of the grim reality of kids lingering without parents in orphanages, shelters and foster care, only to be expelled at 18 with no support – to believe that that dark hell is better for kids than being adopted by gay couples.”

Certainly, children lingering around men who appear to engage in behavior like the recently leaked footage — much less while being recorded — is cause for concern. But that’s coming from a member of the “self-anointed sexual morality police,” in Greenwald’s words. 

The remarkable number of falsehoods about this video invented over the last couple of days and commonly expressed in this thread:

I was determined not to weigh in on this matter again after the originaly statement I issued on the first day because – as I said then – I strongly…

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 2, 2025

In another lengthy statement, Greenwald chastised those who claim “[t]he events in the video took place in my house where my kids live and when they were present,” calling that a “dumb, malicious and obvious set of lies: this video was recorded quite some again – at least a year ago if not more – and it obviously did take place at or near my house.”

Not everyone is intimately familiar with Greenwald’s home decor. He then addressed the meth allegation. “They have also announced, for some reason, that I consumed crack or meth and am now tragically burdened by some crippling crack or meth addiction that has never once previously manifested to anyone in the 20 years of intensive daily work I have been doing,” he wrote.

Putting his statement aside, this entire episode should be taken as a lesson for conservatives who insist on vaunting progressives to the top of leadership positions. One should not confuse an occasionally useful ally for a conservative. Certain “identities” are inherently incompatible with the latter. (RELATED: Libs Up In Arms When Their Own Racism Gets Shoved In Their Face)

For instance, as should be obvious, transgenderism. Blaire White, a self-styled conservative youtuber, has garnered an audience of millions by railing against transgender ideology. Trouble is, White himself is a male who has undergone extensive “feminizing” procedures. If conservatives are to criticize “pride month” with any degree of authority, they cannot indulge people like White – regardless of how appropriate his rhetoric might seem on paper.  

Tolerance of depravity isn’t a virtue. It’s an Achilles’ heel.

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatalieIrene03