The announcement last week of President Biden’s new Czar of Disinformation (the actual title is something like Disinformation Governance Board) is scary on multiple levels and for the life of me, I am not sure why we even have this “Minister of Truth”. Forget the fact that the woman appointed, Nina Jankowicz, has been a key player in disinformation over the last two years. Just having someone in the government as an arbiter of what is true and what is false is frightening.
Forget political affiliation, the US Government from the President on down have been probably the biggest purveyors of untruths for decades. Eisenhower, Carter, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Obama, Bush, and Trump all have been caught in spreading false information. It’s a fact of life in Washington. Now, they want to police misinformation by the general public? Seems like hypocrisy to me.
I realize that the World is loaded with naive people looking for someone or something to hang their hats on but really, how stupid does the Biden Administration think the American people are? Do they believe everything they read or hear? Apparently, the administration thinks that all this hot air that is floated on social media is believed. Come on, are we that stupid that we can’t separate the wheat from the chaff as far as information is concerned? I don’t get it.
But maybe I do.
The assumption is that this Czar will be cracking down on disinformation, presumably from the right, so we can have more faith in what is being reported or published. Hmm. Seems reminiscent of earlier times when the Nazis decided that the only narrative was theirs and Joseph Stalin took issue with people that did not toe his party line. Millions died as a result. Now I don’t think that this attempt at sterilization of information will reach that far but it does frighten me a bit.
Who is to say that my voice is telling an untruth? How do they determine what the truth is and what isn’t the truth if someone is voicing an opinion? It just doesn’t work with me and I am pretty sure once they get rolling, there will be dozens of cases that will be going to the Supreme Court where, hopefully, the First Amendment rights of our citizens will be protected.
As you already know, I am a big believer in our First Amendment rights of free speech. I may not agree with what you are saying but I believe you have a right to say it. The one thing people from all parties seem to forget is that if you don’t like what someone is saying, you do not have to listen.
I don’t like Alexandra Ocasio Cortez and I think most of what she says is out and out stupid but I believe 100% in her right to say it and to feel the way she does. I don’t think anyone should muzzle her. Amazingly, you never hear of anyone trying to suppress her or any of the “Squad”. Why? Because they have the right to say what they feel. However, there are elements in government and in the media that work daily to suppress and disparage people with ultra right wing convictions. How is that fair? The left can speak freely but the right is boxed in and dissected like they are criminals.
To give you a perfect example of whats good for the goose is not good for the gander go online and read the New York Times hatchet job of Tucker Carlson. Granted, I am no fan of Carlson but I believe in his right to say what he feels. I also know that Tucker Carlson, no matter what the NYTimes believes, is not going out and saying anything that can’t be verified. The staff at FoxNews veryfies everything and surprisingly, there have been no lawsuits, no counterclaims, nothing regarding many of his claims. I wonder why? Yet, if you read the articles in Sunday and Mondays Times, you would think he was the second coming of Jim Jones, leading his flock to Jonestown. What would the Czar say about this article?
Yet, when the NYPost did an expose on Hunter Biden and that crazy laptop, Twitter shut the Post’s account down for weeks. At the end of the day, the Post was right and even the venerable Times had to report on it. Albeit on page 13.
Just as a side note, this “Minister of Disinformation” was appointed not two days after Elon Musk made his play for Twitter. Coincidence? Probably not since I honestly don’t believe the administration has the skillset to create a whole new post out of thin air in the span of 48 hours. It’s been in the offing for longer i am sure but it is a bit coincidental don’t you think.
The other thing that is bizarre about this appointment is that if you go on to the Department of Homeland Security (which her department will be under) there is one mention of this particular function. It is addressed as a “working group”. Talk about transparency or lack thereof.
Fair and balanced does not exist in this country anymore. Having some Czar come in and tell us what is truth is and what it is not, just advances the notion that the left has nowhere to go now. They have failed in almost every respect and in a last ditch effort to keep control and relevancy, they will try to silence those that disagree.
I agree with all you said, but, this direction we are heading toward is why we broke away from England, freedom, which we are losing step by step.