The Biden administration didn’t create a Ministry of Truth. We don’t have governmental ministries here in the United States. That’s a British thing. There are boards and departments.
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it’s putting a “pause” on its new Disinformation Governance Board. The new agency, which was announced in April, would operate under the Department of Homeland Security. tasked with “countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.”
The administration was unclear as to the role and scope the disinformation board would play. Would, for example, having the “wrong” opinion soon be considered a national securityAre you a threat that warrants censorship?
Who knows?
The one thing that’s clear is that the new board and the person tasked to lead it weren’t, as they say in Washington, “good optics.”
It was bad enough that the Biden administration seemingly took George Orwell’s book “1984” as a guide, rather than as a warning. It then made things worse with the appointment of Nina Jankowicz, the self-proclaimed “Mary Poppins of disinformation,”to be the chairman of the board.
The new—and now former, since she has resigned—disinformation czarina certainly appeared to be a real expert in “disinformation.”
She cast doubtThe veracity and truthfulness of the Hunter Biden laptop story was confirmed. She dismissed the idea COVID-19 was created in Wuhan, China as a scapegoat for President Donald Trump’s pandemic. Clearly, there’s a good reason to believe that story, even if China makes finding the truth difficult if not impossible.
In addition, Jankowicz backedSince-debunked claims that Trump was connected with a Kremlin-backed Bank.
What’s more, she has an extensive public record of seeing any story that counters left-wing narratives or makes Democrats in general look bad as exampleS of disinformation
For example: speaking at an event in Ohio, she said that opposition to critical race theory is just being “seized” upon by “Republicans and other disinformers” for profit.
Jankowicz’s solution to any such problem always seems to end up being censorship by people like herself, who naturally are always on the side of goodness and truth.
True to form, Jankowicz “shuddered” at the thought of Twitter becoming a more pro-free speech platform.
Jankowicz warned about social media companies allowing on their platforms “maligned creativity,” which she said had become “sexist” and “transphobic.”
Memes that are not appropriate for censorship seem to be in dire need of being censored. And don’t you dare mock those of us in power.
Jankowicz also said in a recent Zoom chat that “verified” Twitter users—who are, of course, always known for their good sense and truthiness—should have the ability to edit other people’s tweets. She also said some people should be unverified because “they’re not trustworthy.”
Which begs the question: Who’s trustworthy?
It is certain that they will be Democratic Party activists and Big Tech overlords who work alongside them.
Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary, was not surprising. said that the new disinformation board would be “nonpartisan” and “apolitical.”
Yeah, right.
It’s clear that the disinformation czarina who wasn’t thinks that anything contradicting left-wing groupthink must be false. That’s what the larger war on “misinformation” has ultimately been about. Democrats—now the party of insiders, agencies, and institutions—want to exert their monopolistic institutional power to ensure that all public forums are college campus-style liberal safe spaces.
Dissent—to the extent it is allowed to exist—is to be controlled and managed.
If any “conspiracy theories” deemed misinformation turn out to be true then, well, “mistakes were made.” There will be no mea culpas, no reckoning. Expect the news cycle to continue.
Today, America is witness to a clear attack on free speech. This is a brazen attack on free speech that even some of the most traditional left-leaning people are noticing and expressing concern.
HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher said the Disinformation Governance Board had a “creepy name” and noted that the opaque mission of the agency was “even creepier.”
“Yes, they’re right to compare this to Orwell and the ‘Ministry of Truth,’” he said. “That’s exactly what it sounds like.”
Maher pointed to the main problem with the disinformation board, which is that the “government should not be involved in deciding what’s true or not true.”
He went even further: “This idea that we can clean up Twitter and protect you from fake news and disinformation—it’s so ridiculous. People always lie. That’s what people do. Every age is the misinformation age.”
Maher is correct.
“Fake news” is endemic to human civilization. Whether in a free or authoritarian society, we must grapple with the fact that you can’t believe everything you hear.
The disinformation board isn’t just an example of bad optics. It’s even worse governance.
As I wrote in 2016, the idea of a government agency that is dedicated to determining truth or falsity runs counter to American tradition.
The Founding Fathers aimed to create a system which would promote self-government and protect citizens form arbitrary power. We, the people, are ultimately responsible for finding the truth. Lies abound, no matter what era. Fake news will continue to be a constant companion.
That’s why the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech through the First Amendment, which was created when most European governments had bureaus of censorship.
Even in the case of issues like libel and slander, we have courts and juries of one’s peers, not arbitrary government boards, that ascertain the truth of the matter.
Trials by jury and free speech That’s the American way.
When we surrender the power of determining truth from fiction to government boards or rulers, we ultimately give up the rights and duties that citizenship has to offer. Societies that have information tightly controlled by the government are less free and more vulnerable to revolution.
People who live under tightly controlled systems cannot discern truth from fiction. Governments—used to being able to control information—lie and manipulate to protect the power of rulers. A system built on lies will eventually fail or reach its breaking point.
The new disinformation agency and its czarina were indeed “creepy.” Let’s hope a similar board doesn’t come back under a more innocuous-sounding name and subtler leader.
The very idea of an American-style Ministry of Truth—regardless of what it was called—has no place in our constitutional republic. That is what most Americans still get.
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