I Am A Misinformation Denier
Partisan gaslighters say that conservatives must be censored or canceled to protect “democracy” because our views are “misinformation” or "disinformation." Hogwash.
Are you a misinformation denier? Maybe even a disinformation denier? I am.
Partisans promote censorship by claiming misinformation and its evil twin, disinformation, are harmful. Not just physical harm, as in following “bad advice” to take “horse dewormer” (what some erroneously call Ivermectin for humans) medicine to treat covid, but emotional harm. Censorship - silencing and deplatforming people with whom you disagree - opens the door to cancel culture - the destruction of reputations and careers.
But anyone who has paid attention to the release of the "Twitter Files" by journalists Matt Taibbi and former New York Times editor Bari Weiss knows it is blatantly false.
They want to silence, discredit and even destroy the reputations and careers of people with whom they disagree or find a “threat to democracy.” Or, as Winston from George Orwell’s famous and prophetic documentary (no longer fiction, sadly), 1984, calls it, wrongthink.
This is not true of all people on the left. There is a growing “civility” movement of people on both the right and left who find this cultural trend alarming, abhorrent, and deeply unAmerican. I am a part of that movement. But we are outnumbered, outmuscled, outspent, and outshouted.
It is the genuine threat to democracy few talk about. And it is long past time to fight back.
The Twitter Files exposed this, especially Weiss’s reporting. It exposed a blacklist of mostly conservative voices and GOP political candidates whose voices were suppressed in clear violation - a material breach - of Twitter’s terms of service. This not only demands investigation and prosecution by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Twitter was and remains a publicly traded company) but also the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Just because the former corporate officers are gone doesn’t mean they are off the hook. They remain liable for actions taken during their reign. And they each cashed in nicely from Musk’s $44 billion purchase of America’s unofficial town hall.
The question is, with those agencies (other than the FEC) under the control of Biden-appointed Democrats, will they do anything? After all, the SEC was asleep at the switch as FTX’s corrupt Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) pilfered a million accounts while shoveling $30 million to Democrats. SBF continues to conduct softball media interviews and enjoys the high life in the Bahamas.
The FEC, the weakest of those agencies, requires all three GOP commissioners and at least one Democrat to pursue an investigation. Don’t count on a fourth commissioner despite Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s admission late Thursday that Twitter interfered in federal elections.
Federal election law is clear. Corporations may not directly contribute “anything of value,” and suppressing the voices of GOP candidates for partisan advantage during elections qualifies as a direct contribution to their opponents. We’re about to find out who has integrity and will live up to their oaths of office and who doesn’t at these federal agencies—not holding my breath.
There is probably no more significant example of egregious censorship over alleged “misinformation” than over scientists and science journalists who dared question the “official wisdom” over covid lockdown and other policies than the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration and former New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson, who famously sued to be “unblocked” from Twitter. Dr. Jay Battacharya, an epidemiologist at Stanford, has long challenged covid lockdown policies. He was “shadowbanned” and worse by Twitter. Note this exchange earlier this week.
While Twitter, as a public corporation, is not beholden to the First Amendment, governments are. Evidence has already emerged that Biden Administration officials worked with Twitter, Facebook, and others to censor people. That is a violation of the First Amendment, and I hope lawsuits come flying out of the woodwork.
It is also an impeachable offense. It’s that serious.
If anyone takes time to investigate the definition of “misinformation” and “disinformation,” they will discover that what former Mayor and newspaper editor Thomas Buckley writes here below - also published on Issues & Insights - is spot on. This is one of those pieces I wish I had written.
You aren’t alone here