BIDEN'S Wish For Censorship

https://www.newsweek.com/biden-big-tech-covid-censorship-collusion-tip-ruling-class-spear-opinion-1612355

s America witnesses with shock the Biden administration's open and unabashed collusion with Big Tech to censor those engaging in COVID speech it deems problematic, the administration's allies promising the same with respect to SMS carriers and a threatened door-to-door vaccination campaign, C.S. Lewis' old saw that "a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive" comes to mind.

The issue at play here is manifestly not coronavirus vaccine efficacy, vaccination rates or public policy messaging, but the deeper question of who gets to determine the content of speech and the contours of our public discourse: A free, sovereign people or an insular Ruling Class?

It's not about whether a Ministry of Truth that lies and obscures all the time can be a competent arbiter of the quality of information, but whether there should be a Ministry of Truth at all.

And if we are still America, the answer is clear: There shouldn't be.

Free peoples begin their descent to unfreedom when they permit their leaders to grab powers in violation of their natural rights on grounds of public health and national security. Typically, this process begins with seemingly minor interventions in the most seemingly unobjectionable areas, so as to generate the least resistance.

But just as "15 days to slow the spread" metastasized into assaults on speech, religion, commerce, justice, election law and every other aspect of American life, so too will "fighting COVID misinformation" by blacklisting a dozen social media accounts metastasize into an attempted monopolization of the entire information sphere by our Ruling Class.

Already-tyrannical powers justify their depredations the same, only with a nod and a wink, and to greater effect. The same goes for China's ruling Communist Party vis-à-vis Hong Kong and for America's China-kowtowing elites vis-à-vis everyday citizens they presume to lord over.

Our Ruling Class' effort to control the information sphere—to monopolize The Narrative—has been underway for years. This was most recently and notably evinced in the cases of social media suppression of speech on the coronavirus' origins, Hunter Biden's laptop and election integrity—suppression the political establishment regulating Big Tech no doubt looked upon favorably.

What has fundamentally changed is that it is now official public policy for relevant state and private-sector power centers to jointly eliminate ideas that do not comport with the Ruling Class' agenda—ideas that might threaten its ability to rule.

And as the Biden administration has made clear, the pretext is public health and national security.

The combating of coronavirus misinformation actually represents the intersection of the two. Some dot-connecting is in order here.

The final pillar of the Biden administration's first-of-its-kind National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism calls for confronting long-term contributors to domestic terrorism. This includes:

enhancing faith in government and addressing the extreme polarization, fueled by a crisis of disinformation and misinformation often channeled through social media platforms, which can tear Americans apart and lead some to violence... We will work toward finding ways to counter the influence and impact of dangerous conspiracy theories that can provide a gateway to terrorist violence.

Note here the disturbing underlying premise that skepticism of government is not only unhealthy, but a cause of domestic terror. Note too that the administration believes the response to such "disinformation and misinformation" and "dangerous conspiracy theories"—as it sees them—must be to "counter" their "influence and impact." The administration would seem to have dismissed the idea that "faith in government" must be earned; that a government can only gain the public's trust by being transparent and accountable, and through demonstrated performance.

s for particulars, what kinds of ideas does the Biden administration-led national security apparatus deem dangerous?

Among others, those concerning COVID and election integrity.

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