The ruling class really is setting itself up for a takedown. The Culture Secretary just admitted that a totally opaque “disinformation unit” in government works day in day out to *extrajudicially* remove lawful speech the government doesn’t like from the internet. Something similar is going on now in the UK:
And of course she looks and sounds exactly like this. When a Minister of Truth came to America of course it was going to be a smug, condescending white woman.
They’ve also questioned the fitness of the board’s executive director, Nina Jankowicz, who has in the past supported Democrats, praised efforts to crack down on coronavirus misinformation on social media and expressed skepticism about the provenance of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Elon Musk declared it “messed up.” Many on the right likened it to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s book “1984.” In another, he said it would be used to counter Russian cyber and election misinformation: “We have just established a mis- and disinformation governance board in the Department of Homeland Security to more effectively combat this threat, not only to election security but to our homeland security.”Īmid growing anti-censorship fervor on the right, a bevy of Republicans have suggested that the initiative amounts to policing speech. In one, he linked it to efforts to combat misinformation from human smugglers. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mentioned the creation of the board in multiple congressional hearings this week. The Department of Homeland Security’s creation of a Disinformation Governance Board has set off a backlash on the right - even as it’s not entirely clear what the perhaps unfortunately named board will do. News this week from the world of Soft Totalitarianism: the Biden Administration’s Department of Homeland Security has announced a federal panel to combat “disinformation.” That’s right: the government has taken upon itself the task of instructing the people what’s true and what isn’t. I have missed a step or two this week, for sure. Sorry I haven’t posted much this week - I’ve been giving talks in Brussels and in Utrecht, and I’m still trying to absorb how radically my life has changed.