Reflections on Disinformation and the Disinformed
U.S. President Joe Biden has taken the official position that people spreading social media “disinformation” (a word now used by the U.S. government and media interchangeably with “misinformation,” effectively blurring the lines between the debatably false and the intentionally fake) regarding Covid-19 or the vaccines are “killing people.” In other words, Biden, speaking as the U.S. Federal Government, is holding private individuals personally culpable for virus deaths, if they are expressing opinions which do not comply with the official truths of the World State.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki:
“In terms of actions we are taking or that we’re working to take, I should say, from the federal government, we’ve increased disinformation research and tracking within the surgeon general’s office. We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” she said.
And do not be sidetracked or blinded by White House suggestions that some of the allegedly incorrect information may be originating from Russia and China. The U.S. government has announced that it is directly working with social media corporations to detect, flag and remove all content about the pandemic deemed by the government to be false or misleading. I note that tying this broad authoritarian assault on freedom of thought and speech to a real national security concern (Russia and China) is a typical technique of…well, disinformation campaigns.
Here is a summary of the key content of the Biden administration’s “advisory” on virus disinformation:
Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, were subsequently encouraged in the advisory to redesign algorithms, increase the staff they have monitoring potentially false content, and share information about what users are accessing to researchers.
As for everyday people, the advisory encourages them to learn how to identify and avoid sharing incorrect health information, address health misinformation in their community, and engage with their friends and family on the problem of health misinformation.
Monitor “potentially false content.” “Share information” about what users are accessing with “researchers” (aka spy on the public on behalf of the government). And of course, the Maoist call for “everyday people” to — ahem — “learn how to identify and avoid sharing incorrect health information,” and to “engage” with friends and family to stop others from sharing such “incorrect information” (i.e., accept every government position as unassailable truth, and serve as dutiful members of the collective in helping the state to stymie all private dissent or questioning of the state’s official claims). In brief, the federal government is the arbiter of truth and falsehood in “information,” and private entities or individuals deemed to have opined against the official government truth will be held accountable in one form or another for their transgressions.
Similarly, of course, Biden’s administration and its Democratic Party are actively entrenching the twin notions that, first, “racism” has a special status under federal law — labelled by the U.S. Justice Department “hate crime” if a violent act is committed, or “bias or hate incident” if a mere racist thought is held — and, second, that racism includes, for example, expressing disagreement with critical race theory (an overtly Marxist-revisionist doctrine), or disapproval of Black Lives Matter (a Marxist revolutionary activist group).
In short, in the official opinion and policy of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, you are subject to being labelled a threat to life and/or an enemy of the people if you question the public health policies or scientific assessments of the state, or if you publicly criticize policies and organizations that have communist roots and goals.
The next step in this process is not hard to predict, and should come as no surprise to anyone when it arrives. (But it will come as a surprise nevertheless.)
For my part, I am no longer capable of being surprised by any folly or horror to which the human race may be subjected — or to which it may subject itself. My days of holding out hope for, or even a little faith in, the human spirit, are over. A handful of individuals comprise my human universe now — individuals who, through time and close personal association have proved themselves worthy of my belief, concern, and attention. My default assumption regarding all the rest is that they will prove, as they have been proving so well over the past several years, to be so much animate darkness, aggressively spreading through what was once civilization, leaving nothing but blindness, fear, and a nauseating stench where not so long ago there was still some sunlight, still some beauty, still some goodwill, still some ambition to grow and learn, and still some trust in the very idea of living together without a leash.
“Disinformation.” A term that, in its modern usage, was coined to describe knowingly false and deceptive statements used by governments to control or manipulate populations, is now increasingly being employed (deceptively, as noted above) as a descriptor for any private opinions or statements which express dissent from, or disagreement with, the government’s official positions. A sign of the times.
