05-10-2022, 02:14 PM
(05-09-2022, 07:44 PM)Dill Wrote: Look at the sudden jump in your post from "guidance...on how to handle disinformation regarding national security" to the power to "silence . . . the ability to expose any of his illicit dealings" and "to quash Ukrainian and Russia-gate stories in their infancies."
I can easily imagine Trump or whatever Repub wins in 2024 canceling Biden's DoDis as easy as he pulled us out of the Iran Deal, the Paris Agreement, and the TPP.
I'd prefer new administrations not so quickly and whimsically undo previous administrations actions, so I don't get casually dismissing any concerns by thinking that the next guy can just change whatever. Especially when you're dealing with Constitutional Rights such as what the First Amendment affords.
Quote:What I cannot imagine is such a dept. being able to "quash Ukrainian and /Russia-gate stories." That would require very tight control of Congress and the Judiciary too, not to mention the DOJ--all enlisted in directly muzzling the press.
We the people have ALREADY given those three institutions that worrisome power to "potentially" silence and "quash," but you think a little DHS department would somehow overwhelm them? That's possible only if you have a regime party in control of all three branches of government, which we have never had yet, but certainly could if people don't start recognizing disinformation as itself a threat to speech and many other freedoms. THAT is the worry; not some toothless dept.
SSF covered this already. I was going to repeat, but why waste time? See his post.
Quote:I don't think it best to ask myself how I'd react if “my guy” wasn't in charge. By which I mean that at the current juncture, the question offers at best no analytic guidance/value, and at worst it invites diversion from a really existing (threat) as opposed to fictional threat.
So really, seriously, I cannot get all spun up because Biden is making efforts to address the security threat posed by that disinformation, the far greater threat to free speech if left unchallenged.
To you I would pose the same question I posed Hollo--what should be done about disinformation, homegrown and
or imported, and used to make our current system ungovernable? Resist defining and identifying it does not seem
like a good option.
You seem to genuinely have a fear of the "threat" of disinformation, especially that which you feel is coming from foreign actors. With all due respect, I think your fear is overblown. For perspective, some people have a fear of CRT being taught is schools. But your thoughts are that that fear is being overblown and used by political actors as tool to cause division. Have you ever stepped back for a second and considered the possibility that Russian and foreign disinformation are the same and being used the same way?
Disinformation is a subjective term that exists on a spectrum ranging from blatant and misleading lie, to a difference of opinion. It has been around for as long as time. And it always will be. There's really nothing that can be done about it, short of an authoritarian and heavy handed government crackdown on free speech.
