Opinion: Disinformation board is Orwellian

The federal government’s hastily thrown together Disinformation Governance Board was a predictable reaction to the “threat” this government sees in freer speech on social media.

Of course, free speech is not a threat to anyone who doesn’t depend on censorship and lies, without opposition, to fool the public.

Widespread ridicule for the idea was immediate, with many people labeling this new bureaucracy Biden’s Ministry of Truth, after the ironically named propaganda agency from George Orwell’s book “1984.” The Disinformation Governance Board is, quite literally, Orwellian.

As people have been pointing out for years now, “1984” was supposed to be a warning, not a blueprint.

Since I don’t believe the word “truth” has any place in this effort, I prefer to think of this new agency not as the Ministry of Truth, but as Biden’s Department of Lies. Lies intended to spread propaganda that can’t be countered by truth because truth won’t be allowed to see the light of day. How long until saying something an administration doesn’t like becomes a jailable offense? Oh, wait -- it already happens.

I’m not sure the name the regime picked for the new board is such a bad one, though. It does seem designed to govern through disinformation, after all.

I was startled at how quickly this propaganda bureau was set up after it appeared Twitter’s potential new owner was less enthusiastic about censorship and authoritarian propaganda than the previous owners had seemed to be.

Government shouldn’t be controlling speech, including whatever they consider “hate speech.” Not only is it not their job, but they are expressly forbidden to do so by the First Amendment.

Some people would like you to believe certain kinds of speech are not protected under the Bill of Rights, but they would be wrong. The First Amendment doesn’t protect speech; it explicitly forbids government censorship. That’s an important distinction that many people would prefer to sweep under the rug.

The entire point of the Bill of Rights is to put things off-limits to government regulation. There are no special exceptions; not safety, national security, hate, or anything else. Anyone who tries to carve out exceptions for their agenda is lying to you. They are looking for ways to violate your liberty with arbitrary legislation they make up to punish those who don’t go along with them.

The regime’s Disinformation Governance Board is entirely anti-American and needs to be laughed out of existence.

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at: 

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