Month: May 2023

BY  DANIEL KLEIN   MAY 31, 2023

Abstract

The policing of “information” is the stuff of Naziism, Stalinism, Maoism, and similar anti-liberal regimes. To repress criticism of their dicta and diktats, anti-liberals label criticism “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Those labels are instruments to crush dissent.

This paper offers an understanding of knowledge as involving three chief facets: information, interpretation, and judgment. Usually, what people argue fervently over is not information, but interpretation and judgment.

What is being labeled and attacked as “misinformation” is not a matter of true or false information, but of true or false knowledge—meaning that disagreement more commonly arises over interpretations and judgments as to which interpretations to take stock in or believe. We make judgments, “good” and “bad,” “wise” and “foolish,” about interpretations, “true” and “false.”

On that understanding, the paper explains that the projects and policies now afoot styled “anti-misinformation” and “anti-disinformation” are dishonest, as it should be obvious to all that those projects and policies would, if advanced honestly, be called something like “anti-falsehood” campaigns.

But to prosecute an “anti-falsehood” campaign would make obvious the true nature of what is afoot—an Orwellian boot to stomp on Wrongthink. To support governmental policing of “information” is to confess one’s anti-liberalism and illiberality. The essay offers a spiral diagram to show the three chief facets of knowledge (information, interpretation, and judgment) plus a fourth facet, fact, which also deserves distinct conceptualization, even though the spiral reminds us: Facts are theory-laden.

Writing at Discourse, published by the Mercatus Center, Martin Gurri describes “disinformation” as follows:

The word means, ‘Shut up, peasant.’ It’s a bullet aimed at killing the conversation. It’s loaded with hostility to reason, evidence, debate and all the stuff that makes our democracy great. (Gurri 2023)

That is from Gurri’s excellent piece, “Disinformation Is the Word I Use When I Want You to Shut Up.” The piece prompted the present essay, the title of which is a variation on his.

With such titles, Gurri and I are being polemical, of course. Not all usages of “disinformation” and “misinformation” come from people intent on shutting someone up. But a lot are. The “anti-misinformation” and “anti-disinformation” projects now afoot or in effect are about shutting up opponents.

In 2019 the Poynter Institute for Media Studies published “A Guide to Anti-misinformation Actions around the World.” There you survey examples of anti-misinformation and anti-disinformation projects and policies, which have no doubt soared further since 2019.

The policing of ‘information’ is the stuff of Naziism, Stalinism, Maoism, and similar anti-liberal regimes. In my title “Misinformation Is a Word We Use to Shut You Up,” anti-liberals are the “We.” To repress criticism of their dicta and diktats, they stamp criticism as “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Those stamps are Orwellian tools that anti-liberals wield in the hope of stamping out Wrongthink—for example, on climate, election integrity, the origins of the Covid virus, therapeutics such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, the effectiveness of masking, the effectiveness of the Covid injections, the safety of the Covid injections, and the effectiveness of lock-downs. “Anti-misinformation” could be deployed in keeping with whatever the next THE CURRENT THING might be, with associated slogans against, say, China, Putin, Nord Stream, racists, white supremacists, MAGA Republicans, “deniers,” et cetera. And then, of course, there’s all that “misinformation” disseminated by “conspiracy theorists”.

In speaking of “policing,” I mean government throwing its weight and its coercion around against “misinformation” or “disinformation.” And, besides government coercion, there are allies. These allies often enjoy monopolistic positions, stemming either from government handouts, privileges, and sweetheart deals, as with broadcasters, universities, and pharmaceutical companies, or from having cornered certain network externalities, as with certain huge media platforms. Allies of various sorts sometimes do the bidding of the despots because they themselves are threatened and intimidated. The ecosystem leads to their debasement.

To support governmental policing of “information” is to confess one’s anti-liberalism and illiberality. Even worse, it is to flaunt them. The motive is to make and signal commitment to anti-liberalism, in a manner parallel to how religious cults sets up rituals and practices for making and signaling commitments (Iannaccone 1992). Vice signals vice, the ticket in some spheres to promotion and advancement.

Also, vicious action spurs more of the same to defend against exposé and accountability for past wrongs. In protecting their rackets, the wrongdoers verge upon a downward spiral…

Read the rest HERE.

Drones attack Russian oil refineries; Germany closes Russian consulates in retaliatory move

Drone attacks on Russian soil continued into their second day, with reported strikes on two oil refineries roughly 50 miles from Russia’s highly important Black Sea oil export terminals, local authorities said.

The strikes come just a day after drone attacks in Moscow that damaged buildings and prompted the Kremlin to say it reserves the right to take “severe measures” in response.

Meanwhile, several people have been killed in shelling in the central and eastern Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Russian-occupied Luhansk, according to local officials.

48 MINS AGO

Germany closing Russian consulates in tit-for-tat move

Germany will close four out of its five Russian consulates, the German government said Wednesday, in response to a move from Moscow to limit the number of German diplomats in the country.

Russia will still be allowed to operate its embassy in Berlin and one general consulate, according to Reuters. Germany, meanwhile, will only be allowed to have 350 officials in Russia.

The move comes amid deteriorating ties between the two countries amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany’s foreign ministry specifically cited Russia’s new limits on staff when it announced the consulate decision.

“This unjustified decision is forcing the federal government to make very significant cuts in all areas of its presence in Russia,” a spokesperson said, according to Reuters.

— Michele Luhn

St. Joan of Arc, convicted of heresy by Bishop Pierre Cauchon, a legitimate prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, along with a corrupt bench of judges. Burned at the stake at Rouen, 30 May, 1431.

“About Jesus Christ and the Church, I just know they are one in the same thing.”

“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe. But to surrender who you are and to live without belief is more terrible than dying – even more terrible than dying young.”

In response to the trick question as to whether she was in the state of grace: “If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.”

“It is better to be alone with God. His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love. In His strength, I will dare and dare and dare until I die.”

“You say that you are my judge; I do not know if you are; but take good heed not to judge me ill, because you would put yourself in great peril.”

“Children say that people are hung sometimes for speaking the truth.”

“Go forward bravely. Fear nothing. Trust in God; all will be well.”

“All battles are first won or lost in the mind.”

“ACT, AND GOD WILL ACT.”

“I am not afraid, I was born to do this.”

Upon being chained to the stake: “Hold the Cross high, that I may see it through the flames.”

Her sentence was reversed and annulled by the Church in 1455. Beatified 11 April 1909. Canonized 16 May 1920.

St. Joan of Arc, pray for us.

The FDA released a video on May 16 warning the public of the dangers of misinformation. At one point in the video, the FDA says, “Misinformation can spread 6x faster than facts,” without any data or facts to back the statement up. The FDA ostensibly shared the video because they continue to worry about the impact of “dangerous” misinformation on public health.

The video and the PDF viewer on the FDA rumor control page direct Americans to “trusted sources” like “independent fact checkers” or government websites. However, given what we saw during the pandemic concerning effective treatments for COVID-19 that were not approved by the government narrative, it is hard to trust advice from a governmental website fully. The FDA continues to toe the line, evoking terms used during the pandemic to enlist the public’s help to “stop the spread” of harmful online misinformation. The language used here is purposely manipulative, eliciting memories and behavior when the public was much more controlled by such language.

The rumor control page is yet another example of the way the U.S. government continues to lead Americans by the nose back to what it deems to be “trusted information.” The page also shows messaging from the government that seems to cover all the bases, just in case “the science” doesn’t work out. Its “recommendations evolve” with the science, and “the science” is determined by the ones in power.

Think back to the CDC’s and Fauci’s waffling about masking, or better yet, think about how thousands of years of science about viruses were conveniently thrown out the window during the pandemic to suit their purposes. “Trust the science” was really more about “trusting the government’s” version of it at the time.

One governmentally opposed narrative seen during the pandemic surrounded the use of Ivermectin as an effective treatment for COVID-19. The manic pushback on using the well-tested and safe medication was perplexing, to say the least. It is one of the “safest drugs in the world and is on the World Health Organization’s list of safe drugs.”

It seems the government and the media orchestrated a full-frontal assault on Ivermectin to frighten and discourage the use of the drug. As a result, Ivermectin was almost impossible to obtain from pharmacies for many months during the pandemic. Prescriptions went unfilled, and many did not receive what may have been a life-saving treatment. In some cases, individuals desperate to recover from COVID-19 used horse paste obtained from the local Tractor Supply containing Ivermectin, sending the government into a frenzy of misinformation on the drug’s safety.

Many doctors who did not relent to the fear-mongering used Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine with great success to treat patients with COVID-19. However, getting the correct information to the public was enormously difficult because of the government’s disinformation campaign, and fear of the drug persisted well into the pandemic. It is thought that many died because of disinformation from the U.S. government and its public servants.

If you can't understand Hydroxychloroquine was banned due to a fraudulent paper by Surgisphere placed in the Lancet, only withdrawn after the damage was done & that was used as a springboard to smear Ivermectin as “Horse Paste!”
Two safe drugs banned https://t.co/UUdqM67pR8 https://t.co/GgpK02gdfF

— Barry Sharp (@BarryESharp) May 23, 2023

A post from Rep. Thomas Massie seems to demonstrate just how far the government is willing to go to prevent the public from obtaining certain drugs without a prescription—drugs that have been used for decades by farmers for animals. On June 11, the FDA will make a list of medications no longer available over-the-counter at feed stores for animal use. Given what happened during the pandemic, the worry is that the FDA and the government will gradually tighten their grip on safe and efficacious over-the-counter medicines for humans as well.

I’m concerned this FDA power grab isn’t about the animals. It’s about making sure _you_ can’t obtain drugs and remedies that can also be used to treat people, if the government doesn’t want you to have them. https://t.co/mnd9vZCshp

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 23, 2023

Blessed Pentecost, everyone. I’ve been busy with extended family this weekend, thanks be to God.

Happy Feast! See ya soon!

by Eric W. Dolan

Narcissistic individuals and those with psychopathic tendencies are more likely to strongly endorse left-wing antihierarchical aggression, according to new research published in Current Psychology. Antihierarchical aggression refers to a specific type of hostility aimed at challenging or opposing hierarchical power structures or authority figures. The new findings shed light on psychological mechanisms that motivate some individuals to participate in violent political activism.

The majority of research on authoritarianism has focused on individuals with right-wing political ideologies. This focus has resulted in a gap in understanding authoritarianism among individuals who support left-wing political ideologies, which the authors behind the new work sought to address.

“We were interested in the psychological factors behind authoritarianism,” explained study authors Ann Krispenz, a postdoctoral associate, and Alex Bertrams, the head of the Educational Psychology Lab at the University of Bern. “There is a wide range of literature and research in the field of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). However, research on authoritarianism observed in individuals who are supportive of left-wing political ideologies are still rare.”

“By many researchers, the notion of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) is even been met with skepticism. Thus, we wanted to investigate LWA and its personality correlates using a recently published measure for LWA by Costello and colleagues (2022).”

Costello and colleagues conceptualized LWA as a tripartite construct consisting of three correlated dimensions: anticonventionalism, top-down censorship, and antihierarchical aggression.

“Authoritarianism can be found on both sides of the political spectrum,” Krispenz and Bertrams said. “Indicators of authoritarianism on the political left are anticonventionalism (i.e., the absolute endorsement of progressive moral values), top-down censorship (i.e., the preference for the use of governmental and institutional authority to suppress any speech that is considered as offensive and intolerant), and antihierarchical aggression (i.e., the motivation to use force and aggression to overthrow established hierarchies).”

“For example, an individual high in LWA might declare anyone to be ‘old fashioned’ who is opposing their own ‘progressive values,’ strive to suppress free speech to regulate the expression of right-wing beliefs in educational institutions, and even endorse the use of violence to reach their own political goals.”

Krispenz and Bertrams investigated the relationship between narcissism and left-wing authoritarianism in two studies, and utilized the online research platform Prolific to recruit samples of U.S. participants.

By Aaron Kliegman | Fox News

The Biden administration is doling out taxpayer money through an anti-terrorism grant initiative to a university program that has explicitly lumped the Republican Party, as well as Christian and conservative groups, into the same category as Nazis, according to documents shared exclusively with Fox News Digital.

The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, obtained documents through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests showing a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program meant to fight terrorism is funding a group whose work has explicitly targeted the American political right. The MRC outlined its findings in a report, arguing what the group found warrants criminal prosecution.

“This terrorism task force is engaged in an active effort to demonize and eliminate Christian, conservative, and Republican organizations using federal taxpayer dollars,” said Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center. “What we have uncovered calls for criminal prosecution. The American people need to know those who are abusing their positions in the federal government will be held accountable for their criminal behavior.”

DHS funded a university program that has explicitly lumped in Republican and conservative groups with Nazis. (Getty Images/AP)

DHS’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program (TVTP) provides funds to various public, private, and non-profit institutions — such as universities and county governments — “to establish or enhance capabilities to prevent targeted violence and terrorism.” Grant applicants must be based in the U.S. and implement a U.S.-based program.

The Biden administration has awarded 80 grants through the TVTP totaling just under $40 million. The lowest grant was for $85,000, the highest was over $1.1 million, and the median was about $442,000. TVTP grant recipients are prohibited from engaging in viewpoint discrimination, according to DHS.

Started by the Obama administration under a different name, the TVTP was broadened and revamped by the Biden administration with a new focus on violent extremism and white supremacy. DHS named one of its TVTP goals as “media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives,” which many grantees listed as the mission of their projects.

One such grantee was the University of Dayton for its PREVENTS-OH program, which DHS awarded $352,109 to “draw on the expertise of the University of Dayton faculty” to fight “domestic violence extremism and hate movements.”

The university’s grant application submitted to DHS linked in a footnote to a controversial Dayton conference where an academic researcher presented a chart titled the “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization.”

The “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization,” as presented at the University of Dayton’s “Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity” seminar in 2021. (Screeshot from University of Dayton YouTube channel)

Among the organizations and movements displayed on the pyramid were the Republican Party, the Heritage Foundation, the American Conservative Union, Fox News, Breitbart News, the National Rifle Association, PragerUniversity, Tea Party Patriots, the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement, and the Christian Broadcasting Network.

The pyramid also included hate groups like The Base, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group, and the Daily Stormer, a pro-Nazi publication, seemingly comparing them to mainstream organizations such as the GOP.

In 2021, the University of Dayton held a seminar called “Extremism, Rhetoric, and Democratic Precarity” featuring several experts on extremism who compared mainstream conservatives to genocidal extremists.

The university’s grant application to DHS linked to video of the conference, describing it as indicative of the university’s work “to assess regional needs and capacities for violent extremism prevention” and directing government evaluators to view it for more information.

The University of Dayton pointed readers to video of a 2021 conference where the “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization” was presented. See the highlighted parts. (Screenshot of University of Dayton grant proposal)

One speaker at the conference, University of Cincinnati researcher Michael Loadenthal, presented the “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization,” portraying it as an accurate depiction of the “modern far-right” and extremism in America.

The MRC report noted that at the same seminar, another speaker, Alexander Hinton, a member of the Rutgers University faculty who specializes in genocide, compared the Trump administration to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge of Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia killed an estimated 1.5 million-2 million people from 1975-79.

A third speaker — Nicole Widdersheim, deputy Washington director for Human Rights Watch and former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Center — compared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proposing a volunteer civilian military force to assist the National Guard in emergencies such as hurricanes to the Nazis’ Holocaust during World War II.

A DHS official — Joseph Masztalics, a regional prevention coordinator at the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, of which TVTP is a part — was another speaker and appeared virtually in his official capacity at the event to deliver a short presentation about the center’s mission and resources…

I wrote the following post not even four years ago. It’s all happening. As “gneisslady” noted in the combox this morning, “Am I the only one who feels like the wheat and chaff are starting to separate right in front of our eyes?”

They want you harassed, they want you fired, they want you in jail, and ultimately they want you dead.

=====

Do you have the courage to say these two words: “Bruce Jenner”

Originally posted on July 9, 2019

How much longer do you think it’s going to be before there are laws, with jail time attached, for so-called “mis-gendering,” “mis-pronouning,” or “trans-hate?” You know I’m not kidding, and you know I’m not wrong. Are we really destined to fight a war over this? Well, if you remember back to last week, Our Lady of Fatima, Sr. Lucia, and Cardinal Caffarra all had something to say on the matter, which I summed up thusly:

In a nutshell, Satan’s battlespace is anti-reality itself. All of these attacks coming at us from all sides are his attempt, since he is incapable of creating anything himself, to replace God’s creation, that is, REALITY, with an anti-reality. HERE

If you think we have hit peak wokeness, think again. Until you start to understand that for the now totally unhinged left, departure from reality IS NOT A BARRIER. In fact not only is it NOT a barrier, departure from reality is A FEATURE, NOT A BUG.

Out this morning on the website of the local ABC affiliate, as it’s lead story, is the headline, “Foster mom heartbroken after transgender son turned away by Payson summer camp.” HERE

PHOENIX — A Valley foster mother says she’s heart broken after her transgender son was told he could not attend a summer camp in Payson despite receiving a scholarship to go.
“I think summer camp is really a place where foster kids can go to simply be kids,” said Amber Checky. The foster mom says her son was supposed to go to Tonto Creek Camp in Payson.
Her nine-year-old transgender foster son was, as most children would be, excited beyond words to attend camp. “My child was looking forward to doing archery and kayaking and hanging out with other kids,” said Checky, who took the boy in when he was seven years old. With the help of Arizona Friends of Foster Care and the families Court Appointed Special Advocate, her foster son received a $400 scholarship to pay for the camp that began on July 14.

So this (lesbian) foster mom took the girl in 2017, when she was seven years old. Now she is “transgender,” and wants to go to a boy’s camp. I wouldn’t doubt she is a tomboy, which is something you grow out of, but no, she’s def trans, says mom.

Let’s have a look at mom’s LinkedIn profile:

“He was born female identified but feels in his brain and his heart that he is a boy,” said Checky. She says she and her partner have always embraced the person he wants to be, supporting him in every way.
The nine-year-old has become an advocate for the LGBTQ community and has thrived on every front.
He’s educated classmates and teachers about being transgender. Started recycling drives at his small charter school as well as excelled as a student.
But last month, just a few weeks prior to camp, Checky was informed her child would not be allowed to attend.
“We get an email from the chief executive officer saying sorry he’s not able to attend anymore and that the camp staff that they had, that has a degree in this, is no longer able to attend, so they would be refunding us,” said Checky.
The camp at first offered to keep him in a completely separate tent from everyone else attending, something Checky did not feel comfortable with.

Click the link to read the rest. The camp was clearly caught off guard and tried to make it work, confusingly. Trying to deal with Anti-reality can be a real bitch.

John Zmirak had a column back in March, re-posted on Independence Day, titled, “Freedom is the Freedom to say, ‘Bruce Jenner.’ If That is Granted, All Else Follows.” It is a really good piece and I encourage you to click and read it all HERE.

My title takes off from a famous passage in Orwell’s 1984, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows.” Winston Smith doesn’t say it out loud, of course. He scribbles it in his journal. And makes sure that the telescreen which monitors his apartment cannot see him.
But of course, the Inner Party finds out his secret. In fact, when he’s caught and tortured, his inquisitor O’Brien makes it a point to force Winston to deny precisely this point. O’Brien tortures Winston until he’s willing to say that two plus two makes five. But that isn’t enough. An old-fashioned tyrant might settle for that, for mere compliance.
The totalitarian wants more. In fact, he needs it. He needs those whom he dominates to really believe the lies he has fostered. Of which he has first convinced himself. That’s because modern ideologies are something much more and worse than tribal bigotries or misguided political systems. As Eric Voegelin, a refugee from the Nazis, taught us, they are “ersatz religions.” To prosper, they must make the same kinds of demands as real creeds.
They must demand more. Religious faith based on sincere belief in the supernatural taps into profound, deep-seated impulses built into man. We are made, it seems, to believe in and order our lives by something both higher and older than nature. That’s true even of creeds that you and I know to be false, such as Islam. Even they evoke a kind of faith that works in harmony with our natures. It’s simply misdirected.

This is what is meant when we say it was never about tolerance. It was never about acceptance. It was never about celebrating it. It was in the beginning, is now, and forever will be (until we win the war) ABOUT PARTICIPATION. You WILL be made to participate in the madness, or else. They NEED you to believe it the same way they do. What exactly is so puzzling about Revelation 13:16?

WE MUST BELIEVE BECAUSE IT IS ABSURD

This, my friends, is the future the Left has in mind for us. Whether individual leftists realize it or not. And this is what lies behind the sudden and absolute demands of the Transgender movement. No, I don’t mean that it’s what motivates people who mutilate and poison themselves in pursuit of “gender reassignment.” Those people are mentally ill, as psychiatrists admitted until five minutes ago.
The truth is much more sinister. The left has taken up Transgender ideology not just despite the fact that it’s absurd and contrary to nature. They’ve chosen it because of that. Saying and meaning phrases like “female penis” and “pregnant men” is the absolute equivalent of asserting that two plus two make five — or whatever other number The Atlantic, the Harvard faculty, and the EEOC have most recently said that it makes. They don’t just want you to repeat that, of course. Like O’Brien, they need you to believe it.

Click the link and go read the whole thing. It’s going to get so much worse. Fast and pray.