Peter Laffin writes for the Washington Examiner about recent revelations involving the Biden administration’s approach to “disinformation.”
The act of putting oneself “in the shoes” of the other has perhaps solved more disputes than any other strategy in human history. …
… In this spirit, I would simply consider my progressive brothers and sisters (of which I am proud to have many) to consider what their reaction would be to the following tweet from the New York Times:
“Breaking News: A judge limited Trump administration officials from contacting social media sites, a ruling that could curtail efforts to fight disinformation.”
Indeed, my progressive friends would repel in horror if they learned that Trump had been attempting to censor political opposition, and justifiably so. The mere notion of former President Donald Trump working behind the scenes to suppress speech is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.
Of course, this tweet is imaginary. But the real tweet upon which it is based, which is among the most despicable utterances of 21st century American journalism, only differs in that it swaps out “Trump” for “Biden.” The details the Biden administration’s attempts to suppress speech, as spelled out in Judge Terry Doughty’s landmark Missouri v. Biden decision this week, would doubtless drive my progressive friends to the brink of suicide if they had been carried out by Trump.
Imagine the horror they’d feel upon learning that Trump officials threatened Facebook with legal consequences should they not acquiesce to demands; that the censorship efforts “almost exclusively” targeted progressive speech online, which ranged in topic from politics, foreign policy, and scientific debates; or that, through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency the Trump administration sought to control our “cognitive infrastructure” by stopping the spread of false and misleading information (according to them). And yet, when the Biden administration does exactly what I’ve detailed above, they barely bat an eye.
