We do not have an ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy. Where one can do right with no effort because he can detect the obvious.
Philip K. Dick, Man in the High Castle (1962).
On December 20, 1740, Arthur Lee — Revolutionary Era diplomat, spy, and Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress — was born. He practiced law in London from 1770 to 1776, where he wrote polemics against slavery and in defense of the American colonies’ resistance to the Townshend acts and other tyrannical British policies.
He was brother to Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee.
Adam Schiff hasn’t.
Last week, the Democrat Congressman from California, together with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), sent what amounts to an open letter to Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nicholas Clegg, urging Meta to maintain its commitment to keeping dangerous election denial content off its platform.
These Democrats worry that Facebook — Meta’s most successful product — might “alter or roll back certain misinformation policies, because they are temporary and specific to the election season,” say Schiff and Whitehouse.
Rollbacks on censorship, they say, “would be a tragic mistake. Meta must commit to strong election misinformation policies year-round, as we are still witnessing falsehoods about voting and the prior elections spreading on your platform.”
Why “must” Facebook continue to patrol its platform, striking down or underplaying “unfounded election denial content”?
Schiff and Whitehouse assert that Donald J. Trump spreads “the Big Lie” and it would be a huge mistake to allow that lie to air on their platform. They don’t want Trump allowed back on Facebook.
It’s been just weeks since Trump was permitted back on Twitter, where he has not taken up his old hyper-posting habits. Trump’s so far confining himself to his own “Truth Social” platform.
But as far as “the Big Lie” goes, would Schiff & Co. argue that The Epoch Times should also be censored? After all, in its coverage of this issue, by Frank Fang, the concluding section of the article was devoted to showing that Trump’s “Lie” might be in parts, uh, true.
Would Democrats ask Meta to suppress The Epoch Times, too?
Censorship is a hard habit to break.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (Richard Zenith, translator, 2001).
Last week in one hour or so: the big stories, the big thoughts, the small hiccoughs.
A man’s taste is formed more by his culture, his profession, and the period in which he is young than by his race or politics.
A.J. Liebling, The Road Back to Paris (1988).
On December 18, 1777, the United States celebrated its first official Thanksgiving, marking the then-recent October victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga.
Paul starts with Mark Twain, moves through Matt Taibbi and Jimmy Dorsey, and ends with an encomium to Jimmy Lai.
Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.
A.J. Liebling, “Do you belong in journalism?,” The New Yorker (May 14, 1960).
On December 17, 1777, France formally recognized the United States of America.
The 17th of December, 1819, was the day Simon Bolivar declared the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura.