Everybody who objects to injustice does so on the ground that these practices violate some principle of justice which is above human will. This is so even when authority for justice, or equality among men, is found in the ‘dignity of the individual’; for that phrase is just as metaphysical as the ‘nature of things.’
On January 21, 1950, Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury, with Whittaker Chambers being the main witness in Hiss’s prosecution. Chambers confessed to having been a Soviet spy, and accused Hiss as an accomplice, which Hiss denied to his dying day. Chambers gave a fascinating account of all this in his bestselling memoir, Witness.
Dr. Jordan Peterson was “interviewed” on BBC’s Channel 4 News. More like an absurdist’s inquisition, it has become notorious. If you have missed it, watch it now:
Carl “Sargon of Akkad” Benjamin gives a play-by-play game summary:
http://youtu.be/PXJeghw-cRk
Ben Shapiro weighs in, too:
http://youtu.be/8EKyIW-jspM
Scott Adams discusses cognitive dissonance and “hallucinations”:
The interview is “all over the Internet,” and you can find lots of video breakdowns and articles. Indeed, an article on Quilette does a great job putting the whole issue into context.
This train wreck of an interview — with only the interviewee coming out unharmed — calls to mind some past collisions where ideologies meet ingloriously. Here is Cenk Uygur’s interview of anti-feminist researcher Karen Straughan:
And here is the granddaddy of them all, the infamous Bill Buckley/Gore Vidal snipefest from 1968:
http://youtu.be/ZY_nq4tfi24
An individualist is a man who says: ‘I’ll not run anyone’s life — nor let anyone run mine. I will not rule nor be ruled. I will not be a master nor a slave. I will not sacrifice myself to anyone — nor sacrifice anyone to myself.’
Ayn Rand, Textbook of Americanism (1946).
On January 20, 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded.
Back in the USSR’s heyday, the joke about the two major newspapers, Pravda (meaning “truth” — and published by the Communist Party) and Izvestia (meaning “news” — and published by the Soviet State), was that “there’s no Truth in the News and no News in the Truth.”
Nowadays, in Trump’s America, we have fake news. And one reason Donald Trump won the presidency was his defiant stance against the “lying press.”
Which is why, when Trump announced, last week, his intent to give out awards to the news media for their top “fake news” stories of 2017, he was playing to his base. This week he announced his picks. It did not exactly bowl everyone over.
Indeed, I am going to skip most of it, noticing only that the press whined a bit and picked at the list on technical grounds, and that Sen. Flake gave Trump some flak.
But Trump’s pick for First Place is worth thinking about.
And the Duranty* goes to … New York Times economist Paul Krugman!
What for? The Nobel Laureate’s insane and unhinged prediction immediately after Trump’s win: “We are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight.”
An embarrassing play for Doomsayer Attention, which has been “trumped” (so to speak) by new record stock market highs.
Of course, a global depression may be in the offing — but it probably won’t be Trump’s fault, and Krugman is totally resistant to acknowledging that dire event’s likely structural causes (debt, Fed policy).
But note: prophecy isn’t “news,” and in announcing the award Trump characterized his win in 2016 as a “landslide.”
So save a Duranty for Trump.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* My term, not a “Newsy” or “Fakesy,” and named, of course, after Walter Duranty, the Times’ Pulitzer Winning Fake News apologist for the Soviet Union and Stalin, back in the 1930s.
On January 19, 1808, Lysander Spooner was born.
Spooner’s achievements in American life, law, and political philosophy, are among the most colorful of the 19th century. Studying law privately, he sued to practice without joining the bar, and won the suit. He set up a postal service that directly competed with the United States Postal Service, delivering mail at a fraction of the cost. He wrote The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, and convinced noted Garrisonian abolitionist Frederick Douglass of his argument. (The book became the centerpiece of intellectual ammunition for the Free Soil Party.) Later in life Spooner turned against constiutionalism itself, and penned some of the most radical political works of his day, including Vices Are Not Crimes and The Constitution of No Authority. Spooner also clearly articulated a “jury nullification” position in his classic treatise Trial by Jury.
It goes without saying that any persons may attempt to unite kindred spirits, but, whatever their hopes and longings, none have the right to impose their vision of unity upon the rest.
Lying to Congress is a strange crime. A number of people have been prosecuted for it over the years, but Congress isn’t a court of law and, more to the point, Congress may present the densest source of lies in the United States.
The idea that it would be illegal for a citizen to lie to a den of liars is, well, a bit amusing.
But it is illegal, and definitely should be illegal, for government functionaries to give false testimony before Congress.
That’s why the case of the admittedly “untruthful”* James Clapper is so aggravating. When asked by Senator Ron Wyden, on the Senate floor, about data collection of phone calls by the U.S. federal government, he — the director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama from 2010 to 2017 — lied through his teeth.
And had not Edward Snowden leaked information on the National Security Administration’s metadata collection program, we would not have learned anything about it.
No wonder, then, that several congressmen want to prosecute Clapper before March 12, when the Statute of Limitations runs out on his crime. Steven Nelson at the Washington Examiner quotes Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) as all being in favor of siccing federal prosecutors on the forked tongue spymaster.
Senator Wyden warns that letting lies such as Clapper’s go unaddressed encourages Americans to be cynical about government, and “makes it possible, even probable, for hucksters and authoritarians to take power.”
Too late?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Clapper’s March 2013 whopper at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing was that the NSA was “not wittingly” collecting “any type of data at all” on millions of Americans. Later, to MSNBC, he characterized his artful dodge as having been “the least untruthful” way for him to respond.
I do not conceal my lack of admiration for a painfully long list of redistributive measures undertaken by modern governments. Many serve no ethically accepted purpose such as compassion for the needy; indeed, they serve only as recognition of which groups possess or lack political influence.