The Senate hearings with tech giants on 10/28 cemented the understanding that Democrats think we Americans are too stupid to discern fact from fiction. Of course, having dumbed down our education system over the past 50 years, they may be right! Massachusetts Democrat Senator Ed Markey said it best. “The issue is not that these companies before us today are taking too many posts down. The issue is that they are leaving too many dangerous posts up.” What that is saying is that you are too dumb and susceptible to words to fully determine truth from fiction, and (sic) “danger” from someone’s spouting off.
The very foundation of our Constitution is the first amendment which codifies our right to say whatever we care to say. Your opinion is as valid as anyone else’s. But according to Democrats, some opinions are dangerous and therefore cannot be spread. Some words are inciteful and spew hatred and therefore are not worthy of dissemination. They, not you, determine those statements and have been successful sublimating them thus far. This and the other Senators who would throttle the free flow of information, good and bad, are in violation of the oath of office they took and should be held accountable for not fully and enthusiastically defending the Constitution.
The ineptness of our current crop of legislators is on full display when they talk “technology”. Most are in advanced ages and have been ensconced in Washington far too long to understand the real world. Any attempts to coerce a private company to do their bidding is wrong. As much as I don’t like FB, Twitter, and Google, they have successfully delivered a service that billions of people find useful. Rather, users must demand they act in a way that serves them. I quit FB when my privacy was invaded. I don’t use Twitter and because I have an Android phone and do searches on occasion, do I engage with Google. All my choice. Consumers, not politicians who have the next election foremost in their minds, should drive changes to these behemoth purveyors of information. Competition like Parler will do more to advance the free flow of information than any Senate action.
Instead, our “leaders” must focus on education. How to people research for themselves what is true and what is fiction? Getting facts used to be the role of the 4th estate, but they have shirked their duty. In a world with so much information, it is incumbent upon our educational system to teach our young (and old) how to navigate the labyrinth of data sources to get to the truth. Unfortunately, that is a harder thing to do than publicly shaming CEO’s and pandering to voters.
Current Day Publius 