The First Amendment is first for a reason: from it, all other freedoms flow.
For a while now, we've seen the Left play a fun little game: their violent behavior is 'speech,' and therefore protected, but the actual speech of the right is 'violence,' and therefore must be banned.
It's a heads we win, tails you lose scenario.
But more nefarious than that is the Orwellian push to classify some speech as 'misinformation' (or 'disinformation' or 'false information', pick your poison). It was a drumbeat in the 2016 an 2020 presidential campaigns, pops up on social media -- where even the most innocuous of memes can get slapped with a 'false information' tag by so-called fact checkers.
The notion that 'misinformation' is actually a thing is so ubiquitous now that more than half of Americans feel it's more important than freedom of the press.
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No, really.
Americans overwhelmingly favor freedom of the press, but more than half feel that suppressing "false information" is more important. https://t.co/DZ0GJWRqj1
— reason (@reason) April 29, 2024
"Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) say the freedom of the press – enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – is extremely or very important to the well-being of society," the Pew Research Center reported last week. "An additional 18% say it is somewhat important, and 8% say it is a little or not at all important."
While support for press freedom varies across demographic groups, "there are no major differences by political party."
In a country as bitterly divided as the United States, this is a rare example of shared support for the core right to observe the world around us and share information with— Wait. Hold on.
"About half of U.S. adults (51%) say that the publication of false information should always be prevented, even if it means press freedom could be limited," adds Pew. "Meanwhile, 46% of Americans say press freedom should always be protected, even if it means false information could be published."
Given that the vast majority of Americans support freedom of the press, the slim majority that favors preventing the publication of 'false information' overlaps significantly with the former.
If there's one hallmark of the American mind, it's this illogical thinking. You cannot support freedom of the press and also say 'false information' should never be published.
It's an impossibility.
Because the problem with 'false information' is -- who gets to define false information?
I could say the sky is blue. It is. But what if my neighbor say's it's cyan? Who gets to choose which person is person is 'right' and which person is providing 'false information?'
In a world where morals are relative and truth is 'personal', that's a very important question with a very dangerous answer.
The people who get to decide what is and isn't 'false information' are the ones with power. And that means -- as we see play out on a daily basis in the American media -- that whatever information they don't like, no matter how factual is now 'false information.'
99.99% of the time, the accusations of 'false information' boil down to no more than that: someone is presenting information harmful to the narrative, so we must classify that information as 'false', and discredit the person(s) sharing that information.
The actual solution to 'false information' is more speech, not less -- and certainly not the suppression of speech under the guise of preventing 'false information.'
The Left is always reluctant to do that, however. They'd much rather cancel, deplatform, and shout down speakers who the claim are spreading 'false information' instead of presenting their alternative information.
Why? We all know why.
The Left cannot be honest, and the Left cannot logically defend their positions on any of the major issues they hold near and dear to their hearts. They can't be honest about the economy, which is why Nancy Pelosi flipped out on MSNBC host Katy Tur yesterday. Tur had the audacity to report, factually so, that job gains under Biden are largely jobs lost to COVID simply returning to the market, and for that crime, Pelosi accused her of being a 'shill' for Trump. They can't be honest about abortion, which is why they lie about miscarriage treatment to scare women (and actually put their lives at risk), while embracing extremist positions they actually hold.
On issue after issue, they lie and obfuscate and project their worst prejudices and intentions on their opponents.
Which is why they scream 'FALSE INFORMATION!' at the top of their lungs whenever someone presents anything that contradicts their narrative, exposes their lies, or holds up a mirror to their own ideologies.
And it's why they depend on the media to carry the 'false information' torch.
The media would do well to realize, however, continuing to be the propaganda wing of the Democrat party is a really a suicide pact. When 51% of Americans polled think the freedom of the press takes a back seat to preventing the publication of 'false information', your days are numbered. There are already mass layoffs impacting media outlets across the spectrum, and that's with a friendly administration in the White House.
Imagine when the next administration isn't Democrat, and the media are no longer the arbiters of what is and isn't 'false information.'
You won't like what the future holds for you.
And, to my fellow Americans who think 'false information' is a problem: shame. Shame on all of you for buying into the Left's narrative, and for thinking that censorship of information you don't like is in any way, shape, or form more important than the First Amendment.
