Why We Need a Ministry of Truth
(DHS put this new agency on a 75-day ‘pause’ last Wednesday, but it’s worth looking at what was planned and still may happen.)
You’re likely aware the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security announced recently that it is creating a Committee of Public Information to combat disinformation, headed by the self-proclaimed Russia disinformation expert, Nina Jankowicz.
The new agency, dubbed as the Disinformation Governance Board, would apparently assume the responsibility for seeing that Americans are told the ‘truth’ about those things that are important to the government.
Now, in a free society where people are free to say what they think and freely exchange positions on various subjects and issues – and disagree with each other, you might think we don’t need a government run agency to tell us how to sort out what we see and hear and separate truth from fiction – information worthy to be aired and disseminated, and ‘disinformation’ – which is not.
But you’d be wrong.
You must understand that controlling access to, and the credibility of, information is too important to leave for the masses, the citizens, to determine. Us poor misinformed people might do something that’s anti-government. So, the government can fulfill its responsibility to its citizens by calling out anything it considers dis-, or misinformation.
To do that it has no choice but to create a bureaucracy that does nothing but determine truth.
We should be grateful our federal government cares enough about what we think and what we say to ensure that what we think and say is ‘acceptable’ and ‘true.’
If this reminds you of Orwell’s classic novel 1984, the Ministry of Truth’s primary focus was producing government propaganda and altering historical records to coincide with Big Brother’s current claims. In short, Orwell’s Ministry of Truth was concerned with falsifying records and recreating the past to manipulate and control the ignorant.
For those unfamiliar with George Orwell’s masterpiece, the Ministry of Truth is the propaganda and censorship department of Oceania, the fictional setting for Orwell’s dystopia. Known as Minitrue in Newspeak, the name Ministry of Truth is a misnomer. Like all the departments in 1984, the name reflects the opposite of what the government actually does.
The protagonist in the book was Winston Smith, who is quoted for what he had learned:
- “Even the names of the four Ministries by which we are governed exhibit a sort of impudence in their deliberate reversal of the facts. The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy; they are deliberate exercises in doublethink. For it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained indefinitely.”
You and I may have thought Orwell’s book was fiction – but a warning of what could happen.
What we may not have thought of is that 1984 was not fiction at all. It was, and is, an instruction manual.
OK, enough of that.
Fact is that the concept of ‘anti-disinformation expert’ or ‘Board’ is itself completely fraudulent. This is not a real expertise but rather a concocted title bestowed on propagandists to make them appear more scholarly and apolitical than they are.
It goes beyond credibility that our country’s largest law enforcement agency – the Dept. of Homeland Security – all of a sudden claim the power to decree truth and falsity.
It shows the level of historical ignorance and stupidity that certain big government operatives – too many of whom control our Executive Branch and our media – have actually exposed themselves for what they are – manipulators, propagandists and liars.
‘Ministries of Truth’ are important parts of dictatorships, not democracy – and certainly not of freedom.
In China the official name for censorship work is ‘The CCP Propaganda Department.’ In Russia it’s called the ‘General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press.’ Now we have an official government censorship entity as well. Our propagandists are not to be outdone.
In her book How to Lose the Information War, the new “truth Czar”, Jankowicz, called on the U.S. government to regulate and conduct oversight of people who disagree with the Democratic party on Twitter. Yet she insists that a huge focus of the new disinformation board will be “protecting free speech, privacy, civil rights and civil liberties.”
This is clearly Orwellian doublespeak, where what’s being said is the complete opposite of reality. How can you have a board dedicated to dictating “truth,” which means censoring “untruth,” while simultaneously protecting free speech? Either all viewpoints are allowed, or only one viewpoint is permitted, and if only one viewpoint is tolerated, then there’s clearly no free speech.
Free speech has been under siege for too long in our country and it’s time for our Congress to recognize and correct what is has done by allowing and giving officials and bureaucracies the power to create this kind of monstrosity.
In addition to being totally un-American, it’s blatant deception.
References:
https://conventionofstates.com/news/biden-s-new-ministry-of-truth-is-exactly-why-we-need-a-convention-of-states-asap?msclkid=7ea0f37ecf9111ec88f069652fd86c49
https://noqreport.com/2022/04/29/the-real-reason-we-suddenly-have-a-ministry-of-truth-in-america/
https://fee.org/articles/ministry-of-truth-trends-on-twitter-after-government-unveils-new-disinformation-governance-board/
https://z3news.com/w/biden-administration-creates-ministry-of-truth/
SPIDER Bites
Early Voting won the 9-horse Preakness Stakes yesterday at 5-1.
The Air Force successfully air launched its first, Mach-5, hypersonic weapon last w/e. The USAF wants to get this game-changing weapon to the ‘warfighter’ as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the Air Force Academy may not graduate 4 cadets this year for refusing to take the COVID vaccine. Let ‘unvaxxed’ cadets graduate and serve, please, it’s an unwarranted, lousy order.
The Musk-Twitter deal may not happen if Twitter can’t get a handle on the number of fake accounts that are on the books. Fewer real people using Twitter obviously would make the company worth less than Musk originally offered for it.
The “Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act” was introduced in the House last week. It would give the President the authority to issue an emergency energy declaration making it illegal to increase gas and home energy prices in an “exploitative” manner. Here we go again. Energy prices have exploded higher due to EOs by the President reducing the supply – and to “fix” it this bill would allow the President to set prices for gasoline and heating oil. What market? Arbitrary low price regardless of cost? Yet the bill assumes that subjectively setting lower, end-product prices will have no effect on supply. Asinine. You can’t receive less than market price for a product and expect supply not to shrink further. To ‘fix’ that – the government will need to take over the energy industry – like what happened in Venezuela. Oh great! Few in the WH and/or Congress seem to recognize ‘the fix actually is government incentives, open leases, and remove barriers/regulations to increase our oil and gas supply.
Consumer spending is starting to buckle under the weight of inflation and rising interest rates. That does not bode well for the economy which already saw a 1.4% decline in the first quarter. Is there an economist in this “climate change” White House/Squad environment?
More records broken last month. A record number of illegal immigrants crossed the southern border – 234,000 in April, record gasoline prices – $4.59/gallon, record diesel prices – $5.53/gallon, record natural gas prices – $10.10/1000 cubic feet, record lumber prices – $1,600/1000 board feet, record nitrogen fertilizer prices – $954/ton, record copper prices – $4.52/pound, record food prices – $356/person/month, record home prices with the median price of a home over $425,000 now, and record fentanyl deaths – 107,000 in 2021. Whew! Isn’t it wonderful to personally witness all this record setting? And new ‘records’ are on the way. Oh, and President Biden set a new low for his popular approval – 39%.
The Biden administration is now pushing for the general sale of E15 – gasoline containing 15% ethanol because it costs 5-10 cents/gallon less than the E10 which is now sold generally. However, older cars can’t use E15, it’s less efficient – meaning fewer miles/gallon, and it can cause corrosion or damage to the engine likely voiding the warranty, not to mention higher emissions. Great to have an environmentally conscious administration, right?
A CA law requiring certain numbers of people who identify themselves as women on different sized company corporate boards was struck down by Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis last week. She ruled the law that would have required boards have up to three female directors by this year violated the right to equal treatment and protection. Sanity and meritocracy still survive periodically.
