Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Raphaël Hadas-Lebel — Can Fake News Be Outlawed?


Liberalism reveals its illiberal underbelly as "liberal democracies' seek to control the narrative by limiting freedom of expression and press freedom in the attempt to limit freedom of thought, which is of the essence of totalitarianism.

This push is being led by the US and France, the birthplaces of the revolutions that brought liberalism onto the world stage, and Britain as well, the birthday of liberal philosophy led by John Locke.

Ironic betrayal. This is likely not malicious but rather the result of modern leaders lack of commitment to liberalism and their ideological blind-sidedness. Their ideology is based on dominance, which means prioritizing control over everything else.

Sad to watch a promising tradition being strangled. It's only been a couple of hundred years.

Ironically, when some Western leaders boasted about the success of Western liberalism to some Chinese leaders, one of the Chinese leaders replied that it's only been a couple of hundred years, hardly enough to confirm an experiment. The West is just a blip on the screen of civilizations historically.

Project Syndicate
Can Fake News Be Outlawed?
Raphaël Hadas-Lebel, author of Hundred and One Words about the French Democracy, an honorary member of the Conseil d’Etat, and a former professor at Sciences Po

See also

Technocrats take charge of "protecting the public" from "fake news." Sounds similar to protecting a country by destroying it.
In an effort to “balance” freedom of expression with other needs, the European Union on Monday launched its "High-Level Expert Group” to tackle fake news.
Washington Examiner — Opinion

See also

Spreading liberalism and democracy is not always practical developmentally. It's like saving starving heathens souls before providing them bread.

Liberal Democracy in Africa Can Wait 
Simplice A. Asongu | Lead Economist in the research department of the African Governance and Development Institute

Also

Review of Why Liberalism Failed. By Patrick J. Deneen. Yale University Press, 2018.

Mises Wire
Deneen on Liberalism
David Gordon is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute, and editor of The Mises Review

UPDATE
The House of Representatives voted Thursday to disregard the constitutional rights of Americans and extend the powers of intelligence agencies.
Orange County, California and the Register are about as conservative as it gets in the US.

The leadership of both parties supported the bill and the vote was bipartisan in ganging up against the civil rights and constitutional liberties of the American people.

The Orange County Register — Opinion
The House voted to disregard the Fourth Amendment
The Editorial Board

1 comment:

Kaivey said...

Surely it's up to me what I consider fake news to be or not. The media can print its count news, as it does. Then people can decide.

What bothers them is not the fake news of the far right, the skinheads and racists, but the real news that if most people were to read it they would soon figure out that it was true. That's a real threat.