when the arbiters of truth become the merchants of misinformation

and then they came for the memes, and so i pushed back. hard.

there was recently a new dump of subpoenaed documents about censorship on facebook. you can read the whole sweep of it HERE in longtime gatopal™ justin hart’s brownstone article.

it features the usual villains up to the usual villainy of “white house pressures social media to take down “disinformation” with all the subtlety (and half the charm) of a mobster named “molotov vinne” admiring your hay barn and asking if you had maybe considered buying fire insurance.

it certainly scared the meta-folks.

but where is starts to get both absurd (and telling) is that they were also coming after memes.

now, on the one hand, this is gratifying. it shows we are winning and that they fear our memes because they know that this is the revenge of the shape rotators and that they cannot compete with the informational density of memetic communication that has done so much to retake rationality from the dreary deluge of emotional imagery that had come to characterize so much public discourse.

memes work like mental macros. they connect concepts. they elicit full and crosslinked comprehension in a manner and speed with which other media cannot compete. (long discussion HERE)

and they are right to fear us.

because the power of this medium is becoming manifest.

“did you or a loved one take the covid vaccine? you may be entitled to…”

it’s a great tagline. tie it to the familiar leo meme and it becomes a call to action and a validation of “i knew it!”

it’s funny. it’s trenchant. it’s poignant. it’s evocative and links to many concepts.

it’s also stone truth.

peter mccullough was writing the other day about a topic upon which longtime gatopal™ and fellow internet feline kevin mckernan unearthed when he gene sequenced the mRNA vaccines. KM has written extensively and on this and i have joined in the yowling. (this was a brave and groundbreaking act on kevin’s part and one that the FDA should have done right from the start)

consider the possibility that the reason they hated that meme so much is that it showed people the way. SV40 promoters are oncogenic (cancer causing) and the surge in cancer rates has been large and enduring. something seems to be up and answers need to be demanded.

“who knew what and when did they know it?” becomes a very interesting question. were corners cut and data hidden? were western blots fakes and modern sequencing eschewed to avoid finding unfavorable facts? were processes changed without proper notice, testing, or care? were exceedingly dangerous plasmids wittingly left as impurities in the vaccines injected into a billion people?

because pfraud is not only a pfelony, it’s a reason to breach the liability shield of emergency use authorization (EMA).

and obviously, quite a lot of quite powerful people might find themselves in quite a lot of hot water in such a scenario.

which is why they do not want you to be able to talk about it or to demand it.

back room omerta is the last refuge of the scoundrel but the first principle of the grifter.

this is WHY they push so hard to take speech rights. they use every trojan framing in the book to find some corner case where someone spoke in some odious fashion that no one wants to stand up and defend. but we need to.

popular speech does not need to be defended. neither does the speech of the powerful. it is the speech that others don’t like spoken by those who struggle to defend themselves when the cancel machine or censorship state rounds upon them that requires protection.

and as ever, if you would know who rules you, see who you are not allowed to speak out against.

“i disagree with what you say but will defend your right to say it” is a very important concept.

and if this poll is anything like correct, we’re losing an incredible amount of ground on this:

(though i have some real questions about sample and response bias in pew polls)

we look to be losing this fight.

we are losing it because once you concede ideas like “hate speech” or “disinformation” you’ve given away the game. speech is no longer a right, it’s a privilege to be doled out by the likes of former new zealand PM and censorship state enthusiast jacinda ardern who is now at harvard to work on “making sure AI does not spread misinformation.”

she has certainly had some strong views in the past on who should be the arbiter of truth.

“Dismiss anything else, we (the NZ government) will continue to be your single source of truth”

(at 23 sec in the video) is a statement to make even orwell blanch.

(it’s also the overt language of the abuser)

“your silence is settled.”

but i’m sure she won’t be at all a scary poppins censorship horror when allowed to shape AI… because people like this always come to their senses and improve their behavior, right?

the simple fact is this:

you cannot settle science before the debate occurs. you cannot arrive at truth by stifling dissent. the discourse and thesis and antithesis and synthesis and rebuttal and revision of the free agora IS the product.

it’s the only way to get anywhere real.

those who would short circuit or circumscribe this are not seeking truth.

they are seeking power.

everywhere and always.

and the LAST people in the entire world you would want to allow to be the “arbiters of truth” are the bought and paid for captured clowns of government.

because all they do is lie, kiss your wallet, and steal your baby.

and do not mistake technocrats for being any different.

actually, it’s much, much easier. especially for politicians who can use your money to do it…

seriously, who do you want speaking to you? the scientists doing real science and sequencing the dodgy jabs or the “experts” of the bureaucracy that play whitewash for having (at best) been asleep at the switch or (more likely) just plain old complicit?

do you want a free press or one beholden to the state?

not much of a choice when one really looks at it, is it?

and the track record is stark.

these feckless fonts of mis, dis, and malinformation have been running roughshod over those they would seek to rule or grift (or both) and make standard practice of projecting every one of their own awful actions upon the victims they seek to stifle.

governments are the greatest and most enduring sources of falsehood in the world. mostly, they always were. and they are just getting warmed up for the next leg.

so the time to push back is now.

have none of this.

have none of protected classes, protected speech, hate speech, misinformation management or any other limit whatsoever on your right to open your yap and say what’s on your mind.

even if you are sometimes wrong.

because elevating the state to the role of truth ministry is ALWAYS wrong.

your speech right is and must be absolute and inalienable.

my speech, right or wrong. yours too. everyone’s.

let reputation sort it out, not leviathonian legalism and the tawdry tangle of special interests.

it is always time to stand and defend this.

if not now, when?

if not you, who?