Sunday, May 1, 2022

Karaoke Night at the Ministry of Truth


Aw, how can you not like our Mary Poppins of Disinformation? C'mon, it's like ABBA, you like it but you don't want to admit you do. 

But her lyrics are seriously disturbing, though. Especially the part about "information laundering."  

According to DHS Secretary Mayorkas's testimony to Congress this week, his Disinformation Governance Board will absolutely, positively, not infringe on the 1st Amendment rights of U.S. citizens.   
“So what [the DGB] does is it works to ensure that the way in which we address threats, the connectivity between threats and acts of violence, are addressed without infringing on free speech, protecting civil rights and civil liberties, the right of privacy.”
Well, I notice that his self-described Mary Poppins of Disinformation has a rather broader view of her field. 

Information-laundering is really quite ferocious, 
It’s when a huckster takes some lies and makes them sound precocious, 
by saying them in Congress or a mainstream outlet
so disinformation’s origins are slightly less atrocious

Correct me if I'm wrong - or rather, misinformed - but isn't Miss Dismal scolding persons in Congress and mainstream media outlets for engaging in free speech? Because it sounds like that's what she's saying. 

Now that Mary Poppins is in an official position to do something about those lie-launderers in Congress and the press, what will she do? 

I suppose, with typical Mary Poppins magic, she could go ahead and let them speak but then prevent anyone from hearing them. You know, outsource it to the private sector to do an end run around the 1st Amendment. Take that, lie launderers!

Whatever she does, I just hope it's musical. 

An earful of TikTok makes the censorship go down, 
the censorship go down, the censorship go down,
just an ear full of TikTok makes the censorship go down,
in a most insidious way

We don't write the algos that's for Twitter to do, 
for Google to do, for Facebook to do, 
we don't write the algos that's for those guys to do,
in a private sector way

    

2 comments:

Gracie said...

Jumping subjects... what do you think about EYP's bankruptcy?

TSB said...

It's always sad to see one of those. I read that they had years of convoluted debt restructuring plus some lawsuits from stockholders. Now, they get bailed out and keep their company in business under the same name.

An architect I know said that if he ever inherited a million dollars he'd "practice until the money runs out." Maybe it just isn't the most profitable business?