Tag: Truth

MLLG

America’s Quest for Truth

George Noga

Americans are desperate for a reliable source of truth; we have an answer.

America’s Quest for Truth

By: George Noga – June 26, 2022

This is a sequel to our post of May 8, 2022, available on our website: www.mllg.us. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has progressives all atwitter. They are in a panic that truly free speech will blast gaping holes in their dike of lies, obfuscation and maskirovka. This post explores how content moderation (if any) might operate in a truly free speech environment. We follow that up with an intriguing idea for how America can have a 100% accurate, objective and principled source of truth.

Content Moderation for a Post Elon Musk Twitter

There is a strong impulse to want to eliminate content moderation altogether; upon reflection, this is impractical. As a private company, Twitter can moderate speech as it chooses. There should be no dispute about eliminating certain users (bots) and content (porn and spam). Personal threats and incitement to violence also should be banned.

Other than the few exceptions noted supra, there should be no moderation whatsoever. That means no moderation for misinformation or even for clearly false content. That means no moderation for hate speech or slurs whether racial, gender, ethnic, religious, LGTBQ+ or against any other protected groups. Above all, that means absolutely no viewpoint moderation. We agree with Barack Obama when he said, “The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech.”

Technologically, it is possible for users individually to opt-in or to opt-out of offensive speech moderation. That seems like a solution that should please everyone; there would be free speech for most, while sheltering snowflakes from microaggressions.

Fair Witnesses as a Source for Truth

Journalism in America died many years ago. Fake news, misinformation and outright lies proliferate. Fact checkers are politicized and corrupt. There is no accurate, principled, competent, unimpeachable and non-political source for checking facts.

One answer lies in the Fair Witness concept originated by Robert Heinlein in his 1961 book, Stranger in a Strange Land. The fair witness concept resonated with me when I read Heinlen’s book; apparently, it also resonated with a great many others. Despite the fair witness concept being but a small part of an obscure book published over 60 years ago, it has 95 million Google hits – – 50% more than Elvis Presley and Pope Francis. Note: A similar concept, Mentats, was created by sci-fi writer Frank Herbert (Dune).

Heinlein’s book is set in the milieu of an overbearing government (familiar?). The only way citizens could counter the overweening power of the state was to hire a fair witness, a specially trained person so truthful and objective as to be unimpeachable. Fair witnesses were professionals with an eidetic memory and trained to make no extrapolations or assumptions and to report exactly what is observed; they wore distinctive white robes and were accorded deferential treatment by all of society.

Americans hunger for a reliable source of truth. A fair witness concept could be implemented today. It must be led by a person or organization that commands unquestioned credibility. The staffing could come from consulting firms, big four accounting firms, judges and scientists. The training must be rigorous. All work would be peer reviewed and would have to be right nearly 100% of the time. There would be a Chinese Wall such that those doing the work don’t know who is paying for it.

A huge market for truth exists; the time is right; the public is ready. Imagine the possibilities! It would bring about a renaissance in politics, the media and marketing. Consider the situation if politicians no longer could get away with a lie. Good science fiction speaks to us today. That’s why an idea that appeared on only a few pages of an obscure sci-fi tract published 61 years ago resonates with 95 million people today. Anything that informs people of the truth can be nothing but an unalloyed blessing.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Next is our special not-to-be-missed Independence Day posting.

Click here to join our mailing list

More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Facebook ‌ Twitter ‌ LinkedIn

Twitter and America’s Quest for Truth

George Noga

Journalism is dead; fake news proliferates; and fact-checkers are corrupt.

Twitter and America’s Quest for Truth

By: George Noga – May 8, 2022

THIS SPECIAL TWITTER POST REPLACES THE ONE SCHEDULED FOR TODAY ABOUT THE SPENDING CRISIS, WHICH NOW WILL BE PUBLISHED NEXT WEEK.

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has progressives caterwauling. They already control or dominate the media, entertainment, corporations, the military, sports, fact-checkers, education, science, criminal justice, immigration, universities and even religion. Among social media they effectively dominate or control Facebook, Snap, Instagram, YouTube, Google, Yahoo, Reddit, Tik Tok, Messenger and WhatsApp.

Why are liberals so apoplectic over Musk’s ownership of Twitter when they control over 90% of social media platforms as well as all the institutions listed in the previous paragraph? The answer in one word is: truth! The left distrusts and fears three things (1) states; (2) the people and, above all else, (3) truth. They don’t trust states and seek to federalize everything. They are terrified of Americans in flyover land, like those attending school board meetings. But their greatest hysteria is reserved for truth.

Progressives’ worst fear is that Twitter will rupture their dike of lies, obfuscation and maskirovka and that truth, in all its glory, will destroy the dike and flood into America, including, inter alia, the truth about Hillary Clinton’s role in the Russia collusion hoax and Hunter Biden’s laptop expose of the extensive corruption of the Biden family.

More Americans believe Elvis is alive than trust the media

Big social media companies have morphed into quasi government entities deputized to control speech in ways the state cannot do directly, such as censorship, propaganda and disinformation. They have become arms of the state and enemies of the people. Elon Musk’s control of Twitter quashes their ability to control dissent and hence elections.

The left’s attacks on Twitter will be vicious, never ending and already have begun. Regulators in the European Union already are planning restraints on Twitter through the guise of hate speech. Various federal regulators like the Federal Trade Commission are sharpening their knives. There will be attempts to throttle Twitter by far-left states. Expect to see enormous pressure from the left on advertisers to abandon Twitter

Just as Musk moved Tesla headquarters to Dallas, he should move Twitter out of San Francisco and to a friendly clime (Oklahoma) as his first move. He needs to clean house of the top managers – who, in any event, are unlikely to move to Oklahoma.

We will have much more about Twitter in the weeks and months ahead. We will tackle the thorny issue of how to moderate content – such as for disinformation, hate speech, clearly false tweets, threats and porn. Or, should there be no moderation whatsoever? MLLG is seriously considering establishing a Twitter presence to permit us to comment on important issues in real time – stay tuned for more information.

Journalism in America has been dead for many years. Fake news, disinformation and outright lies proliferate. Fact checkers are corrupt and there is no place to find truth. Nonetheless, the dismal failure of CNN+ combined with Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter offers glimmers of hope. Would it be that the promise of Twitter, under Elon Musk, will be in direct proportion to the progressive angst and paranoia!

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Coming next Sunday: Has the spending crisis already started?

Click here to join our mailing list

More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us

Changes Afoot at MLLG – Truth and Denial in America

George Noga

Mokita: Truths everyone knows but pretends don’t exist and agrees not to talk about.

Changes Afoot at MLLG
Truth and Denial in America
By: George Noga – August 2, 2020

I will get to truth and denial in America – but first news about changes at the MLLG blog. The most noticeable changes are to the format; I have made our posts easier to read by enlarging the font and adding more space between lines. All links are activated and you are one click away from emailing me, adding a name to my email list and visiting my website, including direct links to prior posts referenced within a posting. Please email me with your questions or comments and I will respond as needed.

I am grateful for your prolific forwarding of my posts, but therein lies a problem. I have had up to four generations of forwards, i.e. the original recipient forwards it to several people who then forward it to others, and so on. One reader can thus be responsible for 100 or more forwards. However, if any one of these 100 should hit the “unsubscribe” link, it is you, the original recipient, who is unsubscribed. I have addressed this with Constant Contact but there is nothing they can do. Please continue to forward, but if you stop receiving my emails, go to our website to resubscribe.

I am making one substantive change to content. My posts tend to follow a set pattern: I describe a problem or issue and marshall relevant data and logic to analyze it. I strive to present a fact-based, principled perspective you do not see elsewhere. It has worked well for the past 13 years and many of my posts will continue this approach. However, beginning in September/October you also will see a new approach that addresses the most weighty issues of our time in a less formulaic and more provocative manner. Thanks again to all my loyal readers and supporters. The best is yet to come!

Truth and Denial in America

English is a prolific language with one million words, of which 200,000 are in active use. This is far more than any other language. Yet there is no English word for a commonly understood truth that isn’t talked about. The people of Papua New Guinea have just such a word; mokita is a universally acknowledged truth that everyone pretends doesn’t exist and is never discussed. There are many mokitas in America.

Truth is no less true when it is unpopular, politically incorrect or even offensive. Realities exist despite what we want them to be, despite what PC may dictate and despite suppression. Subordination of objective reality to political diktats is a central tenet of totalitarianism and progressivism. In the end however, objective reality, unlike progressive denials, doesn’t go away when people stop believing in it.

As often is the case, Winston Churchill said it best: “The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.” Progressivism is a denial of objective reality and exists only when truth is suppressed.

Mokita is present whenever truth yields to power or fear of reprisal yields to political correctness. Anyone who utters a mokita, by speaking a known truth, is savaged by the progressive mob, not because they are wrong but because they violated a mokita.

Next week’s post is about the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima.
More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us