Month: December 2022

THE TWITTER FILES: How FBI Primed Execs With “Russian Disinformation” Disinformation Ahead Of Hunter Biden Bombshell

Source: ZeroHedge.

This latest release suggests that the Federal government actively and willfully colluded with Twitter to influence the 2020 election.

For years, now, stalwart Democrats have insisted that it was wrong for Russia’s Kremlin to use Twitter to influence the 2016 election. We have since learned that the Kremlin’s Twitter efforts were ineffectual and unprovable at best, but forget about that for the moment. Now stalwart Democrats should be insisting that it was wrong for the FBI to use Twitter to influence the 2020 election, but only if they wish to be consistent in their moral philosophy.

For the rest of us, it remains to learn the extent of government control over public opinion. Edward Snowden gave us a starting point, but it is just a starting point.

Should the United States ban TikTok?

Source: Marginal Revolution.

Tyler Cowen asks and answers, No.

The question is more seminal than it may seem, given that many Americans today believe that some information causes harm and therefore deserves to be restricted. According to this decidedly un-American mindset, TikTok should be banned from the U.S. because it is used by a foreign adversary (China) to conduct social surveillance of our people (damaging national security) and because it exposes our children to various perversions.

I’m all for protecting national security and preserving the innocence of children, but I’m with Cowen on the question at hand. The antidote for damaging ideas is healing ideas.

How Bad is Social Media?

The social sciences don’t tell us much about social media, but some of the insights are encouraging.

For example, it does not appear to be the case that social media are threatening in any unusual way. Those who fear that social media spread dangerous misinformation can cool their jets. Society itself tends to spread misinformation such that social media don’t deserve special attention in the matter.

“Conservative” ideas kill.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667193X22002010

Yet another study which adjusts for every known demographic risk factor finds that living in a “conservative” Congressional district significantly increases your risk of death from Covid. In the words of the authors . . .

“In the context of adult vaccine availability, the higher the exposure to conservatism across several political metrics, the higher the COVID-19 age-standardized mortality rates, even after taking into account the districts’ social characteristics.”

Maybe someone should do something about people spreading deadly disinformation?

If the data doesn’t support the narrative…

Daily Caller CDC deletes data at request of Gun Control Group 

The CDC, at the request of gun control advocates, removed data on defensive use of firearms for no reason other than the Gun Violence Archive claimed the numbers made it hard to pass gun control laws. 

Due to different methodologies, the range of defensive uses was wide, from 60,000 instances in which a gun was actually used. to 2.5 million counting cases where the presence of a firearm was only displayed or implied. Even the low estimate is 4 times the fatal criminal uses. 

But on the request of the GVA the estimates of defensive uses were omitted entirely. 

The CDC and the government as a whole are the enemies of truth, but claim they are the arbiters of what is misinformation.