Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Government Agencies Aren't Immortal?

"The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a Government Program."
Ronald Reagan

Only announced last month, strangely coincident with the pending sale of Twitter, the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) has been shuttered.  For now.  Executive Director Nina Jankowicz, who made a splash with her Mary Poppins musical number about misinformation, has resigned.  Less than one month to end this ill-conceived government program.  It didn't even last as long as CNN+.

Government should never be in the business of fact-checking.  It may sound like a good idea to have someone in authority correct the misinformation that is inevitable in a free society, but once the government takes on that role, free speech is doomed.  Why?  The government will quickly find that its critics are the source of misinformation.  How convenient that is.  Once one part of government denounces the critic, the rest of government will soon follow.  Recall back in 2013, when Ben Carson spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast and was critical of President Obama.  Soon after, he was audited by the IRS.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  The TEA Party had lots of visits from various government agencies, including the IRS.  By contrast, BLM and Antifa - both of which fundraise - have not reported similar harassment by the government.

Government is coercion.  The more government agencies that exist, the more freedom is constrained.

The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
Thomas Jefferson

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