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Last week news broke that our Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ---a department that didn't exist 20 years ago but spends $52 billion annually---had created a new "Disinformation Governance Board."
DHS initially declined to be interviewed about it by Associated Press. A true friend of Biden's administration.
The words "disinformation governance board" gave many in America a chilling remembrance of George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984," too much of which has come to pass.
The woman chosen to head up the new misinformation policing effort should not be heading up anything, much less the policing of "misinformation."
When DHS did finally issue a statement, they explained the new governance board is very important because, "The spread of disinformation can affect border security, Americans' safety during disasters, and public trust in our institutions."
As entrepreneurs are fond of saying, "This project has huge potential."
Beware.
Be informed, not misled.
On June 8, 1949, an English writer---George Orwell, published "Nineteen Eighty Four" (1984), a dystopian social science novel and cautionary story meant to warn readers of the dangers of totalitarianism.
The central focus of the book is to convey the extreme level of control and power possible under a truly totalitarian regime.
It explores how such a government system would impact society and the people who live in it.
The irony
The revelation that our government had created a new board to fight "disinformation," created a massive reaction and remembrance of the storyline in Orwell's book. Especially since it came so soon after Musk bought Twitter.
Elon Musk buys Twitter, he says, to save free speech, and days later President Biden announces his version of a "Ministry of Truth?"
Gateway Pundit said this:
Following Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter last week, which was a triumphant victory in the ongoing war over free speech, the Biden Regime announced the creation of a “Disinformation Governance Board” that will be tasked with silencing anything deemed to be misinformation that’s related to homeland security. And, yes. It’s just as dystopian and creepy as it sounds."
The new board will operate under the authority of the Department of Homeland security with a special focus on Russia and “irregular migration."
Gateway continued, "As we have seen over the past 6-plus years now, the term ‘Russian misinformation’ is frequently used as a wide catch-all that includes most of what goes against the liberal establishment, so the fact that they are specifically targeting this kind of 'misinformation' is that much more concerning."
And they said this:
"The disinformation board will be led by executive director Nina Jankowicz, who, as Posobic reveals in a series of tweets, is an anti-free speech crusader and committed member of the radical left. She has even made her stance clear about crucial issues like the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop and the stolen, rigged 2020 election. Unsurprisingly, Jankowicz has publicly slandered 2020 election concerns as damaging lies, backed the proven-false claim that the laptop from hell was Russian misinformation, and openly admitted to being just as concerned about “domestic misinformation” as she is about “foreign misinformation.”
In other words, they're saying the worst (or best) person for the job, depending on which side you are on.
About Nina Jankowicz, the new executive director of Biden's ministry of truth.
But those who know her say she is a lunatic. From what I've read about her, I agree with the people who know her.
This link quotes her vulgar language in the headline. Beware. Both Breitbart News and the Daily Caller are quoting her and reporting just how deranged this woman appears to be.
A part of their reporting on her reveals a post on Tik Tok after she claimed to be the" Mary Poppins of Disinformation." She sang this on Tik Tok to the tune taken from the movie "Mary Poppins."
You can just call me the Mary Poppins of disinformation 💁🏻♀️ https://t.co/eGV9lpctYn pic.twitter.com/WVQFA2bPmq
— Nina Jankowicz 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@wiczipedia) February 17, 2021
“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,” Jankowicz sang in a TikTok video.
About Orwell's masterpiece.
For those unfamiliar with George Orwell’s masterpiece, the Ministry of Truth is the propaganda and censorship department of Oceania, the fictional setting for Orwell’s dystopia.
Ministry of Truth is a misnomer. Like all the departments in 1984, the name reflects the opposite of what the government actually does.
The book’s protagonist, Winston Smith, learns this in the second half of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Even the names of the four Ministries by which we are governed reflect a deliberate reversal of the facts. The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy; they are deliberate exercises in doublethink. For it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained indefinitely.
Smith, who works at the Ministry of Truth, realizes the Ministry of Truth is not the least bit interested in truth. Its use of propaganda is overt, as is its use of banal slogans designed to confuse and humiliate the people of Oceania.
On the exterior of the Ministry of Truth building are 3 party slogans: "WAR IS PEACE," "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY," and "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." Inside the structure, problematic documents are incinerated, and dropped down a Memory Hole where they are conveniently forgotten.
One might be tempted to laugh off comparisons between a “Disinformation Governance Board” and the propaganda department in Orwell’s classic work. After all, we’re talking about a novel.
For starters, Nineteen Eighty-Four is indeed a fictional work. But it was inspired by the authoritarian regimes and ideologies Orwell witnessed firsthand. A one-time socialist who observed the fighting in the Spanish Civil War—a conflict between fascists and communists—Orwell became a budding libertarian who became disillusioned with collectivism.
In fact, Orwell makes it clear that Nineteen Eighty-Four was inspired by communism.
Stalin’s regime was not the only totalitarian regime to utilize propaganda and censorship, of course. Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, is perhaps the single most infamous wielder of propaganda in human history. And of course, the Nazis were infamous for their book burning.
The Chinese Communist Party uses propaganda and censorship to such great effect today that scholars say it’s difficult to even know what’s actually happened in the country over the last century.
This is why Americans should be concerned that the US government—nearly two and a half centuries after it was founded—is suddenly in the business of rooting out “disinformation.”
It doesn’t take a philosopher to see that a lot of stuff one finds online is lies, so it shouldn’t surprise us that “misinformation”—in various forms and to various degrees—is rampant online.
But history shows that no one wields misinformation and propaganda with greater effectiveness—or at the greatest cost—than the government.
Orwell understood this. So must we.
Takeaway.
On Friday, Tucker Carlson began a rather lengthy commentary on this matter with:
"Joe Biden cannot continue to control this country if you have free access to information. It's just that simple. Biden certainly isn't improving your life. He is not even trying to improve your life. So the best he can do is lie to you and demand that you believe it."
Concluding with this:
"You are a free person in a free country, and no law enforcement agency can ever tell you what to think or say. Period."
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.