One can feel the panic come through the screen:
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is calling on other tech companies to ban more sites like InfoWars, and says the survival of American democracy depends on it.
“Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it,” Murphy tweeted Monday.
To be frank, I am surprised that our constitutional/Declaration structural freedoms have lasted this long. Revolutions like the 1960’s usually take an authoritarian turn; the fact that we’ve stalled this for fifty years is amazing in many ways.
It’s easy to laugh at Murphy’s logic, but in many places in the world there are “managed democracies,” where access to candidacy–and in some cases the voting franchise itself–is limited by those who really control the process. The best known of these is Iran, but there are others. In such a situation democratic process is a mechanism of legitimising the ruling elite, although surprises happen.
Murphy’s phrase “our democracy” is interesting. Who are “we?” The people in general? The plutocracy/kleptocracy who decry and make worse income inequality at the same time? The Ward Three types? Answering that question will go a long way to bring clarity to Sen. Murphy’s panicky outburst on Twitter.
Positive Infinity 