On Disinformation and Democracy - comments on Yuval Noah Harari's views - Knowledge is Power
Harari re-defines an English word, then creates an argument based on multiple assumptions and straw men.
"Politicians don't have a chance to go deep"
is a fault of the design of the government system. Elected administrators such as Judges, District Attorneys, health administrators etc go deep, have policies and are answerable. The obvious answer on a national level is, don't have an elected King who must inevitably have lack of answerability, corruptness, incompetence or all of them. Divide the power into elected ministerial portfolios.
"Without privacy very few people would go into politics":
that is the argument for corruption. The only way to remove corruption is to ensure it cannot be concealed and will be detected and punished.
good! Although not true: people wanting to go into politics would make sure they have nothing to hide. More people who have nothing to hide will be heartened to go into an environment that is not corrupt. It will result in more tolerance if the public is aware that many people make mistakes or have quirks which are not illegal.
"As long as what they do is legal they must have privacy" is a circular argument. The only way we know what they are doing is legal is if they don't have privacy. Every person who is not entrusted to run our country is entitled to privacy. But secrecy and power is begging for corruption. It is because of privacy that Trump was elected in the first place. Because people didn't have enough information about him to know what they were voting for.
It's very important that politicians have no privacy. If they want privacy they need not apply. corporate employees don't have privacy, why should public employees.
Harari has redefined “information” to include lies.
He has then built a straw man argument based on his incorrect definition.
Information does not include lies. Information is facts. It can include the fact that someone is saying something that may be a lie, but if that lie is presented as the truth, it is not information.
"Not to censor, to take responsibility".
Not to tell lies is to censor. He's asking private for profit enterprises to be nice. That's like asking a lion not to kill antelopes.
If you don’t want a lion to kill antelopes, you make it impossible do do - take the antelopes away, restrain the lion - or punish it so that it is not worthwhile. Hand-wringing doesn’t work.
It is democratic governments' entire function to regulate behaviours for the public benefit: in particular, safety. That means ensuring private enterprises take responsibility. Not making lies protected then hand-wring about the damage it does.
“Government control of the media prevents citizens from realising the truth”?
Harari is an advocate of disinformation which destroys his entire argument. He condones distortion of information by private interests but not protection from it by our elected representatives. The 2012 SCOTUS invention the "right to lie" is destroying democracy.
45% of Americans prove Harari wrong.
Government regulation of actual lying by public transparent fair legislated process is not "control of media".
He presupposes competition, and ABILITY TO IDENTIFY INFORMATION. Might as well legalise robbery and tell everyone to get black belts.
The problem lies not with properly formed laws but with corrupt regimes making corrupt laws; and corrupt abuse of legitimate laws.
Russian courts are corrupt. They abuse other laws like murder to silence media too. Shall we legalise murder as well, then?
Maybe we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, but focus on corruption, which in fact is hothoused by inability to access truth. Which is due to lies and secrecy.
The view that “only power matters” is a psychopathic one.
“Truth is difficult and uncomfortable”
I don't accept the truth is difficult. It has been made difficult to find by religion (which is intrinsically based on abandonment of truth seeking) the more recent legalisation of lies, and ensuing confusion. The truth is far easier than lies because it is explainable. and does not change (but can evolve.) As an atheist I never had a problem with seeing lies until the 2012 creation of a right to lie, and explosion of lies after that.
It’s not hard work finding the truth. It’s hard work debunking masses of lies.
Is it “uncomfortable” that I walked along the road today?
The miniscule proportion of truth that is “uncomfortable” coexists with the opportunity to remedy or adjust to it - both denied if the truth is suppressed.
The unavailability of which is widely recognised as causative of serious problems.
Yuval Harari is a shill for the disinformation industry.
I prefer this commentator.
"Washington runs on 3 things: money, fear and compromat". The ultimate reason there should be no privacy for our elected representatives and holders of high office.
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