Elon Musk is buying Twitter and has promised to rededicate the site to untrammeled free speech. Meanwhile, former president Barack Obama, citing the dangerous spread of “misinformation,” has called for governmental content regulation of social media. Both claim to be defending democracy and truth.
Politics
Opinion | Truth and politics don't necessarily go together. Good luck fixing that. – The Washington Post
Who’s right? The answer is: Jonathan Haidt. Also, Hannah Arendt.
Haidt is a social psychologist at New York University and author of a cover story in the Atlantic about the destructive political impact of social media.
While sharing Obama’s assessment of social media’s harms, Haidt is more realistic about how hard it would be to design government-mandated content controls without sacrificing social media’s benefits — or devolving into censorship. It’s more important, Haidt convincingly argues, to fortify people’s independent ability to evaluate social media content than to control their access to it.
That means changing platform architecture to slow the spread of fake or anger-generating content, perhaps by modifying the “share” function on Facebook, a substantively neutral reform that would infringe no one’s free expression but could create time for that basic democratic act: deliberation.
This gets at what’s genuinely new about social media — its sheer velocity and “virality” — as compared with past innovations in communications technology that also caused worries about democracy. Haidt also calls for ridding social media of bots and fake accounts by making “verification … a precondition for gaining the algorithmic amplification that social media offers” — or, in Musk’s more succinct formulation, “authenticating all humans.”
That was a good promise for Musk to make. His error may be overconfidence about maintaining a Twitterverse that consistently practices the free speech absolutism he preaches but still makes money — whether through selling ads, selling subscriptions or some other means.
Musk may soon have to decide whether to let former president Donald Trump back on Twitter, which would certainly be a pro-free speech move. Either way Musk goes, however, could infuriate, and alienate, millions. Musk has said he would soften, but not abandon, content moderation, which seems like it would keep Twitter in the business of facing dilemmas and managing trade-offs.
And that brings us to Arendt, the 20th century student of totalitarianism and author of a classic 1967 essay, “Truth and Politics.”
“No one has ever doubted that truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other,” she wrote, “and no one … has ever counted truthfulness among the political virtues.”
From the demagogue’s bigotry, to the candidate’s unkeepable promise, to the diplomat’s white lie, some form of mis- and disinformation has forever been enmeshed in political discourse and activity and always will be. To this “commonplace” observation, Arendt added the admonition: “Nothing would be gained by simplification or moral denunciation.”
Gloomy words, but a useful corrective to Obama’s belief in “public oversight” of social media, which is so reminiscent of Walter Lippmann’s proposal — a century ago — for a “specialized class” of advisers to mediate between propaganda-prone voters and government officials.
As a sheer matter of unalienable individual rights, Musk’s free speech maximalism is preferable to Obama’s neo-Lippmannism. Yet to the extent the case for free speech hinges on its social benefits as well as individual fulfillment, Arendt splashed some cold water on it, too.
A Jew who had witnessed the collapse of Weimar Germany and fled the Nazi regime, she knew democracies were vulnerable to extremists bent on using freedom of speech and assembly to destabilize and destroy the system. “The chances of factual truth surviving the onslaught of power are very slim indeed,” she wrote, “it is always in danger of being maneuvered out of the world not only for a time but, potentially, forever.”
Arendt placed her hope in intellectuals — artists, scientists, historians, judges and journalists — whose vocations centered on the pursuit of truth, however inevitably imperfect, and thus “require non-commitment and impartiality, freedom from self-interest in thought and judgment.”
The more apolitical these professionals are, Arendt argued, the more paradoxically useful and necessary they are to “the political realm,” as sources of trusted information, analysis and ideas.
Painful and lonely though it can be to stand apart from the community and its political contests, Arendt wrote, impartial pursuit of truth has its rewards. One, she posits, is to be a part of an ancient tradition that began when Homer, reporting in verse on the Trojan War, chose to praise both the Greek hero Achilles and his enemy Hector of Troy, and continued when Herodotus acknowledged “the great and wondrous deeds of the Greeks and barbarians” alike.
These notions seem anything but realistic today, when academia has embraced social activism, judicial nominations are subjected to partisan vetting and many journalists disclaim “bothsidesism.”
Still, Arendt reminds us that seeking truth requires a willingness to consider opposing points of view, a form of empathy that is at “the root of … this curious passion, unknown outside Western civilization, for intellectual integrity at any price.”
American society needs to rededicate itself to that tradition, without which ownership changes and technical tweaks to social media will not make much difference anyway.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
MONTREAL – NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he will not be taking advice from Pierre Poilievre after the Conservative leader challenged him to bring down government.
“I say directly to Pierre Poilievre: I’m not going to listen to you,” said Singh on Wednesday, accusing Poilievre of wanting to take away dental-care coverage from Canadians, among other things.
“I’m not going to listen to your advice. You want to destroy people’s lives, I want to build up a brighter future.”
Earlier in the day, Poilievre challenged Singh to commit to voting non-confidence in the government, saying his party will force a vote in the House of Commons “at the earliest possibly opportunity.”
“I’m asking Jagmeet Singh and the NDP to commit unequivocally before Monday’s byelections: will they vote non-confidence to bring down the costly coalition and trigger a carbon tax election, or will Jagmeet Singh sell out Canadians again?” Poilievre said.
“It’s put up or shut up time for the NDP.”
While Singh rejected the idea he would ever listen to Poilievre, he did not say how the NDP would vote on a non-confidence motion.
“I’ve said on any vote, we’re going to look at the vote and we’ll make our decision. I’m not going to say our decision ahead of time,” he said.
Singh’s top adviser said on Tuesday the NDP leader is not particularly eager to trigger an election, even as the Conservatives challenge him to do just that.
Anne McGrath, Singh’s principal secretary, says there will be more volatility in Parliament and the odds of an early election have risen.
“I don’t think he is anxious to launch one, or chomping at the bit to have one, but it can happen,” she said in an interview.
New Democrat MPs are in a second day of meetings in Montreal as they nail down a plan for how to navigate the minority Parliament this fall.
The caucus retreat comes one week after Singh announced the party has left the supply-and-confidence agreement with the governing Liberals.
It’s also taking place in the very city where New Democrats are hoping to pick up a seat on Monday, when voters go to the polls in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun. A second byelection is being held that day in the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood—Transcona, where the NDP is hoping to hold onto a seat the Conservatives are also vying for.
While New Democrats are seeking to distance themselves from the Liberals, they don’t appear ready to trigger a general election.
Singh signalled on Tuesday that he will have more to say Wednesday about the party’s strategy for the upcoming sitting.
He is hoping to convince Canadians that his party can defeat the federal Conservatives, who have been riding high in the polls over the last year.
Singh has attacked Poilievre as someone who would bring back Harper-style cuts to programs that Canadians rely on, including the national dental-care program that was part of the supply-and-confidence agreement.
The Canadian Press has asked Poilievre’s office whether the Conservative leader intends to keep the program in place, if he forms government after the next election.
With the return of Parliament just days away, the NDP is also keeping in mind how other parties will look to capitalize on the new makeup of the House of Commons.
The Bloc Québécois has already indicated that it’s written up a list of demands for the Liberals in exchange for support on votes.
The next federal election must take place by October 2025 at the latest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante is defending her decision to turn off comments on her social media accounts — with an announcement on social media.
She posted screenshots to X this morning of vulgar names she’s been called on the platform, and says comments on her posts for months have been dominated by insults, to the point that she decided to block them.
Montreal’s Opposition leader and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association have criticized Plante for limiting freedom of expression by restricting comments on her X and Instagram accounts.
They say elected officials who use social media should be willing to hear from constituents on those platforms.
However, Plante says some people may believe there is a fundamental right to call someone offensive names and to normalize violence online, but she disagrees.
Her statement on X is closed to comments.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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