Julian Assange, the scourge of censorship and official lies, has been almost a decade imprisoned in various degrees of solitary confinement and deprivation. Meanwhile, he has grown old having committed no crime and having done democracy and the public a huge service. In a few days we shall learn if he's going to be extradited to the US. Any hopes I had died when Labour under Corbyn lost the UK election.
The solution to Facebook's inclusion of massive lies is not to ban lies as already Facebook is grabbing the opportunity to ban inconvenient truth. Nor indeed can we expect Facebook to include these inconvenient truths, as it has no incentive to do so, and yet thrives on scurrilous lies. Instead we should have a public social network, without censorship, perhaps with a label indicating something like "not in accordance with the official facts", in cases of suspected outright lies.
The best way to stop manipulation through lies is of course education. We need to overhaul our education system, making people tech and media savvy and encouraging debate and free thought. Our current system is no longer fit for purpose. We need to be taught not to share outrageous memes and content spread by a few undesirables who increase their presence through lies and slander, getting those offended by them to make them more visible. Lies only take hold when we credit them with our attention. And we need to start taxing the advertising industry to pay for this. Advertising is nothing but psychological manipulation and, as such, it should be treated as a harmful industry.
While progressives wring their hands, wondering why Labour's transformative policies did not convince the public and why they voted instead for smirking, elitist, lying and incoherent Johnson, until the idea that elites are somehow suitable as leaders is questioned, nothing will change. In the US, Trump adopted a sing-song, preacher's voice which subliminally appealed to the white southern voter. People have to be educated to understand the difference between substance and form; to understand how to reason and follow an argument. Until this happens, any erudition or coherence in politics is ultimately like hitting your head against a wall.
In Spain, "apología del franquismo" (apology for the Francoist dictatorship) is soon to be illegal. This is a mistake. Anyone should be allowed to say anything (unless with an intent to cause physical injury), so long as they can back up what they're saying. If they can't, and wish to repeat the lie in a public context, for example in Parliament, they should explicitly have to explain that it is merely their opinion.
The same goes for the ridiculous current situation of never being able to criticise Israel and its zionism, our not being able to boycott Israel, and thus our never being able to defend Palestinians, despite the huge injustice that is being perpetrated against them. The zionists nobbled Ken Livingstone back in the day, and have taken over the entire Conservative Party in the UK, and now the Labour Party. In the US, AIPAC works tirelessly to ensure that all US foreign policy is set by Israel, and that internal policy keeps to the neoliberal narrative that keeps our civilisation hooked on petrol, thereby keeping Israel's importance in the Middle East.
