What Caught My Eye forFebruary 26 - March 4 (#6)

Whelp…CNN joins the right-wing news ecosystem. Remember to go support good, independent journalism.

Doubts about the wisdom of the masses are as old as philosophy itself. Yet interest in democracy’s “epistemic” merits has surged in the last decade—and it is no mystery why. Democracy is collapsing around us in large part for epistemic reasons: because so many people have become so profoundly detached from reality.

Why did “protesters” storm the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021? Because they believed something demonstrably false: that the election had been “stolen.” Why did a majority of Americans vote for the would-be dictator who promoted this lie three years later? At least in part, again, because many of them believed obviously false things: e.g., that the economy was worse than it was; that crime was more widespread, trans athletes more numerous, and migrants more violent. All evidence to the contrary, some believed Trump would end the Gaza war, or bring prices down, or stand up for workers, or deport only violent criminals, or release the Epstein files, or back down on tariffs, or retreat from Project 2025. And while a few former supporters have turned against him as these fantasies have run aground on the shoals of reality, the vast majority still live in what can only be described as an alternate universe—either entirely unaware of his assault on virtually every institution that makes their lives better, or entirely deluded about its consequences.

It’s hard to even begin to figure out how to improve things when we can’t even agree on the objective facts. As long as the media gives cover to political parties, lies will continue to go unchallenged. The right-wing takeover of CNN is certainly only going to make this more difficult.

So we have DHS mobilizing within hours to identify a 67-year-old retiree who sent a polite email. We have agents showing up at citizens’ homes to interrogate them about their protected speech. We have the government trying to unmask anonymous accounts that are documenting law enforcement activities — something that is unambiguously protected under the First Amendment.

Recording police, sharing that recording, and doing so anonymously is legal. It’s protected speech. And the government is using administrative subpoenas to try to identify and intimidate the people doing it.

For years, we heard that government officials sending emails to social media companies — emails the companies ignored — constituted an existential threat to the First Amendment. But when the government actually uses its coercive power to track down, identify, and intimidate citizens for their speech?

Crickets.

This is what a real threat to free speech looks like. Not “jawboning” that platforms can easily refuse, but the full weight of federal surveillance being deployed against anyone who dares to criticize the administration. The chilling effect here is the entire point.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bought data from the online advertising ecosystem to track peoples’ precise movements over time, in a process that often involves siphoning data from ordinary apps like video games, dating services, and fitness trackers, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by 404 Media.

I would highly recommend running an ad blocker in whatever browser you use and be careful which apps you install on your phone.