"one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods"

RESTRICT ACT up next

Airman Jack Teixeira has been arrested for leaking confidential intelligence and defense documents on a gaming chat server.¹

The cacophony of news reports seems to be focused on Teixeira rather than the content of the items leaked. Immediately I read and heard that what was leaked may have been muddled and releaked and changed. This deflects the public’s attention.

Ironically George Orwell commented back when England was pro-Russian.²

One of the peculiar phenomena of our time is the renegade Liberal. Over and above the familiar Marxist claim that ‘bourgeois liberty’ is an illusion, there is now a widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods. If one loves democracy, the argument runs, one must crush its enemies by no matter what means. And who are its enemies? It always appears that they are not only those who attack it openly and consciously, but those who ‘objectively’ endanger it by spreading mistaken doctrines. In other words, defending democracy involves destroying all independence of thought.

RESTRICT ACT

Keep an eye on the RESTRICT Act wending its way through Congress. (RESTRICT is a lovely little acronym for Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act of 2023). It’s not just all about Tik-Tok.³

1

Jack Teixeira: US airman appears in court over Pentagon documents leak. BBC News. 4/14/2023.

2

George Orwell, The Freedom of the Press (Orwell's Proposed Preface to ‘Animal Farm’)

3

Joseph Cox, (March 29, 2023). “The 'Insanely Broad' RESTRICT Act Could Ban Much More Than Just TikTok.” Motherboard.