Saturday, September 05, 2026

The First Amendment Has Entered The Chat

New in PN: Nina Jankowicz on the golden age of disinformation

“I’m not optimistic about us clawing back from this unless there’s serious rethinking of our systems, and frankly, regulation of these social media platforms that are making us such passive and uncurious consumers of information."
"Congress shall make no law…” So who’s going to write these regulations? And who decides what they are, and how they’re enforced? Is my sarcasm going to be construed as lies? (It’s already sometimes misunderstood. I’m not Swift, so that’s on me.) Some of the burden of the First Amendment is on we, the people.

Racism in America has always been, in part, the passive and incurious consumption of information. Bad information, misinformation, if you will, but information nonetheless.  Isolationism before Pearl Harbor, the same. We were lucky that didn’t put us so much on our back foot we weren’t isolated by the success of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The freedom of the First Amendment is that government can’t silence our thoughts. The burden, is that we are still responsible for our thoughts.

And the sad truth is; thinking is hard.
Jason Selvig: “Why do you think Donald Trump’s approval rating is at 32% right now?”

Trump supporter: “I don’t think it is, I think that’s a lie. That’s not what CNN says. And hell that’s the Clinton Nazi Network. I think she’s a Nazi. She colluded with Russia”

JS: “Has there been any evidence Hillary Clinton’s campaign colluded with Russia?”



TS: “As far as it coming out, arrests being made, no”



JS: “So why do you believe that?”

TS: “Cause I believe it”
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him think.

Trust me. I was a teacher for 20 years.
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