165227
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

The Great ‘Disinformation’ Hoax

by Will Jones
7 April 2023 9:00 AM

Writer Jacob Siegel has talked to UnHerd‘s Freddie Sayers about America’s new censorship complex. In a 13,000 word essay for Tablet, Siegel (pictured) explains how ‘disinformation’ is an invention that has morphed into a tool of governance. He told Sayers:

Disinformation is a means by which the Government in cooperation with private tech companies and civil society, NGO groups, censors, uses extra-legal means to censor political discourse around issues like Covid vaccinations, lockdowns, the elections. And in the U.S., it’s a free-for-all. It’s a blank cheque to censor anything. So on one level, disinformation is ostensibly censorship in order to protect national security. In a larger sense, that machinery of censorship is not opportunistically looking to erase certain things from the public record that are unflattering to political elites. It’s actually rather more than that. It is a means of governance. It is a system of power. It is its own system of power, outside of the formal, official — in the U.S., constitutional — means by which the Government is supposed to operate.

How did this ‘tool of governance’ become so mainstream, asks Sayers? The U.S. Government, Siegel points out, has long engaged in promoting disinformation of its own, but the ‘war on disinformation’ was begun by Barack Obama. One of the last things the former President did while in office was sign into law the ‘Countering Foreign Disinformation Act’, which fully committed the U.S. to a counter-disinformation campaign, which according to Siegel “was really always in spirit, and very quickly in practice as well, an information war directed against the American people”.

Siegel continues:

There was originally this foreign dimension… But from the very beginning, ‘foreign’ is a kind of ruse that’s setting up what is actually a much larger, effectively omni-directional structure, because the internet is global, that can censor anywhere but which is, in practice, focused on the domestic political environment inside the U.S. and specifically on this populist surge, which is taken as an existential threat by the ruling party officials in the U.S. who see populism in truly apocalyptic terms. 

Siegel argues that the consequences of this censorship for American society should not to be minimised: 

The system of secrecy and the Government’s own promotion of conspiracies, like the idea that Donald Trump was an agent of Vladimir Putin or a Russian stooge, which the U.S. intelligence agencies promoted. It’s not simply that they are wrong or pernicious, or that this reflects corruption. They actually drive people crazy. They deranged the political system. They ruin the ability for people to engage sanely and transparently in their own politics.

Worth reading (and watching) in full.

Tags: CensorshipCOVID-19DisinformationDonald TrumpMisinformationPropagandaUnited States

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

The German Pandemic Ends, But Freedom Will Never Be the Same

Next Post

Masks Made No Difference to Hospital Covid Infection Rates, Study Finds

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

18 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dinger
Dinger
2 years ago

You might want to refer to this excellent website which has been my go to for foreign holidays https://www.traveloffpath.com/countries-without-any-travel-restrictions-or-entry-requirements/

24
0
7941MHKB
7941MHKB
2 years ago
Reply to  Dinger

Great site and great recommendation. Bookmark this!

6
0
Sceptic Hank
Sceptic Hank
2 years ago

Kayak has a searcheable website that shows the most updated status of entry restriction from all destinations to all destinations. The C19 test from UK to India appears to have been lifted on November 22, hence the delay in updating the airlines. Airline staff are usually the last to know. https://www.kayak.com/travel-restrictions?origin=AU

8
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
2 years ago
Reply to  Sceptic Hank

It’s shocking and disgraceful that the USA is together with Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Angola, Ghana and Libya, in not allowing the unvaccinated to visit. Even China allows unvaccinated travellers in some cases.

Last edited 2 years ago by Brett_McS
14
0
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
2 years ago

Air India have always been the most bureaucratic of airlines

11
0
7941MHKB
7941MHKB
2 years ago

Did you look at other airlines flying to India?
My hunch is that Air India will be the last to implement changes but will be more likely to respond rapidly to someone stating ‘Airlines A, B, C, your competitors, don’t require this, why do you?’ than just referring to a change in New Delhi’s regulations.

I can confirm that, although Cambodi
a states you don’t need to be vaccinared to travel there, getting a Cambodian e-visa still required the UK NHS ‘proof’, a couple of weeks ago. And required masks on incoming (and outgoing) flights. No tests. But Singapore Airlines seemed content with chin warmers although stewardesses continue to wear them. Inside Cambodia, mask wearers are scarce. Maybe this will help someone.

5
0
Bella Donna
Bella Donna
2 years ago

The only way around this is for people to blacklist all airlines and countries that insist on these tests.

18
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

The End of American Empire? – With Doug Stokes

by Richard Eldred
2 May 2025
6

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

Sun-Dimming Quango has £800 Million of Taxpayer Money to Blow – and a CEO on £450k

8 May 2025
by Sallust

News Round-Up

8 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal

8 May 2025
by Will Jones

Voters Reject Net Zero, Opinion Poll Shows

8 May 2025
by Will Jones

BREAKING: Merz Government Orders Pushback of All Illegal Migrants at German Borders, Effectively Abolishing Asylum

7 May 2025
by Eugyppius

What Does Renaud Camus Actually Believe? Part Two: Is He Really a Conspiracy Theorist?

33

EXCLUSIVE: Britain Forced to Spend £1.5 Billion to Mitigate Wind Turbine Corruptions to Vital Air Defence Radar

19

Sun-Dimming Quango has £800 Million of Taxpayer Money to Blow – and a CEO on £450k

18

News Round-Up

18

UK “Shafted” by US Trade Deal

11

The Sugar Tax Sums Up Our Descent into Technocratic Dystopia

8 May 2025
by Dr David McGrogan

Australia’s Liberal Party Only Has Itself to Blame for its Crushing Defeat by Labour

8 May 2025
by Dr James Allan

EXCLUSIVE: Britain Forced to Spend £1.5 Billion to Mitigate Wind Turbine Corruptions to Vital Air Defence Radar

8 May 2025
by Chris Morrison

What Does Renaud Camus Actually Believe? Part Two: Is He Really a Conspiracy Theorist?

8 May 2025
by Steven Tucker

BREAKING: Merz Government Orders Pushback of All Illegal Migrants at German Borders, Effectively Abolishing Asylum

7 May 2025
by Eugyppius

POSTS BY DATE

April 2023
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« Mar   May »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Register

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences