As all you Gödel guys n’ gals know, Kurt’s “Incompleteness Theorem” states, among other things, that any system of mathematics powerful enough to prove the basic theorems of arithmetic must allow for the existence of theorems that cannot be proven to be either true or false, and is thus necessarily “incomplete”. The so-called “Vanneman corollary” states that any article in the New York Times on the topic of “misinformation” will itself generate new examples of misinformation.
A case in point is today’s piece by Steven Lee Myers and David McCabe, Federal Judge Limits Biden Officials’ Contacts With Social Media Sites, describing a ruling by Federal District Court Judge Terry Doughty that forbids parts of the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, from communicating with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
It must be said that Steve and Dave struggle pretty manfully to stick to “the facts” but ultimately they can’t help stumbling over the “fact” that, to the New York Times, anything that they wouldn’t print themselves is ipso facto “disinformation”. They just can’t help thinking that any idea that can’t be processed by what we may loosely call an “Acela Brain” is a “nonthought” at best—if its real-world implications are neutral—and an outright “thoughtcrime” (that is to say “misinformation”) if the implications are “harmful” (as defined by New York Times think)—because, of course, Timesfolk all possess, and, in turn, are possessed by, Acela Brains themselves. Previous examples of self-generated disinformation Timesstyle are, well, legion, but most specifically here.
For example, Steve and Dave say
At the same time, emails and text messages made public in the case that Judge Doughty ruled on have shown instances where officials complained to social media executives when influential users spread disinformation, especially involving the coronavirus pandemic.
In other words, any statement that federal officials say is “misinformation” ipso facto is misinformation, and, furthermore, should be ipso facto (again) banned from appearing on the internet. The circularity of the reasoning here escapes the Timesfolks because they go around in the same circle—“everyone I know thinks the same way I do, so it must be true.”
As for Judge Doughty, I will offer it as my opinion that any 45,000 word “opinion”/rant issued on the Fourth of July by a Trump-appointed judge trashing the Biden administration, an opinion containing such language as “If the allegations made by plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history” and “The plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition” qualifies as well, “suspect”, even though it must be said that Judge Doughty has come out on top in previous major collisions with the Biden folks—over their attempt to require national vaccination mandate for health care workers and their ban on new federal leases for oil and gas drilling. A limited vaccination requirement, for health care workers at facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid only, was upheld, while the Biden administration itself trampled all over its own “ban” on oil and gas leasing, holding the largest such auction in American history back in September 2021.
