The cure for misinformation is deadlier than the disease

Trusting the government to regulate speech is like trusting Homer Simpson to guard the donuts. But nothing funny happens when you ignore the true nature of those in power. Governments aren’t neutral referees, they’re players in the game. Ask yourself, do you really want to hand the reins of “truth” over to an institution with a history of manipulating information to suit its agenda?

I recall the fable of the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion asks the frog for a ride across the river, promising not to sting him. The frog agrees, after all, if the scorpion stings him, they’ll both drown. Halfway across, the scorpion stings the frog. As they sink, the frog asks, “Why? Now we’ll both die.” The scorpion replies, “Because I’m a scorpion.”

Like the scorpion, governments act according to their nature, even when it undermines the freedoms they claim to protect. Governments’ nature includes spreading propaganda and suppressing dissent. Entrusting them to regulate truth ignores their nature. Misinformation creates noise, but it’s from this noise truth emerges, challenged and refined. Once governments regulate misinformation, we lose both the noise and the truth.

Thomas Sowell, a personal hero of mine, once said, “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” Regulating misinformation comes with a trade-off, sacrificing free speech and ceding the power to decide what’s “truth.” That trade-off is unacceptable. Although the Australian Government’s misinformation bill failed, it won’t be the last attempt. Future efforts will likely be subtler, more gradual, and harder to spot, an insidious threat Wendell Phillips aptly warned of when he said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Now, I realise this is the second time I’ve referenced economics. I swear I don’t usually do that… But the Theory of the Second Best teaches that in a flawed system, fixing one problem in isolation can often make things worse. It’s like raising taxes to reduce a deficit, only to have government spending balloon in response. In the case of misinformation, the better choice isn’t to attempt to “fix” it directly but to preserve the freedoms that allow us to self-correct.

Truth, once anchored in facts, has become clouded by subjective forces, perspectives, agendas, and biases. Once governments regulate based on these subjective interpretations, there’s no undoing it. That door locks behind us.

Let’s not drown like the frog in our naivety and hand over our minds to a Ministry of Truth. I would rather endure the noise of a free society than the silence of one that has lost its freedom.