12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S.
Newsco
mQA Quebec woman was
fined for trying to evade a
pandemic curfew by putting
a dog collar on her (human)
partner’s neck and taking him
for “a walk.” Police say the
unidentified 24-year-old was
obviously making a mockery
of an exception to the prov-
ince’s 8 p.m. curfew that had
been given to dog owners.
The woman and her partner
were each fined $1,500 for
breaking curfew and hit with
some harsh words from
police about people “mak-
ing light of the situation” as
Covid cases soar.
QThe New
Jersey State
Supreme Court
has thrown
out a con-
victed bank
robber’s 14-year
sentence after
ruling that a
prosecutor biased the jury by
comparing defendant Damon
Williams to Jack Nicholson’s
character in The Shining. The
prosecutor showed jurors
a photo of Nicholson’s face
as his ax- wielding character
Jack Torrance breaks into a
bathroom occupied by his
wife and son, yelling, “Here’s
Johnny!” Prosecutors, the
court ruled, “must walk a fine
line” when showing photos
of “an individual whom the
jury associates with violence
or guilt.”
QA French woman has been
fighting for three years to
prove she is alive after being
mistakenly declared dead by
a judge. Jeanne Pouchain, 58,
can’t drive, work, use a bank,
or get insurance because she
was declared dead in a 2017
court case. She hasn’t been
able to reverse that ruling,
despite appearing before nu-
merous judges with a certifi-
cate from her doctor stating
that she is, in fact, alive. “I no
longer exist,” Pouchain says.
“I don’t do anything.” Her
lawyer is still fighting to get a
court to reverse the original
ruling, but says, “When an
error is so enormous, it’s
hard to admit.”It must be true...
I read it in the tabloidsAmerican politics is longer a conventional fight “between the Left and
Right,” said William Saletan. “Politics has become a fight between those
who are willing to respect evidence and those who aren’t.” Donald
Trump’s radical presidency ushered in a new era of “ruthless, relentless,
denialist propaganda at a scale we used to see only in dictatorships.” He
persuaded tens of millions of Americans that Covid-19 was nothing to
fear, that masks were useless, and finally that the election was stolen—
inciting a violent insurrection. To regain sanity, address our nation’s
many problems, and resolve political debates, we need “a common
standard for judging truth.” That standard must be evidence. Science
has used the evidence standard with spectacular success—to devise vac-
cines, cure diseases, and unravel many of the mysteries of the universe.
It requires revising your theories and beliefs when the evidence shows
they’re wrong. Politicians prefer to deny reality rather than admit they
are wrong, but for our country to remain a functioning democracy, the
press, the public, and rational conservatives and progressives must create
“a fact-based alliance that crosses party lines.” Relying on evidence is
our only way to solve our problems and escape paralyzing polarization.President Biden’s foreign policy should have one guiding principle: “Put
dissidents first,” said Bret Stephens. The U.S. is facing a growing threat
from autocracies such as China, Russia, and Iran that crush freedom
at home and export repression and illiberalism abroad. These dictator-
ships “are too powerful to be brought down militarily.” But as the brave
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is now demonstrating, all regimes are
vulnerable to domestic opposition that “galvanizes public indignation
through acts of exposure, mockery, and heroic defiance.” It was Nelson
Mandela who brought down apartheid in South Africa, Lech Walesa
who ended Communist control of Poland, and truth tellers such as Alek-
sandr Solzhenitsyn who weakened the Soviet Union. Biden and Secretary
of State Antony Blinken must make support of dissidents in Hong Kong,
China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela “inextricable parts of Ameri-
can statecraft.” We should amplify dissidents’ messages, and all negotia-
tions with these regimes should include a demand they release jailed op-
ponents. A foreign policy that prioritizes dissidents “would immediately
revive America’s moral leadership,” undermine our adversaries, and
increase the chance that one day these regimes will collapse.With former President Trump banned from Twitter, Facebook, and
several other sites, “the siren calls” for social media regulation will
soon “become deafening,” said Andy Kessler. Most would-be reformers
want to rewrite Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act,
which largely exempts social media companies from legal liability for
what users post on their sites. But attempts “to ‘fix’” Section 230 would
massively backfire, forcing Twitter, Facebook, et al. to heavily censor
on their sites all controversial posts, lest they be sued into oblivion.
We often forget, however, that Section 230 doesn’t forbid suing users
of social media for libel or holding them accountable. The problem is
anonymity: The nastiest and most irresponsible posters hide behind fake
names and handles. Forcing users to register with, say, a credit card or
other ID and use their real names might cut the sites’ user bases in half,
but “advertisers would rejoice”—and it would limit the need for “tens of
thousands of content moderators.” If you post threats or libelous attacks
on people, you will risk getting sued. “Post about buying zip ties and in-
vading the Capitol, and the FBI knocks on your door.” Ending anonym-
ity “would put an immediate damper on today’s worst offenders.”The real
divide in
politics
William Saletan
Slate.comHow to
fix social
media
Andy Kessler
The Wall Street JournalWhy we must
support foreign
dissidents
Bret Stephens
The New York Times“The Biden era presages a return to typical presidential dishonesty, without
the cult of personality that defined the Trump era. But presidential lies were
destructive long before Trump appeared, so the press and the public should resist the temptation to
assume that the Biden administration will always be on the level, or that its dishonesties can be for-
given because Joe Biden’s predecessor wielded falsehood with such abandon. There will be moments
when the public interest conflicts with the political interest of the White House, and during some of
these moments, the president will lie. All presidents do.” Adam Serwer in TheAtlantic.comViewpoint