Our new host for the weekly provocative question challenge is Jewish Young Professional, aka JYP.

So what is her provocative question for this week? It’s a juicy one, that’s for sure. She wants to know…

Does the government have the right to remove posts that could misinform the public? Does the government have the responsibility to? Or is government take down of such posts a violation of free speech?

I think this question about misinformation being presented to the public in a significant way gained prominence with the proliferation of conservative talk radio, personified by the likes of Rush Limbaugh. That evolved to television with Rupert Murdock’s Fox News, which became essentially a megaphone for the far-right.

But it was with the rise of Facebook and Twitter that gave a huge, “grassroots” platform for lies, misinformation, and conspiracy theories to all of the whackos and weirdos from the fringes. As well, by the way, to foreign players whose interests are anything that can undermine and destroy our democracy.

And then there is the First Amendment, the Free Speech amendment. My initial inclination would have been for Facebook and Twitter to police themselves. That is, to identify bad actors, foreign or domestic, who are spreading the lies, the misinformation, and the dangerous conspiracy theories, and remove those players and their posts or tweets from those platforms. But why would they do that when Fox News, other far-right TV networks, and conservative talk radio hosts get away with doing the exact same things?

So then comes the question of the role of the government in these matters. The problem is that “the government” changes every few years. If we end up with a “Trumpist” government as a result of our next national election in 2024, that government promotes lies, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. The last thing that government would want to do is stop it.

And if the other party even tried to rein in the spread of malicious lies and misinformation, they’d probably have about the same result they’re having with reining in the proliferation and use of civilian firearms in this country.

If the private sector won’t do anything, and if nobody trusts that the government can do anything, the only option is for individuals to recognize the difference between truth and lies, between valid information and misinformation, and between reality and conspiracy. I’m afraid that’s not going to happen either.

So bottom line, we’re all fucked.