Facebook “whistleblower” Frances Haugen, the Washington Post reports, has “repeatedly accused [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg of choosing growth over the public good.” The Post‘s headline puts it a slightly different way: “Growth over safety.”

The meaning of “growth” in this context is pretty obvious: Zuckerberg’s company makes a lot of money, and he wants it to make even more.

The meaning of “safety” is somewhat more nebulous. Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever refers to “difficult decisions between free expressions and harmful speech, security and other issues” before going to a place that should chill the blood of anyone listening:

“Drawing these societal lines is always better left to elected leaders which is why we’ve spent many years advocating for Congress to pass updated Internet regulations.”

The Post story opens with a more accurate account of what Lever proposes:

“Late last year, Mark Zuckerberg faced a choice: Comply with demands from Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party to censor anti-government dissidents or risk getting knocked offline in one of Facebook’s most lucrative Asian markets.”

Zuck decided to work for Hanoi instead of for Facebook’s users in Vietnam. And in the US he’d be happy to work for Congress rather than for Facebook’s American users, as long as doing so doesn’t get in between and his real customers (advertisers), and perhaps even herds more of those customers his way.

Neither “the public good” nor “safety” (for anyone or anything but the political class’s power and Facebook’s profits, at least) enter into the equation.

Zuckerberg’s job is to grow his company’s profits, thereby growing his and his shareholders’ wealth, full stop. That’s what companies do. Their goal, in three words, is to “increase shareholder value.”

One of the most effective ways of doing that, if he can manage it, is getting governments to ensure that Facebook faces little or no competition in its chosen marketplaces.

With market capitalization approaching $1 trillion and annual net income of $30 billion or so, Facebook is well-positioned to meet the costs of complying with whatever censorship regime Congress might choose to impose to protect the interests of the ruling class (not “the public good”). Smaller social media platforms or potential new competitors, not so much.

As for the politicians cosplaying as Facebook’s opponents while actually working overtime to turn it into a monopoly, they’d have you believe that any speech they dislike (they call it “misinformation”) equates to shouting “fire” in a crowded theater, and that they’re heroic guardians of your safety. In reality, they’re just muggers attempting to run off with even more of your freedom than they’ve already taken.

Mark Zuckerberg may not be your friend, but if you let him become Congress’s friend he’ll surely be your enemy.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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President Joe Biden wants the Occupational Safety & Health Administration to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all workers at companies with more than 100 employees. Local governments from sea to shining sea, including those of New York City and San Francisco, have conscripted business owners as “vaccination passport” inspectors, forbidding them to serve customers whose papers aren’t in order.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Texas governor Greg Abbott, on the other hand, are attempting to mandate that businesses may NOT condition employment or patronage on being vaccinated.

The two types of mandates may strike you as very different, but in reality there’s no difference at all. The politicians involved are authoritarians. Their COVID-19 power games are about power, not about COVID-19.

Authoritarian politicians and bureaucrats have spent the last year-and-a-half using the pandemic as an excuse to seize more control over our lives than they ever enjoyed before.

Now they’re loath to give up that power, casting about for any excuse to hold onto it and expand it even further. The corollary of “never let a crisis goes to waste” is “never let a crisis end if there’s any way to keep it going.”

Meanwhile, an economy they cratered with their “public health” measures (none of which have worked as advertised) teeters on the edge.

You’ve seen the empty shelves at your local stores. You’ve seen the yellow “out of gas” bags at your local gas stations. You’ve seen the “limited hours” and “drive-thru only” signs at your local  fast-food restaurants.

Authoritarian politicians and bureaucrats can’t fix those problems. They CAUSED those problems, and anything they do other than sitting down, shutting up, and staying out of the way will make those problems worse, not better.

Worse, not better, is almost certainly where we’re going. Things are shaping up for a crash that may well make the Great Depression look like a pleasure cruise.

And when that crash comes, most Americans will probably willingly cede even MORE power and more authority to those whose power and authority brought the crash about, to “fix” it.

Because, as we all know, the way to get your car repaired is to shove a wad of money at the kid who stole it, took it out for a joy ride, and wrapped it around a telephone pole.

Life won’t get better until we get one fact through our heads: Political government is our enemy, not our friend.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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On October 19, 96-year-old Irmgard Furchner appeared in a German court to answer charges of aiding and abetting 11,412 murders. The murders took place between 1943 and 1945 at the Stutthof concentration camp, where a much younger Furchner worked as secretary to the camp’s commandant.

A day before Furchner’s indictment, Colin Powell, the US government’s 16th national security advisor, 12th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,  and 65th Secretary of State, died at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from complications related to COVID-19.

Seventy-six years after the end of World War Two, governments are rounding up the last few living Nazi war criminals — nonagenarians and even centenarians who played minor roles in the Holocaust — and hauling them to court for their crimes against humanity.

Eighteen years after the US invasion of Iraq, the ringleaders of THAT crime against humanity are beginning to die off,  in bed, surrounded by their loved ones, eulogized in the press as “leaders” and “statesmen.” Powell was preceded in death this year by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

The process of seeking justice for the victims of Nazism has been long, difficult, and spotty in application, but at least it’s still pursued.

The process of seeking justice for the victims of Powell, Rumsfeld and other architects of the Iraq war — hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, thousands of US troops — hasn’t even begun.

Like Powell, Rumsfeld lied to the American public — and to the world — about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction, providing a pretext for war as trumped-up as Hitler’s excuse for Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland.

Iraqi journalist Muntader al-Zaidi (famous for throwing his shoes at then-president George W. Bush during a 2008 Baghdad press conference) puts it bluntly: “I am saddened by the death of Colin Powell without being tried for his crimes in Iraq. But I am sure that the court of God will be waiting for him.”

Assurances of a final judgment in the afterlife aside, Powell’s life since 2003 has been a case of justice delayed, his death a case of justice denied.

Other Iraq  war criminals, however, remain at large.

Bush fancies himself an artist these days, when he’s not hobnobbing with Ellen DeGeneres at football games.

Former national security advisor (and Powell’s successor as Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice teaches at Stanford.

Former US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz went on to head the World Bank and currently enjoys a sinecure at the American Enterprise Institute.

And there are others.

They’re not paying for their crimes. They’re not absconding to non-extradition countries one step ahead of arrest and trial. They’re enjoying the good life, seemingly unworried at the prospect of ever facing justice.

That’s something that can, and should, change.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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