Globalizing Away Our Freedoms

For several decades, California has imposed stricter standards on cars, trucks, and small engine equipment than the other 49 states. In some instances, manufacturers opted to produce "49-state" and "California compliant" variations of their products. In others, however, they opted to simply abide by CA's tighter rules, no matter that consumers in the rest of the country didn't want that. Some have dubbed this the "California effect." Environmentalists have lauded it, as have many authoritarians. Those who believe in federalism and states' rights have decried it as an improper infringement.

But, it's still happening within America's borders, where voters have a say. At the state level, at the federal level, and with their ability to "vote with their feet" and move to a different state.

Keep this in mind as you ponder this next part.

Some jackboot in the UK government recently made waves by suggesting that Americans could be extradited for prosecution if they violated the UK's draconian speech laws. Some other jackboots in the Australian government have floated the idea of fining social media companies that 'enable misinformation.' China is looking to put Party members on corporate boards. Brazil banned XformerlyTwitter because Elon wouldn't bend the knee.

None of these nations have the speech protections that we enjoy in the US. Since the Internet is global, Internet platforms may have no choice but to act in ways that dampen speech domestically in order to satisfy the illiberal and downright authoritarian impulses of people that you and I have no ability to vote out of office.

Imagine people in our government who aren't much bothered by such encroachment of foreign authoritarianism.

Ponder those who think that the United Nations should have some ability to impose "standards" on American citizens and our liberties.

Even if we didn't assign malevolence to such actors, this would be a huge problem. Government is not a mystical incorporeal entity, it is just a collection of people. People who have the same flaws, biases, and wiring as you and I. Nothing makes them less likely to get things wrong than you or I - and their desire for power, as evinced by their entry into politics, suggests that getting things wrong is of little consequence to them if it serves their selfish goals.

Where you and I can be wrong and only affect ourselves and perhaps a small circle of others, government officials have the power to coerce their errors. History has shown us more times than you or I can count that government is really good at getting things wrong... and really bad at even admitting their errors, let alone correcting them. It is in human nature to prefer consistency over correctness, so people try to defend their errors even when they are presented with blatant proof of them.

Now, remove accountability and assign malevolence (sociopaths are drawn to positions of power), and you have a truly frightening potential for the destruction of our rights and thereby the destruction of the fundamental fabric of the US. From without, but abetted from within.