Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Max Boot and ‘Democracy’
What is this “democracy” that Max Boot seeks to protect? It seems undeniable that his understanding of “moderation” includes the elimination of “content” (even if completely accurate) that puts left of center political interests and candidates in a bad light. The thin pretense that Boot is deeply committed to the truth is part of the same vision animating Nancy Pelosi’s claim that legislation intended to make election cheating vastly easier is needed to “save” democracy.
The weird use of “democracy” here is more than a cynical attempt to gain an electoral edge for one side. There appears to be a coherent tacit redefinition of “democracy” at work:
Voting is meant to be an opportunity for the people to affirm the order established by the right sorts. If the people are disappointed in the regime, they can vote for and even occasionally elect an acceptable “protest” candidate like Romney or McCain. If the people or their elected representatives fail to implement some measure necessary to sustain “progress” then the federal courts must discover some previously unknown provision in the Constitution to mandate its implementation. Bureaucratic inertia grinds on in service to the preferred order. “Democracy” is the entire system devoted to the imposition of a social, political, and economic order consonant with the sensibilities of a self-identified ruling class. Anything that disrupts that is “undemocratic” even if it a large majority supports the disruptive position.
The suppressed Hunter Biden laptop story was not just a threat to a preferred election outcome but personified corruption and privilege providing enormous wealth despite a complete absence of both competence and personal honor. Hunter Biden is Boot’s “democracy” and was entitled to elite protection out of necessity. Anne Applebaum declared that her disinterest in the story was sufficient grounds for its suppression. Take a moment and reflect on the level of self-regard required to generate and then express that thought without embarrassment. “Democracy” is the property of such people.
Bogus ballot harvests and Soviet-style content manipulation in service to spectacular incompetence, gross self-dealing, judicial imperialism, and intellectual bankruptcy is not a sustainable system, especially if democracy manages to intervene.
Published in General
They are damnable liars…all of them.
And the longer they maintain their institutional positions of influence, the less regard I have for this institutions and their influence.
I don’t know what Max Boot actually believes, versus what his current political passions compel him to say. But I’m going to pretend for a moment that the people who say things like he’s saying are sincere in their belief.
In that case, I don’t understand how otherwise intelligent people of any kind of conservative inclination would fail to understand that what they’re calling for is central planning — the same kind of central planning that we all know doesn’t work in economic contexts.
Ideas rise and fall in a market, just like products and services. Erstwhile conservatives who appreciate the value of a free market in goods and services are foolish if they don’t recognize the value of a free market in ideas.
Or perhaps by the time these people have embraced censorship and speech control they’ve also quietly abandoned any affinity they ever felt for other kinds of freedom. Certainly that seems to be the case with the Bulwark crowd and their ilk. Maybe embracing authoritarianism is an all-or-nothing epiphany for these folks.
Nothing says ‘vibrant democracy’ like increased censorship.
Reminds me of a T-shirt I’d seen…
The floggings will continue until morale improves
Silencing the vox populi to preserve “Democracy.”
Yeah, that makes no sense at all.
Like so many fake conservative pundits, Max Boot is financed entirely by the left and happily regurgitates their views for cash. Which is to say, like so many fake conservative pundits, he’s just a whore.
Boot might says, “we need more content moderation,” but I bet that belief is dependent on who is doing the moderation.
It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to read these folks. Every day I see their protestations and their demands, and I keep wondering what they are thinking. It’s clear (as you say OB) that they’ve made up their own definition of democracy, expanding it to fit their agendas. It’s so disheartening.
Similar to this thread: https://ricochet.com/1218376/why-have-a-democracy/
I’ll repeat my comment here. When Democrats say “democracy”, they mean a national autocracy “elected” by the people. That is anti-American as America is supposed to have a weak national government made of up Representatives selected by the people and by the states.
Yes. I’ve long been a fan of Anne Applebaum’s writing… until I saw her say, with regard to the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop content, that she “just didn’t find it interesting” enough to investigate. Such arrogance and self-satisfaction.
I’m going to channel Chancellor Gowron: If Max Boot is frightened, perhaps he should retire to his bed.
Anyone with some common sense and a working moral compass could determine Twitter is badly broken and a threat to an orderly functioning democracy, and former conservative and current numbskull Max Boot determines it’s Elon Musk who is the threat to democracy.
While most already knew it, it is nice to be reminded by the Ned Ryerson look alike himself, that Max Boot is a freaking idiot.
The problem is that anybody with two brain cells can see that
Democracy is a lousy political system.
Capitalism is a lousy economic system.
Free speech is a lousy method of communication.
Any simpleton can see that these ideologies are inefficient, problematic. unfair, hurtful, and not polite. I can easily understand why many do not like these systems. The real issue is that it takes a bit of observation and thought to look at these systems / ideologies, compare them with all the other options and understand that even with all their deficiencies these systems are the best available because the alternatives are much worse. Sadly our population is not educated enough to observe this or studied enough to see past cases and failures.
The biggest issue is that our education centers have stopped educating people and have become centers of political propaganda and activism.
“For Democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”
-Max Boot
Wow. That’s the most terrifying thing I’ve read in a long time.
How does someone type that without getting cold chills? Has he never heard of communism? Fascism? WWII? Nazis?
Absolutely astonishing.
Oh, he’s very aware of what he’s saying. See the problem wasn’t the fascism. It was that it was German fascism, not the American type that Max likes.
Trump – and the Trump voters – REALLY broke SOME people.
Well… Boot is an idiot. Conservative like Jen Ruben.
but yeah, for liberals, up is down and down is up. “Democracy” means “me getting my way”and “freedom of speech” means “shutting down speech I don’t like.” So… the opposite in both cases.
I heard some time ago, the modern definition, a conservative is someone who argues for gun rights, and a liberal is someone who argues AGAINST free speech.
Agreed. Stunning too.
Six years of Latin, and pretty much all that I remember is Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
He is reverting to being a communist.
Certainly he’s seen Das Boot?
Since when is “immoderate content” threatening to democracy? I think it is very good for democracy because it is revealing. How I cherish those moments when American leftists speak out without moderation because those are the moments when they reveal who they really are, and what they really think of the rest of us. “Basket of deplorables,” “punchable face,” “Black Face of White Supremacy,” and all the rest of it. Immoderate content is a great way to figure out who the awful people are, so then you can vote them out. (Bye, Hillary!) Seems pretty democratic to me.
Maybe Boot fears returning to those dark days of 2015, when Twitter had no moderators, and America was struggling to become a democracy.
America is a republic…not a democracy, right? Sigh. They keep saying “democracy” because then they can make the other people shut up, right?
every time i see something like this im reminded of the franklin quote that we are a republic
I like to believe Mr. Boot has some logic behind his statement that “for democracy to survive we need more content moderation, not less.”
Has Mr. Boot expanded on this statement somewhere that we can read how he gets to that conclusion?
It’s not surprising that Max would say that; he’s certain that he will be one of the “moderators.”
For him and others, it almost seems more like a messiah complex than pure stupidity.
“If only you will let me lead you to the promised land, I am the one you have been waiting for.”