No need to break Big Tech and other commentary – New York Post

Libertarian: No Need to Break Big Tech

Mondays massive outage is the latest sign Facebook is clearly in trouble and the government doesnt need to step in, argues Reasons Robby Soave. A month of disastrous news coverage after a whistleblower leaked internal documents fueled a new wave of criticism from tech skeptics, but the case for breaking it up is weaker than ever as the social-media giant crumbles. The outage, which also affected its Instagram app, was so bad that Facebook employees couldnt even get inside the companys headquarters: The security systems were part of the same network. And the revelation that its desperate to attract young users shows Facebooks relevance is probably fading. Its not in control of our lives, our economy or our democracy despite mainstream medias cynical attempts to convince the public otherwise.

Conservative: The Lefts Threat to Democracy

America faces an existential constitutional crisis, warns The Wall Street Journals Gerard Baker, and it owes at least as much to sustained antidemocratic behavior on the left and across much of the ruling classes as it does to the actions of a bombastic former president. Notably, the people who want to stop Donald Trump . . . themselves have been traducing political norms at least since he first came down that escalator in 2015, and not just with the Russia fabrications. If hed been able to flip three states to win in 2020, Does anyone think . . . this resistance movement . . . would have accepted it? Until those on the left acknowledge their own role in the undermining of democratic legitimacy, the crisis will only deepen.

Media watch: Politicizing the Pandemic

A New York Times piece titled Red COVID, fumes Jeremy Beckham at Glenn Greenwalds Substack, obscures the reality of the pandemic and manipulates data in favor of a self-congratulatory liberalism. The article claimed counties that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump had more than a four-fold greater mortality rate than counties that decisively voted against Trump. But the Gray Ladys crude analysis failed to adjust or account for age, the strongest predictor of COVID mortality. Consider: Republican voters tend to be older than Democratic voters. And rural counties, where Trump won by the largest margins, have older populations than suburban and urban counties. The piece was rife with sloppy data analysis so its laughable that it blames vax rates on a Republican Party hostile to science and empirical evidence.

From the right: The End of Team Biden

At Spectator World, Roger Kimball suggests Oct. 4, 2021, as the date that signaled the beginning of the end for Team Biden. Thats when supposedly moderate Attorney General Merrick Garland penned a memo that will go down in infamy, ordering the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose critical race theory in public schools, citing (completely unnamed) threats. Whats really at issue is the criminalization of dissent: As Mary Chastain notes at Legal Insurrection, Garland & Co. want to figure out how to deal with parents who have the nerve to be involved in their childs education. Apparently that, snorts Kimball, must be met by nationalizing the police power of the state and stomping down on any resistance as if it were domestic terrorism.

Mideast eye: Israeli Strike at Iran Back on Table

Israel is making serious contingency plans to move unilaterally against Iran, should it become necessary, notes Ilan Berman at National Review. The step has never been Israels preference, and the goal would be only to cause temporary setbacks and complications to Tehrans path toward the bomb. But Irans nuclear program isnt standing still, and Tehran seems to think time is on its side. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett just said it outright at the United Nations: We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. If Israel does strike, predicts Berman, it will be because the United States and its international partners did not take Irans nuclear program, or Israels concerns, seriously enough.

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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No need to break Big Tech and other commentary - New York Post