Do you believe that global warming is a hoax?  Have you joked about global warming with your friends?  Well, you might be surprised to learn that President Obama’s Regulatory Czar argues that such speech should be banned. 

(Cue the record scratch)

That’s right….a crazy kook in the Obama White House thinks that discussion of conspiracy theories (and by the way, if you don’t believe in Global Warming, according to Sunstein, YOU are a conspiracy theorist) should be banned. 

While I’m far from a conspiracy theorist, I am a firm believer in that little thing called the First Amendment.  I don’t think the government should be picking and choosing what ideas and beliefs I hold.  The founding fathers certainly did not view the Federal Government as the idea police, in fact, Thomas Jefferson once said:

Any government which can not stand up to published criticism deserves to fall

Jefferson must be rolling over in his grave right now…

Sunstein, in a 2008 academic paper  makes such asinine statements as:

Our focus throughout [this paper] is on false conspiracy theories, not true ones.

You may recall one conspiracy theory back in the 1970s- the Watergate scandal.  Turns out, the big wacky “conspiracy theory” was true. …  so how does Sunstein suggest that we sort out the true conspiracy theories from the false ones?

Our ultimate goal is to explore how public officials might undermine such theories, and as a general rule, true accounts should not be undermined.

Ok, so essentially we should have some Theory Czar like Sunstein who sits upon a throne and decides what conspiracy theories are true and false.  Hmmm….how would that one have worked in, say, the Nixon White House?  I think I’ll stick with the  ”marketplace of ideas” philosophy.   As John Milton said:

Let all with something to say be free to express themselves. The true and sound will survive. The false and unsound will be vanquished. Government should keep out of the battle and not weigh the odds in favor of one side or the other.

 If you have time, I would suggest that you read Sunstein’s wacky socialist paper to see what may be in store for us in the not so distant future if Sunstein gets his way. It’s pretty crazy stuff!

World Net Daily published an article on this subject- below is a portion of that article:

In a lengthy academic paper, President Obama’s regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein, argued the U.S. government should ban “conspiracy theorizing.”

Among the beliefs Sunstein would ban is advocating that the theory of global warming is a deliberate fraud.

Sunstein also recommended the government send agents to infiltrate “extremists who supply conspiracy theories” to disrupt the efforts of the “extremists” to propagate their theories.

In a 2008 Harvard law paper, “Conspiracy Theories,” Sunstein and co-author Adrian Vermeule, a Harvard law professor, ask, “What can government do about conspiracy theories?”

“We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories.”

Read the full story here: