Legacy institutions have declared war against populism, referring to its claims as "misinformation" or "disinformation" and calling on the government or government-adjacent actors (herein referred to as "the censors") to clamp down on such claims as they spread across the Internet like wildfire.

The censors rarely decline these opportunities to silence criticism, justifying the censorship as a matter of "national security."

More than other Western nations, the United States champions freedom of speech.

But it has frequently failed in its aspirations, beginning in 1798 with the Alien and Sedition Acts.

There are countless examples since then of the US failing to adhere to its core value system, too many to recount in one brief article.