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"The word voluntary is a little complicated...." and it actually somehow includes forcing you to do what we think you should do.

Cass Sunstein in full Orwellian mode (back in 2001):



Text:

Sites of one point of view agree to provide links to other sites, so that if you're reading a conservative magazine, they would provide a link to a liberal site and vice versa, just to make it easy for people to get access to competing views. Or maybe a pop-up on your screen that would show an advertisement or maybe even a quick argument for a competing view. [break] The best would be for this to be done voluntarily, but the word "voluntary" is a little complicated, and sometimes people don't do what's best for our society unless Congress holds hearings or unless the public demands it. And the idea would be to have a legal mandate as the last resort, and to make sure it's as neutral as possible if we have to get there, but to have that as, you know, an ultimate weapon designed to encourage people to do better.

I got to the link from Jonah Goldberg, and I also heard the audio on the Rush Limbaugh show yesterday, and I took the text from Media Matters, which critiques Rush (for associating Elena Kagan with the idea and for botching the meaning of "net neutrality") and refers us to a 2008 Bloggingheads diavlog in which Sunstein calls his own idea "bad." Here's the Bloggingheads segment (with Eugene Volokh!). I have not listened through it to figure out how far Sunstein may have walked back from his idea (and why).

Full post as published by Althouse on May 19, 2010 (boomark / email).