Posted by:
Beth
(
)
Date: October 16, 2020 03:16PM
Birdman Wrote:
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> I hope that someone would still be interested
> enough in the thread to read and post a comment.
> I have a broader question than just censorship on
> this board. My question is at what point should
> propaganda be regulated?
That's a great question, and I don't really have an answer. In college, I took a class about the limits on dissent. Maybe the best place to start is to ensure that people understand what the 1st Amendment means w/r/t protected speech and that there is a requirement that a state actor is involved in curtailing speech before we can address whether such speech *is* protected. Not all speech is, and no right, even fundamental ones, is absolute.
Propaganda. All we can do is push back on it, even if the propaganda seems to serve our interests. No. ESPECIALLY if it seems to serve our interests, because it does not serve the nation's interests if we ignore the plank in our own eyes.
The problem is that there is a deep-seated distrust of authority in this country. I don't think it's new, and I think it's healthy to always question the motives and legitimacy of authority. It's also important for authority to *respond* to people's questions. But there's a difference between questioning authority in order to hold it to account and the out-and-out baseless rejection of authority.
What is new is that it's easier for people to gather online and spread falsehoods, rumors, and plain old nuttiness. My youngest brother thinks the Earth is flat. He sent me a link to a video that I really, really tried to watch, but I couldn't. I love my brother, and I want to understand my brother, but man, he's nutters on this one.
Once he'd be The Nutter in Our Family Who Thinks The World Is Flat, and we'd consider him an outlier. Now he's one of a number of nutters who think the world is flat, and they have a megaphone. They are able to live in their nutter echo chamber of goofball conspiracy theories that includes chemtrails. The group reinforces the members. Are there more Flat-Earthers now than there were? I have no idea. What I do know is that they are able to make more noise. It's easier for them.
People have been going to Roswell and having their UFO/alien abduction get togethers before Google and YouTube. "The X-files" predates widespread internet use. Has widespread internet use made the UFO/alien abduction group larger? I don't know. Maybe that plus population growth has. I don't know. I nominate Brother of Jerry to conduct a study.
And then there's this awesome board. The whole point of this board is to provide a safe haven for people who have left TSCC. That's a *good* thing. I find support, help, and kindness here, and I was never a member. I thought about becoming a member, but I found this board first.
So.
Information, both good and bad, can round the ROUND globe in a blink of an eye. The onus is on each of us to admit what we don't know and to test our assumptions. Vet information. Learn about what sources are legit. All of this is hard and time-consuming work, but it's a worthy endeavor.