Kellyanne Conway coined the phrase, “alternative facts” in the
early days of the Trump administration, and the incoming president started to
call everything that he did not agree with “fake news”, echoing the thoughts of
the book “1984”.
The section on Double Think says this:
“The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words,
this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it
means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of
the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say
that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the
ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white,
and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a
continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which
really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink.
Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in
one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
The man idea in “1984” is that there is no such think as freedom of speech, but freedom of speech is not always a clear-cut idea.
Although it’s obvious that you can’t shout “fire” in a crowded
movie theatre, it becomes very murky when it comes to social media and
political campaigns.
The presence of Russian bods during the 2016 and 2020
elections exemplifies why social media sites have an obligation to monitor the
content of their sites for mis-leading information – but all that went out the
window last week, when Elon Mush eliminated 20 of the 30 people on Twitter’s
media review team.
https://www.wired.com/story/twitters-moderation-system-is-in-tatters/
EVEN BEFORE
TWITTER cut some 4,400 contract workers on November 12, the platform was showing signs of strain. After
Elon Musk bought the company and laid off 7,500 full time employees, disinformation researchers and activists say,
the team that took down toxic and fake content vanished. Now, after years of
developing relationships within those teams, researchers say no one is
responding to their reports of disinformation on the site, even as data
suggests Twitter is becoming more toxic.
Yesterday, Musk removed the ban on Trump’s presence on the
site. Although Trump is contractually obligated to first broadcast on Truth
Social, it won’t be long before he starts posting again on Twitter.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/19/trump-musk-twitter/
When he was if office, the Washington Post documented 30,573
lies during his four years in office.
Trump’s presence on Twitter is dangerous because it diminishes
the integrity of our political system, and it also greatly exacerbated the riots
on January 6 – which led Twitter to ban him from the site permanently.
Other social media sites, including Facebook and TikTok
have also scaled back on content review, which is why we need to be skeptical
of anything that appears on social media.
To quote Abraham Lincoln, “don’t believe everything that
you read on the internet”.
The overwhelming source of information for the high
school kids I teach is TikTok, but a fair number also use Facebook as well,
even though a few of them think that Facebook is “for old people”.
The biggest Facebook audience is the age group 18-24,
and the smallest is 13 to 17 and 65+.
Advertisers are fleeing Twitter in droves, and the article
below indicates that Twitter may not even survive, given the extent of the
massive layoffs recently instated by Muck.
Elon Muck is the world’s richest man. Even if his $44
billon investment plummets in value, he’ll still be the world’s richest man.
Where freedom of speech becomes murky is when it
concerns books.
I wrote earlier this year why book bans are a very bad
idea, but the legislators in Idaho did not lister to me.
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2022/01/should-books-be-banned.html
In March, legislation with the potential to fine Idaho librarians $1,000 and send them
to jail for a year for checking out material to a minor that could harm them
cleared the House.
The
House voted 51-14 to approve the measure that backers said will protect
children. But opponents said it is so undefined and subjective as to be
unconstitutional. Over the past year, book challenges and bans have reached
levels not seen in decades, according to officials at the American Library
Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and other
advocates for free expression.
And
according to PEN America, which has been tracking legislation around the
country, dozens of bills have been proposed that restrict classroom reading and
discussion. Virtually all of the laws focus on sexuality, gender identity or
race.
The
Idaho measure now goes to the Senate.
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/03/idaho-house-oks-measure-that-could-fine-jail-librarians/
Although it’s true that truth is not always what it
seems, the recent midterm elections in Arizona are proof that truth still matters,
since ALL of the candidates who believed in “The Big Lie” that the 220 elections
was stolen went down in flames.
Regardless of how you feel about this topic, here’s my
advice:
Don’t discuss it at your Thanksgiving dinner this year,
since the day should be a day of thanks, rather than a day of political disagreements.
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