Perhaps we have a society in which free speech is worshiped. But we should also worship, or at the very least nurture, expect, and insist on, responsible speech.
Note: The following is from FOX News.
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Who was that other guy, the non-Shepard Smith guy? Because he was making a good point about the echo chambers that exist online.
The scary part is, we're not immune. The discussions I have (now daily) at Scienceblogs and elsewhere, are shaping my worldview. I'd like to think we have a more reasonable level of discourse (some recent threads notwithstanding), but we're inside an echo chamber of our own.
Its not just far-out websites, just read the incredible racist, theocratic homophobic, violent comments on AOL or MSN news.
The crazies are feeding off one another everywhere.
There's always going to be a certain percentage of the population that are batshit insane. As the population goes up, the number of crazies goes up with it. Add to this the fact that the internet gives an easy window to find one another, connect with like-minded people, and create a sort of madness feedback loop, and you get packs of of increasingly unstable people floating around. sadly, there's no easy solution. Hell, there may be no solution at all. We may well just have to try to work out some way to live around it and try to minimize the impact such groups can have.
Jason,
There are 'echo chambers' and then there are Echo Chambers.
It is my contention that many if not most of the folks who people these science/skeptics blogs are able to visit, learn, teach and move on to real life and get outside of the chamber. That's the type who are attracted to these places.
The people Smith is talking about are not interested in learning or having their world view challenged. From their words alone you can tell they are different, that what they seek is confirmation of their already distorted views.
Yes, we all have to keep an eye out that we don't fall in too deep, but again... there's a huge difference that is pretty straight forward as far as I'm concerned.
What do you think?
I see some of the extreme passing back & forth of lies and distorted views or reality as feeding a "sky is falling" panicky view that can lead to desperation, depression, and violence. Remember that people committed suicide when H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" was broadcast? Like that.
There are sensible limits to free speech. Here's one of them:
--from the CBC's History of Abortion in Canada
This should make for a very interesting Daily Show segment tonight or tomorrow.
Wow, a liberal blogger, on science[sic]blogs no less (imagine that), bemoaning political speech from their opponents.
What is your solution? Muzzles?
Wally, seriously, do you hate the libraries because you can't read?
There was an attempt at a sensible answer: the Fairness Doctrine.
will: The Fairness Doctrine was abused often for political ends, and it wasn't really a speech code for the sake of speech codes as such anyway. This should explain why it was necessary at least as much from a technical standpoint as a speech one:
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Essay:Why_the_Fairness_Doctrine_was_a_good…
Brian, yeah, it had a lot of room for improvement. But I liked the fundamental assumption: you don't limit speech; you broaden it.
re: 1
I (partially) disagree about the echo chamber thing. Though based on second hand reports, other forums that are called echo chambers tend to lack much diversity of viewpoints - there aren't posters claiming that vaccines cause all our problems or the opposite. Here, it seems that most anyone is free to say most anything (no matter how wrong, stupid or crazy) as long as it stays within some set of ground rules. That prevents this from becoming too much of an echo chamber.
Note the irony: This piece was on Fox News, which is home to a high percentage of those right wing whacknut commentators that are not quite far enough over the edge to be complete kooks. For instance, Bill "Tiller is a baby killer" O'Reilly, famous for shamelessly pandering to the far right fringe. Does this show Faux News is beginning to grow a conscience, or has Murdoch looked over the abyss, and realized the risks of becoming the favored home of the right wing?
UPDATE FREEDOMJOURNAL PRESS 16 JUNE 2009
IS THE POSTING OF THE ON-LINE FREEDOMJOURNAL SUSPENDED, DETAINED, CENSURED, POSTPONED OR BLESSED?
In the meantime see our Web Pages for updates on our on-going articles on ProVerse and the Bible: www.freedomjournalpress.com
carlpatton@freedomjpress.com
Greetings Brethren,
Peace be unto you. It is written it is documented that the FreedomJournal and this writer has experienced an on-going challenge to our God given right to Free Speech, Free Expression since we came to write seriously about the life and times of Godâs people. Our first encounter came in an academic setting during the first challenge to our academic freedoms in 1971 as a graduate student. However recently as we changed Internet service providers to hopefully be able to post our On-Line Journal we were moved to remove all writings on our Historic Censorship from our web pages found at: www.freedomjournalpress.com . Why did we do this? Yes, why would we remove several hundred pages on our Historic Struggle with Censorship since 1971?
We find no peace or comfort brethren in documenting all aspects of Censorship. We would much rather be involved in our on-going study of scripture and the new series we hope to post on âThe Power and Miracle of Prayer. â
Meanwhile we report that we have had serious affronts to our posting of the On-Line FreedomJournal since February 2009. But with the change of Internet Service Providers we still experience problems. As of now we cannot send out our Journal. Are these problems insurmountable technical problems? Since signing on to a new service we have struggled since 4 June 2009 to correct any technical problems that we may have but we still cannot post the FreedomJournal. Something seems to be blocking our email messages that are sent to multiple addresses.
FEATHER WEIGHTS FLOAT IN A DYING DEADLY SEA
We come commissioned and called to look out upon
the landscape inspired to see what God will have us
to see. Beloved just what do we see this time? Can we
see rain? Can we see sunshine? Can we see the tears of
the righteous as they cry out for the unrighteous that fall
deeper into the holes and ditches that turn to valleys they
attempt to dig for the righteous.
I come also boldly proclaiming the messages from the Spiritual
Scientist we have previously written about and the theory
of non-conformity T=ss² that renders a revolutionary way to
look at good and bad, right and wrong and in this the three
Heavens are seen. This also renders us the distinction between the
haves and the have-nots. Here though we speak not of material
things as money is nothing in the walk the ride over.
The haves are those that know God, surely the have notâs are
those lost as feather weights upon a dead sea that floats among
the dung that will never sink but take down the lost who believe
that there exists a paradise that is manmade and one that can be
bought. Those that tamper with the earth paradise are frowned on
and many that believe that they have power attempt any manner
of things toward their demise.
But we know that God is in control. Nothing will befall us or fall
upon the wise head that seeks not the Fool that Proverbs and the
Wisdom Book speaks of but to know God is wisdom and to seek
otherwise is the way of a Fool. Thus we come detained, for a reason.
We come suspended because God wants to tell us something else. We come
Censured because God has a blessing for us in our so-called misery. Thus
for sure as we readeth the Word we see a blessing for those in His service.
Bless, Bless, Bless the wise as the foolhardy count up things never
realized. There is no heart monitor in the Godly. Just who can
count compassion embraced, enclosed in the heart? This heart of the Godly also
seeks mercy for the feather weights as they are nameless in the sight of
God and all should want a name that the Creator gave to all. However the
lost became nameless when they left God.
Peace and Golden Paradise, Carl A. Patton a willing slave and servant of Almighty God and Christ Jesus writing for the FreedomJournal Press a God Fearing Free Press 16 June 2009 in the year of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.
www.freeedomjounralpress.com