It’s hard sometimes to validate an article. I will give anyone that point. What bothers me is the attitude that it should be easy. What would make it easy? George Orwell wrote about this problem and in his book 1984 ‘News” came from the Ministry of Truth which was above question and scrutiny. It was also delivered in ‘News-speak” a dumbed down language that was designed and employed in a manner that condensed the vocabulary down to terms like good, plus good, and double plus good. The effect of which both limited the range of critical thinking to near nothing and simultaneously enabled a news story to convey the appropriate level of concern or emotional impact the Ministry of Truth intended.
So here we are in modern times and we see the inflation of this so called problem of fake news in headlines to the extent that governments in the EU are today demanding ‘fake news’ also termed ‘hate speech’ just to add superfluous weight to their demands, be censored from social media like Facebook, Twitter and others. Now the real problem should be clear here and that is these information channels are widely used and the majority of people these days see a story in these places get legs and pretty quickly just assume it’s a thing to be concerned about so if you are pushing an agenda covertly and it is exposed on one of these mediums, clearly that exposure is a problem for your operation. What is a prudent operative to do? Well, you can try to discredit the information once it is a problem, you can release disinformation that obfuscates the issue or if you prefer the ‘work smart not hard’ approach you can attempt to PREEMPT potential situations before they become problems which is what I see happening.
Free speech is free speech. Its not acceptable speech. Its not non offensive speech. Its not non controversial speech, it is simply FREE SPEECH. And free speech is what is under fire here. I mean c’mon folks you have to see that, don’t you? How many scandals can you name that later became big stories, scandals on the order of Watergate, because the criminal at the center of the scandal simply announced his guilt or complicity one day to the victims? None. How many scandals were exposed by investigative journalism who followed a trail left by some whistleblower or guy who was unable to get enough people to listen to him without the backing of someone else with the resources or credibility to lend that would turn up the volume? Pretty much all of them.
So if you are on board with this trend to keep ‘fake news’ out of the hands and ears of the public at large you are pretty much asking for a Ministry of Truth and you are doing that because it bothers you to have doubts or hear arguments or be engaged in active debate or worst of all you prefer everything in your little sphere of knowledge be smooth coherent and in all respects hunky-dory with your world views and opinions. I’m sorry but that’s just lazy and I’m calling what it is.
CNN recently did a story where they interviewed Japanese interment camp victims who were imprisoned in America for being Japanese when we were at war with Japan and they were asked to relate their experience to this situation with Muslim refugees today. The gist was that CNN was promoting the idea that Trump will bring back this hell in a similar fashion yet I have not heard that. Whether or not he will suggest that in the future is something to be concerned about certainly but its not as if he did so already, but unless you are getting a steady stream of inflammatory opinions of Trump and Trump hater rhetoric, which is also free speech you are entitled to consume, this possibility is not on the table yet. I could take the stance you are not entitled to listen to ANY Trump hater information but were I to do so that would only empower this movement to label and ban things I don’t agree with as ‘fake’ and involuntarily encase you in my bubble of world views. Would you be happy with that? Probably not. But if you advocate this movement all that means is you prefer the bubble we are all in be your bubble doesn’t it. So it’s no different.
Information bubbles are mental prisons and prisons are for prisoners who can be lazy. Unless of course, someone has a job for them to do. Think about that folks.
So here we are in modern times and we see the inflation of this so called problem of fake news in headlines to the extent that governments in the EU are today demanding ‘fake news’ also termed ‘hate speech’ just to add superfluous weight to their demands, be censored from social media like Facebook, Twitter and others. Now the real problem should be clear here and that is these information channels are widely used and the majority of people these days see a story in these places get legs and pretty quickly just assume it’s a thing to be concerned about so if you are pushing an agenda covertly and it is exposed on one of these mediums, clearly that exposure is a problem for your operation. What is a prudent operative to do? Well, you can try to discredit the information once it is a problem, you can release disinformation that obfuscates the issue or if you prefer the ‘work smart not hard’ approach you can attempt to PREEMPT potential situations before they become problems which is what I see happening.
Free speech is free speech. Its not acceptable speech. Its not non offensive speech. Its not non controversial speech, it is simply FREE SPEECH. And free speech is what is under fire here. I mean c’mon folks you have to see that, don’t you? How many scandals can you name that later became big stories, scandals on the order of Watergate, because the criminal at the center of the scandal simply announced his guilt or complicity one day to the victims? None. How many scandals were exposed by investigative journalism who followed a trail left by some whistleblower or guy who was unable to get enough people to listen to him without the backing of someone else with the resources or credibility to lend that would turn up the volume? Pretty much all of them.
So if you are on board with this trend to keep ‘fake news’ out of the hands and ears of the public at large you are pretty much asking for a Ministry of Truth and you are doing that because it bothers you to have doubts or hear arguments or be engaged in active debate or worst of all you prefer everything in your little sphere of knowledge be smooth coherent and in all respects hunky-dory with your world views and opinions. I’m sorry but that’s just lazy and I’m calling what it is.
CNN recently did a story where they interviewed Japanese interment camp victims who were imprisoned in America for being Japanese when we were at war with Japan and they were asked to relate their experience to this situation with Muslim refugees today. The gist was that CNN was promoting the idea that Trump will bring back this hell in a similar fashion yet I have not heard that. Whether or not he will suggest that in the future is something to be concerned about certainly but its not as if he did so already, but unless you are getting a steady stream of inflammatory opinions of Trump and Trump hater rhetoric, which is also free speech you are entitled to consume, this possibility is not on the table yet. I could take the stance you are not entitled to listen to ANY Trump hater information but were I to do so that would only empower this movement to label and ban things I don’t agree with as ‘fake’ and involuntarily encase you in my bubble of world views. Would you be happy with that? Probably not. But if you advocate this movement all that means is you prefer the bubble we are all in be your bubble doesn’t it. So it’s no different.
Information bubbles are mental prisons and prisons are for prisoners who can be lazy. Unless of course, someone has a job for them to do. Think about that folks.
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