| I'm showing my age here, but I remember when the tech community actually advocated for free and open speech without all the qualifiers like 'freedom of speech, not REACH' being pushed by the very groups who -used- to advocate genuine freedom of expression. Cryptography was going to save us from govt prying and overreach, the internet was going to allow us to connect and share thoughts and ideas (even if they were offensive or disagreeable) -- and that was a good thing! Now everyone WANTS to be treated by toddlers and coddled by a govt who knows best. First it was 'well it's their platform man, what are you going to do? They have a right to editorialize their website - go start your own if you want to say unpopular things!' Then it's 'well we didn't actually expect you to do that... we need to bankrupt any web host or payment processor who dares do business with you.
BTW are you sure you don't want to setup a portal for the exclusive use of our state AG's to censor (I mean moderate!) your site?
Maybe we could let one of the crappy payment processors keep doing business with you if you could meet us half way...' 'You can't possibly have thought posting online was really anonymous, and we all agree that opinion means your employer should be harassed until you are homeless - thems just the breaks' Whatever it is, it's just never enough now - you must be 100% aligned with the current thing, and if you aren't whatever right you think you have in the public square doesn't apply online or we will string you up... don't you know, there could be children nearby! Zuckerberg is a menace who should be shunned anywhere and everywhere he goes, but articles like this (and the mentality they represent) is just as demented as anything he has done. If your world view is so fragile a social media post can shatter it, it deserves to be shattered and you aren't nearly as firm in your 'beliefs' as you would like to loudly make sure everyone else hears you assert that you most definitely are. If you can't figure out how to block or mute or keyword filter content you don't want to see, maybe it's you who needs to be kept off of the internet rather than everyone else? The rest of us are still going to have opinions on things, no matter how much you screech. The fact things have gotten so bad that I am basically being forced to defend a billionaire who made his fortune as an appendage of the state sanctioned spying apparatus is absolutely bonkers. I hate this guy as much as I can hate any human, and yet here we are it turns out I hate the current 'zeitgeist' more than the founder of FaceBook. Quite the feat! |