I would enjoy the chance to read your novel Kevin, so I hope you do finish it. But I don’t need to, as I have had several long conversations over the years with colleagues from European countries like Germany, France and the UK who scoff at what they see as the making of free speech into a fetish by Americans.
I proudly own the fetishizing of free expression. In my experience causes and people I care about are more likely to be in the minority, and what Freud (following Ibsen) liked to call the “Compact Majority” more often than not uses its power harshly and stupidly. We are all safer when everyone is able to express themselves. I take second place to nobody in my rage against vaccine denial (it would be hard to work for a hospital and not be outraged and sickened by it). I deal with the consequences every day. Literally I find myself weeping uncontrollably several times a week. I am writing this from self quarantine in my home, waiting one more day to test myself after an exposure 2 days ago and pretty severe symptoms in the last 24 hours. 900,000 Americans have been killed by COVID, still about 2500 per day. COVID is a bitch and fuck those who are making it harder to protect the most vulnerable. As I have repeatedly noted here, I am not a free speech absolutist - there obviously are limits. The debate we are having here is not really about free speech ( I assume you favor free speech, and I also assume that you know I favor reasonable protections). The debate is over the nature of those limits. Whether formal or informal, restriction of free speech in my view should be limited, and targeted specifically to messages that can be shown to directly cause serious harm, not aimed against people we don’t like. If I had the chance to have dinner with Neil Young, I would suggest to him that rather than calling for Rogan to be banned from Spotify, he propose specific guidelines that all speech and music on Spotify should follow (e.g. 1. Do not misrepresent qualifications; 2. Do not advocate treatments which have not been supported; 3. Do not misrepresent the evidence about treatments that have been supported). These guidelines then apply to everyone equally, not just Joe Rogan. Critics of vaccines could still say “I wouldn’t get vaccinated because we still don’t know enough about their long term consequences”, but if a Podcaster repeatedly spreads the message that Vaccines increase infant mortality, or cause heart attacks, or alter your DNA, they would be first suspended and then, if repeated, removed. I guess that proposal would be harder to fit in a Tweet, but I think it would be more consistent with core values. On Sat, 5 Feb 2022 at 1:33 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > > . > Hopping on my soapbox one more time: > > Not that I’ll ever get around to finishing the novel I started writing > ages ago, but in it I imagine a scenario where an alien race makes contact > with us. They are on a long journey from their world to ours. They’ve > received all our radio transmissions and TV broadcasts, and before they > touch down on Earth, they have some questions. One of them involves our > penchant for allowing speech proven to be harmful (i.e. false claims of > election fraud which lead to an insurrection where people are killed, or > conspiracy theories which lead to fewer people taking life saving > vaccinations which leads to people dying). Humanity’s collective reply is > akin to the stance of PGage, that free speech is essential and > unassailable, and valuable to a democracy. The neutral observing aliens > question the value of any society that knowingly allows free speech to kill > its citizens. > > Personally, I view speech the same as I view guns, potentially life saving > and potentially dangerous, and the founding fathers were flawed in > establishing nearly total freedoms for both, and every subsequent > administration is flawed in not taking steps to actively correct the > problems created by the founders. > > I don’t want to ban Rogan; I want to demonetize him. I want to make Rogan > liable for the harm he causes. I want to make Spotify liable for > contributing to the harm. > > I want doctors to be free to openly talk about the benefits and risks of > all forms of medicine with their patients, but when doctors address the > public falsely claiming to be an expert (i.e.- that they invented mRNA > technology when they quite clearly did not), and their false claims spread > unchallenged via a nationwide media network, then the doctor, the > broadcaster, and the media outlet should all face severe consequences. > > We are nearing 900,000 dead from Covid in the US. I have college educated > friends who believe breathing through a mask is harmful because of crap > they hear on podcasts or read on Reddit. I now teach at a school in Orange > County, and the “Orange Curtain” is adamant that herd immunity is the only > solution to Covid… their hospitals are overrun with the untruth of that > belief, but it continues to be openly spread. > > I don’t have “Covid fatigue”; I have “Covid denial fatigue.” The illness > isn’t the problem, it is the third of our population who refuse to take > basic precautions to protect themselves and their neighbors, and who spread > lies and disinformation that are the problem. They seek out media to > reinforce their baseless opinions and reckless actions, and Joe Rogan and > Bill Maher and FoxNews and the Trump cult fill that void because there is > money to be made by pandering. > > Take away the potential for profit in the lies… make the lies cost the > liars… that’s how to deal with the problem. > > > >> >> _ _ >> >> |_>|_> Brad Beam- Belle WV >> >> |_>|_> http://www.facebook.com/74bmw >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/008901d81ac9%24939a9600%24bacfc200%24%40suddenlink.net >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/008901d81ac9%24939a9600%24bacfc200%24%40suddenlink.net?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4DqeTFn7hq0adctn_s%3DQhzTs7L4_yVdivCnWvB7bs%3D_kQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4DqeTFn7hq0adctn_s%3DQhzTs7L4_yVdivCnWvB7bs%3D_kQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYKSGv4T3NO8zf4AhvFgOXw6pMmV4%2BQC58LOjUV5Fu_j2A%40mail.gmail.com.
