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from the I-Disapprove-of-What-You-Say,-But-I-Will-Defend-to-the-Death-Your-Right-to-Say-It dept.
From an editorial in the Otago Daily Times out of New Zealand, Censorship a Trojan Horse:
It's an oft-cited maxim that the news media is the "fourth estate" upon which a healthy democracy stands.
It ensures the three traditional powers of state — the legislature, executive and judiciary — can be critiqued, challenged and curbed from quietly drifting into the arms of corruption and authoritarianism.
A free, fair, open and uncensored media is an antidote to state power and, for all its failings (and there are many), should be treasured as such. There are many countries around the world whose people would give anything for such a freedom.
Yet calls for the banning of certain opinion pieces, cartoons and commentary have risen in recent months, especially from those using social media, a world where such talk is becoming a trend. It is a trend we must confront.
Censorship is to suppress the harmful, the unacceptable, the obscene and the threatening from the media and other forms of public communication. Like a virus attacking democracy from the inside out, it was traditionally the tool of the dictator, though it is one used by many in power.
[...] It pays to query what those demanding censorship — be they celebrities, social-media activists or anybody else — see their ultimate goal as being.
To reduce hurt? To make the world a better place? Possibly, and those motivations are laudable. But the method employed to achieve them is not.
While censorship may be meant as a figurative horse upon which a better future rides, inside the belly of that horse lurks an army of conformity, quite capable of unwitting oppression.
History shows what happens when the fourth estate is no longer free to table all opinions.
It is a bleak picture. Without the disinfectant of exposure, power and ideals tend to corrupt even the most seemingly incorruptible.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Tuesday October 02 2018, @03:33PM (2 children)
Even if we grant that as true, you're stuck with the problem that there are no reliable sources of information and hence, no basis for which to do viable censorship.
Well, obviously we'll just all believe whatever I want us to believe. Thoughtcrime will be punished, of course, for our own good.
You can completely trust me. I have an honest face.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday October 04 2018, @07:16PM (1 child)
I did not intend to promote censorship - I figured that last line would give that away. Just point out that ignoring the trolls is not a viable path to dealing with the problem. To ignore them is to surrender the social awareness to their diseased perspective.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday October 05 2018, @10:56AM
So yet another problem that we supposedly have because there are dumb people in the world.
Except when you're not surrendering the social awareness by doing so. It remains a valid strategy. I don't buy that ignored trolls somehow manage to make more trolls than non-ignored trolls. That certainly hasn't been a problem today.