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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) by Reziac on Wednesday October 03 2018, @05:56PM
Pretty much. I've been on Gab since a month after it opened. Went from mostly the disgruntled to mostly the loons to now rapidly becoming mostly the banned and disenchanted. Gab came along at the right time, with the right policies, to scarf up everyone else's discarded customers. We got half of Brazil in one fell swoop. And newbies who speak up will encounter something unique: an actual welcoming committee.
I have a Pro account (as the obvious), but mainly to keep Lists, cuz it's gotten so busy that if you don't spend all day there, you miss everything you want to see (and there *are* some folks who are worth my regular attention). Otherwise, I mostly read folks I follow; don't see any point in swimming in the unfiltered sewage. I give it a look now and then, just to see what the negative-karma types are doing, but it's seldom pointful... as you say, it's mostly Fringe Wars and Rejected-by-Alex-Jones, and rather resembles an inverse Twitter. But up in the air and light, the level of discourse is generally way better than I've ever seen on other microbloggy type sites.
What's really croggling... I seldom post original material, mostly I repost this and that and replies to other folks, but have somehow accumulated 1500 followers, which is about 1450 more than I'd expected. As someone's /. tagline reads... "I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?" :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.