On a dangerous path

We should all be very afraid of what’s been going on with the tech companies and their efforts to censor people’s opinions. I agree that many of the items and information being spread around is questionable, and sometimes it frustrates me as well.

However, I arm myself with a few things. One, I take everything with a grain of salt, and I do my research and look to see if there is truth behind it. Secondly, the best way to counter false information is more information, not less. However, many people believe what they read, without really questioning it.

But why? Emotions.

I blame the media for producing public content that stimulates a person’s emotional reaction, drawing them to the headlines. In most cases, the truth is boring, the media knows this, so they dramatize stories to get you to pay attention. This is how they make money.

Don’t fool yourself. The media is not about informing the public, it's about revenue. They are companies that are trying to model their product to get you to buy. Like any other product out there, they are trying to get your attention. As I said earlier the truth is usually boring, and who would buy it?

When people receive half of, little or no information, or information that has been taken out of context, it creates an atmosphere of mistrust and confusion. People then take what little information they have and try to assemble the most likely scenario based on their own knowledge and life experiences. This leads to people spread inaccurate information. We do not trust those in power, and we don’t trust the media, so therefore we believe they must be up to no good. We dig into the deep dark world of evil and try to lay out what we believe they are up to. It must be nefarious, because they are clearly not being honest. Right?

Big companies spend millions and millions of dollars on research into human behaviors. They want to understand how to stimulate our emotions, to encourage us to take an action that we may otherwise won’t. Everything we are exposed to is carefully planned, to optimize their chances to grab our attention. We react more based on emotion than we do practicality. If we feel a certain way, we react to those feelings, even if its not practical. Common sense and logic disappear from our reasoning.

We are being played, and we don’t even know it.

Ah, Back to censorship.

That path we are on is dangerous. Let’s look at some freedoms we currently enjoy when it comes to communicating with people.

We have the right to peaceful assembly. Here we can talk to each other individually or as a group, and express whatever opinions we like, as long as it’s not advocating hate or violence. We can call our government liars, spread our opinions, discuss conspiracies or any other topic. There is no one there policing what we say, or flagging our conversations with "fact checks." The wisdom of the group should and will always correct and dismiss false information.

With the introduction of the telephone, our right to communicate was extended to this electronic form. It is illegal to listen in on a conversation between people without a court order. This is another protection of free speech we enjoy. We do not have fact-checker interrupting us while we chat, attempting “correct” or delete our opinions. The phone companies are not at liberty to monitor our conversation for content. They can not “listen in” and arbitrarily decide what I am saying is false and “flag” it. In fact, they have no legal right to know what I am saying to anyone.

Then came email and the information age. The internet is a collection of mostly private companies, connecting together to allow us to communicate with each other in some manner. I do not recall a time when an internet provider was snooping our packets, deciding if the information was accurate, and tagging the packet with “false information” or deleting it all together.

The companies that provide us with email services, do not monitor and react to emails that I am sending to people and “flagging” or “fact checking” or deleting them because someone in their company disagrees with me. When was the last time an email was “fact checked” or tagged as “missing context”?

Imagine sending a fax, or an email and the receiving end sees a “missing context” tag on because someone at the company decided it was not factually correct, or deleted it altogether because the disagreed with it?

Now Facebook, Twitter et el, came on the scene. When you really think about it, these venues are nothing more than the electronic version of a public assembly. Yes, they are a private company, like a telephone company, email provider, or internet provider etc. Yet, now they somehow have managed to become above the law, and do not have to recognize our basic rights to communicate. They decide if we can attend and what we say at this modern form of a “public assembly”. Yes, they are a private company, but that does not mean they can censor communication between people.

This can get out of control if we do not push back, and it already is.

If you don’t like something posted on social media, ignore it, or block the person. If you are unsure about something, dig into it, research for yourself, develop your own opinions.

The *only* person who should be deciding if the information is factual, reliable, accurate, and trustworthy is the person reading it, and from there, they can decide if they accept it, or dismiss it.

We live in an age where the public is no longer trusted to make decisions and develop their own opinions. Everything is spoon fed to us, by someone else who decides if it’s good for us or not.

When was the last time the phone company banned you because of something you said over the phone? When was the last time you were banned from your email because of something you emailed to someone? When was the last time you were banned for standing in a public space with a sign expressing your opinions? If people do not like what you have to say, they avoid you, or ignore you. Pretty simple.

This is a dangerous direction we are going. And for those of you who agree with censorship and this new cancel culture, remember, the pendulum always swings, and you may very well find yourself resisting the very actions you at one time supported.

By then it will be too late.

Kim Dobranski, Kelowna