
Do We Need to Reconsider Free Speech Law Due to Technology? - danielrm26
https://danielmiessler.com/blog/four-components-of-free-speech-risk/
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elmerfud
I do not subscribe to this idea that we must limit speech in order to preserve
free speech. While much of the arguments for this philosophy sound good on the
surface it is very much the slippery slope.

The advent of the radio and other broadcast communication mechanisms caused
this same stir and is part of the reason why we have the FCC. This kind of
thought process translates our freedom of speech into freedom to listen.
someone else is deciding the speakers and what they are free to speak about
thus controlling the conversation. Once the conversation becomes one sided you
don't know what you're missing.

The first amendment to the United States Constitution that seems very direct
in its wording and that's often what people refer to but I much prefer the
wording in the United Nations universal declaration of human Rights article
19.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers."

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yummypaint
I agree. The problem is that some people arent equipped with the critical
thinking skills needed to evaluate claims of truth. Education is the only
sustainable solution.

So long as there is democracy, there is no getting around people having to
make decisions based on incomplete and possibly bad information. Once any
entity is given authority to punish people for their speech, that authority
will innevitably be captured by special interests.

We need to be kicking education into gear, but instead we continue to defund
it.

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ThrowawayR2
> _Audience Gullibility_

One wonders how this gentleman intends to successfully persuade the general
public to agree that they should have their rights curtailed on the grounds
that they are collectively too gullible[1] an audience to be allowed contact
with ideas that those "wiser" and less gullible than them (presumably
including Mr. Miessler himself) have deemed dangerous to their innocent minds.
I suspect he will find the going difficult.

" _Beware those who would deny you access to information, for in their hearts,
they dream themselves your masters._ " Though the quote's origin is in
fiction, there are all too many real world examples of it.

[1] I'm not being pejorative; the phrase "audience gullibility" appears in the
essay as of the four pillars of his argument.

