Ideas and Opinions – George Boardman: Loomer visit shows what’s wrong with our attitude to free speech | Community

The letter writers defended the First Amendment’s right to free speech, but drew the line at Loomer’s hateful and divisive comments, which they claim promote division and turmoil in America.

Of course, this raises the question of what is hateful and divisive and who gets to make those decisions. And if something is deemed hateful or divisive, what are the consequences for the person making the comment? The First Amendment does not address these questions and essentially leaves it up to each individual to make their own judgment.

That’s how it should be. If government officials have the power to make these decisions, they will soon start banning anything that makes them look bad. This applies until the other party is in charge. From this point on the rules change. Fun times for everyone.

I understand the frustration of people who remember the days when the facts were not disputed, only what they meant for the future. But many people are too lazy to use the known facts to support their position, or they simply don’t like them, so they make up their own.

This is facilitated by the Internet, which can pick up a lie and spread it around the world before anyone has a chance to verify its veracity. It can take months, if not years, to repair the damage. Organizations like Facebook swear they mean no harm, but the more excitement they create, the more money they make. Then there’s X, which makes no claim to verifying what appears on its platform.

Most people take the easy way out and rely on the Internet and television news to inform their citizens. The appeal is that you don’t really have to think – others will do it for you.

But they don’t learn much. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for nearly 20 years shows that among our residents, those who use television as their primary source of news and information are the least informed.

When you visit online sources like Nextdoor, it’s clear that people themselves have no idea what’s going on in their own communities. Still, that’s better than the nearly 40% of the population who say they avoid political news entirely.

Reading – an activity that involves your brain – is rapidly increasing in popularity, and few people seem to care about it. What they want is entertainment, preferably with a carnival atmosphere. Newspapers have been forced to limit their coverage of so-called hard news, but most people only complain about the comics and crossword puzzles, and why aren’t the results in the paper this morning?

This information vacuum wouldn’t be such a problem if the Internet didn’t exist. Lies and misinformation are much easier to come by than they used to be, and people are more willing to believe them when there is no competing, accurate narrative. Now that artificial intelligence has introduced deep fakes into the information mix, it is harder than ever to separate truth from fiction.

Part of it is that people are just looking for confirmation of what they already believe, and they tend to expect the worst from people. Their passions are fueled by the nonsense you read on the internet. Why is it necessary to reject claims that Florida is imposing a toll on people trying to escape Hurricane Milton?

I would like to believe that most of the misinformation comes from hackers working for China, Russia and Iran to sow more conflict in society and weaken our institutions, but I’m not so sure anymore. I’m beginning to think that there are Americans who actually want to start a second civil war in this country, presumably to put us on what they believe is the right path.

When I was younger and more idealistic, I was convinced that I and people who thought like me had discovered the ultimate truth and that part of the process of showing everyone else the way to the light was to censor, what the opposition said.

But as I got older and – hopefully – wiser, I realized that my side didn’t have all the answers, that the other side also made some good points, and that trying to censor their statements was just another way to get dressed up Blinders that would lead me to a very narrow view of life.

As my fellow liberals evolved into progressives, they didn’t seem to have learned this lesson. This is when the Biden administration is pressuring Facebook and others to remove posts that spread lies about vaccines in general and the COVID vaccine in particular.

Yes, these are easy to spot, but what about other areas where the “facts” are fuzzier, leaving a large gray area? What about government agencies that “follow the science” and expect us to believe them when they shut down the economy, close schools, and order people to wear masks?

But conservatives are disingenuous when they don the mantle of absolute freedom of speech by treating lies and untruths as just part of the exchange of ideas. It’s hard to take seriously people who celebrate media personalities who sell falsehoods as a triumph of free speech, a real debasement of that idea.

We got a taste of this in a statement from our local Republicans, who were eager to hear Loomer’s points of view. “We look forward to hearing about their fight to defend their First Amendment rights.” This from a party whose leader can’t resist telling one lie after another.

The lies about FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene got so bad that Republican congressmen from Florida are denouncing Donald Trump, a rare occurrence since he walked down the escalator in 2016. As Senator Mitt Romney recently noted:

“(Trump) is just making it up. So he is able to spew out so much misinformation that it makes the Chinese smile. When it comes to a vacation from the truth, he took the longest vacation.”

Reject both extremes when it comes to freedom of speech and make an effort to educate yourself on the issues of the day. Our Founding Fathers were unable to create a more perfect union, but they gave us the tools to get close to one if we are willing to put in the effort to use them.