It's the practical erosion of Free Speech It's more like the result of free speech. Or at least it is, in a woefully undereducated country with large segments

It's the practical erosion of Free Speech It's more like the result of free speech. Or at least it is, in a woefully undereducated country with large segments of the population that reject science and value ignorance. Careful, vetted, fact-based reporting is incredibly laborious. It takes orders of magnitude more time, money, and effort than it takes your uncle Steve to fire off a group text message with a bunch of conspiracy theories or share his anti-vax opinions in yet another wonderfully insightful all-caps Facebook screed. And yet, they are treated with the same level of respect in a country like this. Further restriction of free speech at the government level is not the answer. That would be even worse than what we have now. The problem is, there is no answer. This is simply where our values and our ignorance has taken us.