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> whatever your position is, you want all information to be free and for people to exercise their judgement. Reason will prevail. Sounds like a simple solution
by awb 5y ago
> whatever your position is, you want all information to be free and for people to exercise their judgement. Reason will prevail.
Sounds like a simple solution, but I don’t know of any country that has 100% access to all information, so I don’t think anyone has been able to test your theory throughout history.
I’d argue that a large minority of people are highly persuadable and not near the unbiased, logical arbiters required to have an ideal outcome when presented with information. You can see this in the misinterpretation of valid information and the consumption and retention of misinformation. So, 1) I don’t think the human condition is as ideal as you describe where reason always prevails.
Also, most people agree that some content is too dangerous to disseminate, like content that can be used to create great harm or destruction. Like, blueprints for WMDs, or maybe content about how to breach security at a nuclear facility, or how to hack power plants, etc. So 2) there’s a line somewhere about what content is safe for the general public to consume but I don’t know any country or person that thinks it’s at 100%. So now the question becomes not if we should draw a line at all, but where to draw the line on what content is beneficial to the public.
- verisimi 5y agoYes - some of what you say is true - there is dangerous info. The question is what is more dangerous? Having information running free? Or having a governance structure that decides what you should see or not? I do not trust governments for sure. There is such a huge conflict of interest there. "For the sake of maintaining trust with the people, we can't afford to let them know about such-and-such a terrible mistake we made". (Says government...) Its just a fantastic excuse to take all sorts of unsavoury actions against you. And let's not forget that government is just people trying to make money. Arguably the worst of us, or the people with most to lose, are the one's that seek these powerful positions.
- awb 5y ago> The question is what is more dangerous? Having information running free? Or having a governance structure that decides what you should see or not? Yeah that’s the $1M question. We have far too many examples of the latter failing with horrific consequences, and some examples where the restrictions are annoying but not catastrophic. With the former, I don’t think we have any examples of info running totally free.