It would be, but also you showed him pictures to prove it, he just didn't know they were photoshopped. And linked him to a news article on thebostontribune.com that was reporting that his kids were dead. And his family and friends were sharing their condolences.
It's not as if folk AREN'T acting on misinformation or showing that they aren't really capable of distinguishing between the two. Tons can. And tons won't realize that The Boston Tribune isn't real.
We're having to deal with almost literally shouting "fire!" in a crowded theater when there's no fire, only there's special effects and major campaigns to convince people there's fire, not just taking some guy at their word and stampeding because of it.
This seems like really stretching the analogy just to remove personal responsibility.
If I am the father of the missing children and I see the "family and friends" sharing their condolences, I would go talk to them first. If someone comes with pictures trying to accuse someone of something, no matter how shocking the accusations, there would still be the question of (a) why is someone bothering with taking pictures and not taking to the authorities beforehand and (b) what are the consequences for me if I went on a rampage attack based on bogus evidence.
To get a little bit on topic: the reason that censorship is worse than misinformation is that we should always operate on the premise that our information is incomplete, inaccurate or distorted by those controlling the information channels.
Without censorship, I can listen to different sources (no matter how crazy or unsound they are) and I can try to discern what makes sense and does not. With censorship, any dissent is silenced, so we get one source of information - who can never get questioned - or worse we get to see many sources of information but only the ones that are aligned with the censors and gives us a false consensus and the illusion of quality in information.
Only idiots can walk around in the world of today and confidently repeat whatever they hear from "official" sources as unquestionable truths.
The extremes of my example were only to show that there could be real and serious consequences from misinformation rather than silence. If we dial it back from "killing my neighbour" to "lost my job" or even "missed my bus", I believe my point still stands. In many scenarios that we experience every day, we would be better served by accepting censure over misinformation.
You claim "we should always operate on the premise that our information is incomplete, inaccurate or distorted by those controlling the information channels" and I agree with you in theory. But in practice this is impossible. The human brain is physically unable to work everything through from first principles. This makes sense conceptually and has been verified in research.
And this to me is the fundamental issue of our time:
In theory, social media and unrestrained free speech are a boon for all society.
In practice they have turned people against each other with very real and serious consequences.
> In many scenarios that we experience every day, we would be better served by accepting censure over misinformation.
No. Not at all. I refuse your premise. Not only you are begging the question here (what scenarios? Your example was terrible and I really don't think you can come up with a good one), I honestly worry more about those that believe this rhetoric than the "victims" of misinformation.
Also, it's curious how those that so easily accept censorship never think that they will eventually be on the wrong side of the taser gun.
> I agree with you in theory. But in practice this is impossible. The human brain is physically unable to work everything through from first principles.
Good thing then that this is NOT WHAT I AM SAYING.
There is no need to "work though things from first principles". The idea is NOT to determine a priori what is "right" or "safe" and then make a binary decision. The base idea is to decide on what action to take (or to refuse to take) by asking yourself what is the worst possible thing that can happen if the information I have is wrong? What are the odds of me being wrong?.
I'd suggest you get acquainted with Nassim Taleb and Joe Norman to understand better how to deal with complexity and uncertainty.
> In practice they have turned people against each other with very real and serious consequences.
Bullshit. There was no Facebook during the time of the Crusades. There was no Twitter during the Cold War and no smartphones during WW1 and WW2. None of these things would be avoidable if only we could censor wrongthink.
On the other hand, THERE ARE video records of Tienanmen Square who have been successfully hidden from an entire country for an entire generation.
(Sorry for the harsh language, but I start reading any kind of censorship-apologetic and fighting instincts kick in. If you don't see how much of a sign of being morally bankrupt it is to casually defend the hellish things like state-sponsored censorship, I see no point in continuing the "debate")
Hey, no worries, rlgullis. I get heated too. :) I don’t know if it will be fruitful to continue this discussion here either, but I appreciate your comments and I suspect that if we spent an afternoon trying we’d find our common ground was vast. Have a good one!
There are some things that - no matter how much "common ground" we have - simply can not be discussed in relative terms. Advocating that we all should be subjected to censorship and silence anyone who speaks against the status quo is one of them.
To think that is okay to have one all-too-powerful entity controlling information channels is stepping into fascism and totalitarianism. This is a lesson that we should have learned already: no possible good comes out of that.
It's not as if folk AREN'T acting on misinformation or showing that they aren't really capable of distinguishing between the two. Tons can. And tons won't realize that The Boston Tribune isn't real.
We're having to deal with almost literally shouting "fire!" in a crowded theater when there's no fire, only there's special effects and major campaigns to convince people there's fire, not just taking some guy at their word and stampeding because of it.