Thursday, August 12, 2021

Should we censor anti vax people?

 Between MTG being banned from twitter several times recently, and an anti vax sub being quarantined on reddit, I kind of feel a need to briefly touch upon this issue. Again, don't want to get too in depth right now as I'm going to be busy over the next month, but something I wanna discuss. Should people who push dangerous misinformation like anti vax crap be censored?

I'm gonna be honest, while the more vindictive inner demon within me feels schadenfreude over these guys being banned for their blatantly harmful views, I'm gonna disagree, logically speaking. As you guys can tell I have zero sympathy for the anti vaxxers. None. I think they're idiots, i think they're harmful, and I think they're even getting people killed. But here's the thing about free speech. It doesn't just apply to people you like, and to ideas you like. And I quite frankly dont trust neither government nor private companies to regulate speech and act as a ministry of truth. Sorry, we need to beat the vaxxers in a way that doesnt take away their right to a platform to express their views. I know that the authoritarian left is big on censorship in the past 5 years or so, but I've always been critical of these guys. I get it, Trumpers spread fake news and misinformation. But if you take away their right to say what they think, they will come for everyone else next. I've seen it play out on many forms and subreddits, where people end up getting banned just for opposing the mainstream circlejerk. Well intentioned censorship never ends up well, because those good intentions sour fast, and then we're left with a ministry of truth who bans anyone they simply don't like. Since we wanna avoid that, we should simply allow idiots to speak. Even if they are idiots. And they are idiots. *sigh*. I never said being philosophically consistent is easy. Sometimes you gotta take your lumps. This is one of those times. I have to freaking side with the anti vaxxers out of principle here. Let's face it, they're wrong, but freedom of speech guarantees the right to be wrong. If you're not allowed to be wrong, you dont really have freedom of speech. Anyway, that's my take on this. 

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