Freeze Peach, cont.

Okay, we ' ve had an interesting discussion on my previous post on this subject, now I ' d like to finish up my thoughts about this. The man of La Mancha linked to a NYT article in the comments, which I do recommend, but since it ' s paywalledI ' ll give you this discussion by Dan Paterson at CBS Newfor those who need a link.  It ' s not as cogent but makes some good points.There have always been people who have been seduced by cults with bizarre beliefs, even with fairly primitive technology. A popular brand in the U.S. has been the End Times, from the Millerites to Harold Camping, who mostly worked through the radio. Lyndon LaRouche managed to make a lot of people insane, including some smart college students, with nothing more than a cheaply produced newspaper. Many of these cults have been harmful only to their followers, although there are exceptions such as the anti-vaxers.Our free speech regime seemed important enough, by consensus, that it was necessary to tolerate this amount of disinformation. The ACLU even defended Nazis. But the Internet and so-called " social media " have created a fundamentally different situation. Consumption of newspapers, radio and television is discretionary. The content is available, and you pick what to consume. The result is that most of us manage to get exposed to a range of information sources, ideas, and purported facts and we can make reasonable judgments. I ' m aware of the Q-Anon cult but I have plenty of information from other...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs