Well I'm not Chinese, so I'm not gonna tell them how to run their country, but I can understand how widespread of a problem misinformation can be.
Personally as a desperate American if I had even a sliver of what people in China have, the better urban planning, the robust train system, the widespread home ownership, 40 years of rising wages, better healthcare system, etc. If I had all of that I'd agree to never speak again.
So you're asking the wrong person, I've got deeper priorities than what kind of jokes I'm allowed to make. A dozen members of my family died of covid, and in China they arrested people for nonsense conspiracy theories about covid, the same kind of misinformation that killed my family. That's where I'm coming from here..
I don't think freedom of speech and good public services need to be a binary. Many Scandinavian countries manage to have both.
In terms of misinformation, the answer isn't to ban speech, it's to have a better educated population who can recognise and not get fooled so easily. For what it's worth, we had people spreading Covid misinformation in the UK, I didn't lose one family or friend to it, so maybe the issue isn't the information itself?
Perhaps your individual situation is different? I'm American and also lost zero family members, though it fucked some of us up.
But I think it's a liberal brainworm to think protecting misinformation is important. It's a misunderstanding of how ideology works to think that simply being better-educated will solve the issue.
Yea America has pretty well proven that if you let people "do their own research" the majority of them are just going to believe bullshit that allows them to live their lives without confronting the consequences of their actions.
A bunch of people want to keep going out and getting their treats so they sought out information that confirmed their belief that they can do whatever they want and that makes them a good American and a free thinker.
Then a million people died
Thank God we have the freedom for half our country to refuse to wear a piece of cloth that could have saved people lives.
Clearly academic education doesn't mean common sense. Like I say, that misinformation was available in other countries, but people weren't doing it. Maybe it's a US issue rather than a misinformation issue?
The US has it particularly bad but no it's not just a US issue. It was an issue all over Europe too, I know plenty of people believing in nonsense related to Covid, educated people too. Look at how Austrians reacted when the government mandated vaccines.
Also what the fuck does "common sense" even mean? Clearly it's not that common, or there are competing "common senses". I'd rather have mine state-enforced because mine doesn't involve people dying of an easily preventable disease.
Well I'm not Chinese, so I'm not gonna tell them how to run their country, but I can understand how widespread of a problem misinformation can be.
Personally as a desperate American if I had even a sliver of what people in China have, the better urban planning, the robust train system, the widespread home ownership, 40 years of rising wages, better healthcare system, etc. If I had all of that I'd agree to never speak again.
So you're asking the wrong person, I've got deeper priorities than what kind of jokes I'm allowed to make. A dozen members of my family died of covid, and in China they arrested people for nonsense conspiracy theories about covid, the same kind of misinformation that killed my family. That's where I'm coming from here..
I don't think freedom of speech and good public services need to be a binary. Many Scandinavian countries manage to have both.
In terms of misinformation, the answer isn't to ban speech, it's to have a better educated population who can recognise and not get fooled so easily. For what it's worth, we had people spreading Covid misinformation in the UK, I didn't lose one family or friend to it, so maybe the issue isn't the information itself?
Perhaps your individual situation is different? I'm American and also lost zero family members, though it fucked some of us up.
But I think it's a liberal brainworm to think protecting misinformation is important. It's a misunderstanding of how ideology works to think that simply being better-educated will solve the issue.
Yea America has pretty well proven that if you let people "do their own research" the majority of them are just going to believe bullshit that allows them to live their lives without confronting the consequences of their actions.
A bunch of people want to keep going out and getting their treats so they sought out information that confirmed their belief that they can do whatever they want and that makes them a good American and a free thinker.
Then a million people died
Thank God we have the freedom for half our country to refuse to wear a piece of cloth that could have saved people lives.
Unsure how better education will keep my relatives from consuming horse dewormer to prevent covid.
These people have university degrees. Post graduates even.
Do they need another ten years of schooling? Or do we need to stop the misinformation by force?
Clearly academic education doesn't mean common sense. Like I say, that misinformation was available in other countries, but people weren't doing it. Maybe it's a US issue rather than a misinformation issue?
The US has it particularly bad but no it's not just a US issue. It was an issue all over Europe too, I know plenty of people believing in nonsense related to Covid, educated people too. Look at how Austrians reacted when the government mandated vaccines.
Also what the fuck does "common sense" even mean? Clearly it's not that common, or there are competing "common senses". I'd rather have mine state-enforced because mine doesn't involve people dying of an easily preventable disease.