The False Promise of Unfettered Freedom

It’s been over a quarter of a century since we became enchanted by the promise of giving everyone of us a voice, a means to share our beliefs, wants, hatred, affection, shopping habits, identities, understanding, and knowledge — or lack thereof.

The internet promised many things. And while it has given us access to a bevy of benefits, it’s not turned out as hoped. Giving everyone a soapbox has driven us to soapboxes we like hearing from, to those who share our beliefs, however foolish, ridiculous, hateful, ignorant, and untethered to reality they may be.

I can only imagine what Herr Goebbels would have done with the internet. It is nothing more than a platform indifferent to source, knowledge, education, or any other gatekeeper of what once passed as reason, an accepted set of facts.

It has made it easier to shop, buy stuff, and spout our grievances, real or imagined. The Chinese figured this out early on and clamped down on it, suppressing free speech. Its leaders opted to control speech, that being speech in accordance with its leaders and their wants.

The West has settled for an array of incoherent policies to keep bigoted, hateful, and dangerous speech from gaining traction and has failed miserably.

It’s a Pandora’s Box now open. Its contents indifferent to the health and well-being of us all. Will it prove to be our undoing or just turn out to be another regrettable outcome of being what we are: human. Perhaps tribal is a more accurate description of what we are and what drives our beliefs and desires.

The internet won’t destroy democracy. We will.