Quote:
Originally Posted by WebSlave
Not that it will affect me, as I never go there
|
Censorship affects all of us whether we are on fb or not. Why? FB is so large that policies created there that might sway opinion will do so for a large chunk of people. And that in turn can have an impact on those who have different opinions, because those opinions may be viewed as fringe opinions considered by some to have less weight, when they may actually be quite on the mark.
Just about all information in newspapers, on FB, etc. has a spin on it. Some of the spin is almost imperceptible, as we all see the world through our own eyes, but some groups of eyes have a common norm so may see information in a similar manner.
Sometimes the press can really whip itself into a frenzy, and the various reports tend to egg other reports into even more frenzy. This happens all the time during hurricanes, as a for instance, when each report forecasts even more doom, and people remembering the last hurricane that amounted to just a little rain don't know quite what action to take and some jurisdictions pumped up with frenzied information actually try to mandate evacuations when that may not be necessary.
The problems that the current holders of power may have with encouraging people to think for themselves is that people may then realize that they have been fed disinformation for a long time, and those in power may not actually want people to think for themselves.
All that being said, sometimes one reads news that might affect one, or one's family, and sometimes it isn't always easy to decide whether to rely on that news. That doesn't mean that we should hand over the reins of responsibility to someone we don't know and who may not have our best interests at heart.