Suddenly this year, plenty of people who were stoutly defending absolute free speech “rights” have turned into censors. Before October, these “conservatives” had been smashing “liberals” for turning into censors.
What makes this particular reversal salient is the round trip. 9/11 turned many “freedom”-loving people into censors against Islam. I was among that crowd. Afterward, the continued crazy wars caused some of this crowd to shift back to defending “freedom”, and the opposite crowd moved into the censor role. I was also among the “conservatives” who finally saw the craziness.
Now a much less relevant event, which happened in some other country, has turned the “conservatives” back into censors and the “liberals” back into defending “freedom”. Round trip.
I didn’t make the return trip this time, partly because I stopped watching TV in 2012, and mostly because I’ve shifted to an entirely distinct way of seeing “rights” and “secrecy”.
Freedom doesn’t exist, and “rights” are a fraud.
I realized part of this theme back in 1978 but didn’t fully incorporate it into my thinking until 2012.
Open discussion is important in certain specific contexts. Within a job-related setting like a union or a corporate board, or within a scientific or project discussion, all sides of the specific question must be aired. This open airing should be protected by the natural SECRECY of such situations. It shouldn’t be leaked to the “political” or “journalism” monsters.
Nature follows this principle of modularity. Within one organism, or within one hive, negative feedback operates freely to sense changing reality and halt a dangerous or unproductive trend. If your hand is heading toward a hot stove, the nerves in the fingers sense the extreme heat and send a DON’T DO IT signal to the same muscles, turning the motion around. If the pack is heading toward an alligator, the scouts smell the enemy and turn the pack in a different direction.
When the sensory nerves fail or the scouts are sabotaged, the organism or pack will make bad decisions. The countervailing sense MUST be allowed into the discussion, and MUST be acted on when strong enough.
In other situations, open airing of opinions is not just pointless but INTENTIONALLY DESTRUCTIVE. In “politics” or “journalism”, alternate opinions are weapons used by the rulers to weaken and kill us. In other words, these DISCUSSIONS are the hot stove or the lurking alligator. We need to stay away from stoves and alligators and “politics”.
“Journalism” defends its bloodthirsty evil with nonsense about “democracy” and “informed citizens”. Supposedly we need to listen to the “journalists” so we can “protect democracy” by picking the officially authorized candidate, who was always destined to “win” without our help. Everything said by governments and “journalists” is a weapon, not a fact. It’s the exact opposite of information.
When we try to base our economic decisions on official statistics about the economy, or try to base our jobs or lives on official “science”, or try to think about reality using official “politics”, we will go dangerously wrong every time. We will make the wrong decision about jobs or skills or family life every time, because rulers and “journalists” WANT us to make wrong decisions. They WANT us to lose our confidence and immunity and jobs and souls.
Polistra's Mill 