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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022

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This is somewhat unrelated to the topic of what's responsible for the drop in Twitter's revenue, but the article's bent is so typical.

A surge in racist slurs, a coordinated campaign to spread antisemitic memes, an owner posting a baseless conspiracy theory: welcome to the first few days of Elon Musk's Twitter.

Right from the get-go, their argument is "Musk's Twitter is bad because people on it might feel empowered to say unapproved things", and as the article continues there's a strong implication throughout that speech should be curtailed.

The rationalisation for limiting speech never amounts to anything more than a claim that we should make sure people can't hear certain points of view for the good of society. Instead of having people duke it out in a public forum wherein ideas can openly and freely be challenged and contested, the idea is that we shouldn't allow sentiments that are "wrong" and "harmful" (at least according to the person taking umbrage) to be promulgated in any way, shape or form, even in an environment where people can challenge it if they disagree. Some people might hear them and be convinced of their arguments, and that means they should be pre-emptively stripped of access to ideas that we don't like.

All I'll say is that I, for one, certainly see no way in which allowing a small group of people to have a disproportionate amount of sway over the informational environment would ever go bad and result in the widespread persistence of false but unexamined ideas that end up having a negative impact on society.

EDIT: clarity