Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Comment on Social Media shaming

"If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion." --George Orwell. "The Freedom of the Press"
My Comment. Yes it is still true for publishers and editors but today with the advent of the internet and of course social media, there are many people who take to social media to rub the noses in the dirt of those speaking or writing what they believe to be the truth or the heart of a matter or to take an unpopular position and it has now become our most savage freedom of speech attack, that not even the first amendment can protect. It becomes a matter of social shaming to the point where individuals lose jobs, lose friends and if they are lucky only ostracized by the "offended" communities and their supporters. The truth whatever it may be is unimportant. We live in a society (the USofA) that is supposedly proud of speaking the truth, even has an amendment to its constitution that guarantees the right to speak, to write, to believe, to protest, but we find that the only important matter is to be on the "right or correct side" of an issue, a cause, and/or a belief. We have become a society of one way streets and at some point the end of a one way street is often a dead end or possibly an unplanned trip into a river, a lake or an ocean.

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