There are days I have a hard time talking to people about anything of substance. It goes beyond the general differing opinions or being proven wrong; I'm entirely fine with that. I actually enjoy discussions with a differing opinion, don't mind being wrong but enjoy the chance to learn.
What gets me these days is the fact that anyone and everyone's information is given the same weight. This has been going on so long that people are losing the ability to think for themselves and be objective. I know there have always been sheeple that can't and won't think for themselves. Unfortunately there is a growing number of our population locking themselves into an echo type environment that doesn't introduce contradictory ideas.
This is particularly dangerous when said people begin to promote "gut feelings" or opinions as facts or proof. In turn they are more vocal in their arguments and if confronted with a debate tend to get whipped up into a frenzy. Once again to the point where they are only surrounded by the ideas that comfort them.
I've always been very much in agreement with free speech and that everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just can't stand the fact that people have the opportunity to present their opinions as fact based; and are continuously given a megaphone and a soapbox directly to the world with little or no consequence. To me this leads society down a dangerous/deadly path depending on the information, and unfortunately stifles real science in the wake of more profitable opinions.
I'm not saying that these peoples voices need to be muted but that there needs to be consequences to promoting misinformation.
Examples:
Crisis Actors in the US, a convenient way to dismiss people after a mass shooting
The Anti-vaxxer
The ever so controversial "Hoax" of climate change
This entire idea grinds my gears. I'm with you on this 100% of the way.
I began my internet working journey in 2015, and the very first idea I had was that I would build a blog representing my thoughts, feelings and experiences put forth into the world for anyone that could use whatever it was that I was talking about to their advantage. This blog slowly grew into a magazine and recently I've had some lovely diverse and open-minded perspectives towards the world. The only real mission that I have for my magazine is that I may not necessarily agree with the message of the author but because of freedom of speech and expression, and my thirst for devouring different viewpoints, I let everyone have their say providing it's not damaging or hateful.
This entire perspective I have on the world has thrust me into a very libertarian network of people, and although I consider myself libertarian I do love the idea of free speech. Free speech allows us to exist in a realist world where everyone voices their opinions freely. I've met some strange people though; one lady that was enthusiastic about writing for me insisted that you couldn't be racist to a white person and would accommodate no other viewpoints to that; her own perspective on the world being the gold standard and anything that differs from such would require her and her buddies to go into their safe space.
In my mind the term safe space has been hijacked. As a manager, and a man that would go into difficult communities and get people talking, a safe space for me would be to sit two people down and have them both listen to each others viewpoints without interruption or judgement -- that way you could force and medium ground; it's a thing counsellors do in couples therapy, and it's also a way to get people to realise they aren't listening to each other. So this new term safe space has been completely hijacked and used as a term for people to sit in without fear of anything different. In my mind that's dangerous to a person and society.
If I hadn't been called weird and different as a kid, I would have never have strived to make anything of myself; to be better than those that enjoyed name calling me, to sit on my high chair in adulthood and look down on them as they struggled to make ends meet. It didn't pan out that way, but in my opinion the differing of opinions and the competition in society is fierce. If there was no reason to be better, to create more, to be better than you were last year then we would all just stagnate. We would exist in our own bubble of safety and no-one would ever intend to get better at anything. Life is grand, so we'll just sit in the sun and get a tan.
Ben Shapiro famously said -- facts don't care about your feelings. Now I'm generally not a big fan of that man but everything he's said on freedom of speech is down to the nail. If we all wanted to be sheltered away from the nasty things in the world we'd end up as big fragile snowflakes scared that our feelings get hurt.
I blame Facebook though, and other algorithm formats. They've created a world where people live in echo chambers of their own opinions and it's become so increasingly harder for people to hear opinions from other people that differ from theirs; right down to the point of utter disgust, and bodily harm. "Punch a racist" is a commonly used term in my world, yet I worry that racist is used too loosely these days. Someone identifying with right wing ideology is brandished as a racist; when without deeper analysis you have no way to tell this.
And have you noticed that everyone believes they are right these days? Everyone? There is absolutely no gathering of facts and proper critical analysis; it's just, you're wrong because I don't like to feel that I'm wrong.
I'll leave you with this piece:
https://youtu.be/0HXMYm4k6w0