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   On 13/02/2024 09:50, Bob Latham wrote:   
   > In article ,   
   >     Lawrence D'Oliveiro  wrote:   
   >   
   >> Online misinformation is a whole new can of worms.   
   >   
   > Who decides which is misinformation and which is censoring the truth?   
   >   
   > During covid we were continuously told this and that were   
   > "misinformation" or a conspiracy theory. Someone decided.   
   >   
   > Since then, drip by drip so much of that misinformation turns out to   
   > be true.   
   >   
   > Fancy that.   
   >   
   Indeed. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?   
      
   It's just another example of the cat-belling principle*.   
      
   In theory practice is the same as theory, in practice it isn't.   
      
   Governments world wide were frightened out of their wits by the   
   internet. The race is on to control it to only give the 'on message'   
   narrative.   
      
    From Tehran to Beijing, to Moscow, the firewalls are up.   
      
   While in the West it is open season for carefully crafted bullshit and   
   conspiracy theories, with as much coming from government as from other   
   interests.   
      
   We may yearn for the innocent days when we thought we knew what was the   
   truth, and real, but today anyone who believes in anything without   
   massive critical assessment is a gullible idiot.   
      
   As is anyone who still thinks in terms of Boolean logic - Truth or   
   falsity. The better bullshit is a subtle blend of both: Enough truth to   
   get you to believe the bullshit, as well.   
      
   Example: Covid was real, and it was and still is a killer. But was   
   lockdown the appropriate reaction? Who made money selling masks whose   
   effect seems mainly symbolic? And just why was the 'free' vaccine deemed   
   ineffective or unsafe and the massively profit making ones deemed de rigeur?   
      
   Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.   
      
   *https://www.longlongtimeago.com/once-upon-a-time/fables/from-ae   
   op/the-mice-in-council-or-who-will-bell-the-cat   
      
   --   
   "When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics."   
      
   Josef Stalin   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)   
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