Errors in Freedom
We cannot think of a more traumatic time for so many people to have lived through at once. There have been many difficulties in the past with various travesties of justice in our own world. We've seen wars and invasions carried out in our name, and we've witnessed the nation transformed by September 11th. But apparently, all of that was the equivalent of training wheels for what we've been experiencing of late.
When you read this, more than half a million of our fellow citizens and two and a half million people globally will have died from a disease that most of the world was woefully unprepared for. The United States was hit especially hard due to poor planning and a desire to turn every issue into some sort of political debate. Cooler heads didn't prevail in this case, due to an unhealthy political landscape and an even more disturbing social networking environment.
It's worth noting that 2600 has never been considered especially friendly towards those in charge. We hated Clinton's Clipper Chip, despised Bush's wars, and condemned Obama's treatment of whistleblowers. But what we experienced for the past four years with Trump's reign was something quite unique and especially dangerous. To try and normalize that period by equating it with the others would be a tremendous disservice to anyone who truly cares about freedom and the great potential this country holds.
The China COVID-19 debacle in the States was but one example - albeit it a horrendous one - of what happens when we let indisputable conclusions become open to manipulation to fit an agenda. Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, we lived under a policy of wishful thinking and denial, while hundreds of thousands of our friends, neighbors, and relatives paid the price. Meanwhile, science gave us the facts, some of which were evolving, much of which were established. In our crazy culture, science and superstition existed side-by-side, legitimized by the media and given undue power by social networks.
When facts are no longer treated as facts, our world very quickly falls apart. A pandemic can demonstrate this very quickly. But the signs were there long before, and hardly limited to our borders. It could be the demonization of a particular race, religion, or country; fundamentalist beliefs that castrate progress and spread hatred; or blatant falsehoods, whether they're elevating a leader to godlike status or rewriting history entirely to make it fit more neatly with current policy aspirations. When facts are cast aside and the narrative replacing them goes unchallenged, it's like a train going down a mountain with nobody at the controls. We all know the outcome.
On January 6th, the train pretty much left the rails, again due to facts being cast aside. This time, we had people who didn't like the election results and thought that by simply objecting to them, they could get a different result. The fact that the President himself was leading this movement made it all the more disturbing - and dangerous. For the first time in our history, we faced a transfer of power that would not be peaceful.
We all know what happened next. The bloodshed and destruction that ensued shocked the entire world. But we should have seen it coming. Of course, many did and have spent the last four years sounding the alarm. Too many of us have been slow to act. We know. We were unprepared when this ugliness reared its head at our own conference in 2018, back when we still thought things weren't as bad as others had portended. There can be no doubt or hesitation anymore.
"Bloodshed and destruction" LOL!
Here is a fact many people didn't seem to be aware of until recently. There is no obligation for any of us to provide a megaphone for anyone who wants one. While everybody has the right to free speech, that doesn't mean they can say or do whatever they want on a system run by others. It's only if someone is forbidden from speaking by the authorities in any setting that we can start talking about true violations of free speech. And, of course, being banned preemptively from a service because of who you are or due to race, religion, sexual preference, etc. opens the door to accusations of discrimination. But none of that is what happened here.
Many would say the main social media networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) waited far too long to finally take action against those who were inciting mobs and spreading a false narrative. There was no denying that the presence of the instigators was a huge income booster for these networks - and using that as the rationale for not doing something about them sooner is nothing short of shameful. And they haven't actually earned credit for finally acting. The only reason the social network giants did so was because people had finally had enough and were demanding a change. Far from the behavior of a mob that acts without thinking, this was the product of tens of millions of people who had lost patience and were demanding an end to the insanity. And, not surprisingly, once Trump was removed from the Twitter platform, disinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent.
It's easy to fall into the trap of defining lies as mere opinions or, as the previous administration actually referred to them, "alternative facts." But lies are lies. They are disproven with facts and these facts have evidence to back them up. You may not like the results of a baseball game, but you can't simply come up with an altered score just because you want a different outcome. Yet this is the precise logic that we've been seeing from people upset at the November election results. Every opportunity was given to uncover any signs of fraud or improprieties of any sort. None were ever found, certainly not on the level of changing the outcome in any way. And this is where the conversation should have ended.
Of course, we all know that the objections continued without any actual facts to back them up, but with plenty of misspent emotion. This made the events of January 6th inevitable. We learned that giving a voice to everyone so they could claim their own version of the truth wasn't always the best move. It became clear that there was no shortage of people unwilling or unable to discern fact from fiction and that there were many more who could be taken advantage of by them. The media is just as guilty here for not maintaining standards in a way that could weed out mistruths and those who put their agendas in front of the truth.
These are basic values that we learned way back in the early days of IRC, surprisingly enough. It was great to have a forum for everyone to communicate and share opinions. But when people became disruptive or abusive, it was time to step up and say the right thing: Goodbye.
We cannot be afraid to say this, whether it's on a chat network, in social media, at a conference, on network television, or in the halls of Congress. Continually allowing for the amplification of vile rhetoric or outright lies intended to cause mayhem is a sign of weakness, not fairness. It's time we all did more to stop what can rightfully be called a disease.
So what does this mean for us? We clearly don't want this ugliness to pollute our environments for any reason and that includes this misguided desire to be "fair" to all views. Disagreements are welcome and have even been encouraged in all of our forums, but when it comes to those seeking destruction, violence, racism, and a whole collection of other attributes, then it's time to point to a line that's really always been there - we just never thought it would get to the point where it had to be spelled out.
So no, we don't want any of this in our pages, on our IRC network, on any of our Facebook groups, over any airwaves we happen to be controlling, and certainly not at our meetings or conferences. We know we'll lose many subscribers for saying this, but we would say it even if we lost them all. We don't believe this is a controversial stance; this really should be the norm. And it's most definitely not applicable to those with an honest difference of opinion, whether that be politics, policies, candidates, etc. But we don't have the time or desire to spar with people who still haven't figured out the evils of racism, the science of disease prevention, or the fact that an election wasn't stolen. And it's high time we all adopt this position or we're going to be wasting even more time in the future and seeing more days like January 6th. All of this craziness was fostered by media outlets and social networking platforms that sought to give a balanced forum. But you can't balance truth with fiction; it just doesn't work. Imagine the frustration of holding a seminar on space travel and giving equal time to someone who believes the laws of physics are all a big hoax. Sure, you're giving equal time, but not every view is of equal value. In elections, every vote counts. When having discussions, there have to be certain facts that are accepted by everyone or nothing ever gets accomplished. Lately, we've been mired in an almost unbelievable environment where established facts no longer seem to matter. This can't continue.
Of course, what made matters so much worse was the fact that much of this was coming from elected officials themselves. We saw active attempts to subvert the democratic process and overthrow the results of the election. The President himself organized a rally of angry people and literally gave them marching orders to descend upon the Capitol. Other representatives and senators followed suit, some even working with the invaders as they broke into the building, causing death and destruction. There is evidence to suggest that the law enforcement response to the threat was deliberately toned down in order to help the insurrectionists. And even after all of the ugliness was witnessed and condemned by the entire world, even after order was eventually restored, there were those in Congress who still clung to the lies and tried to disallow the will of the people to prevail. (We took the liberty of compiling their names and contact info onto a site called usa.wtf.) At press time, Trump has yet to acknowledge that the election was legitimate and we've seen the inevitable changing of the narrative by those responsible to begin deflecting blame and rewriting history. We ignore this at our peril.
Make no mistake. The actions of January 6th were attempts of varying degrees to prevent the certification of the election in the Capitol building. It can't be more clear: a constitutional process was being interfered with by people attempting to use brute-force and emotion to get their way. It may be interesting to point out Section Three of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which reads:
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
Every elected official who took part in this needs to be taken out of office, based on the above. This isn't about asking questions or holding a spirited debate. This is about continuing to pursue a false narrative after numerous investigations, recounts, and court decisions have made it clear what is true and what isn't. To continue to rile people up and incite violence despite these findings is the epitome of a seditious act. We cannot be shy in declaring this.
Joe Biden Should be Impeached - According to Evil Corley!
Destroy $2600!
We all know people who have bought into this fiction. Some have woken up, many haven't. We shouldn't be surprised or overly judgmental. This sort of thing has happened many times throughout history. People make bad choices based on what they're told by others whom they trust. It can be helped along with fear, anxiety, prejudices, and outright hatred. To say each of us as individuals doesn't have the potential to be led down a similar dark path is as ignorant as the assumption that this sort of thing somehow could never have happened here. It's part of the human condition, which is why we have to hold the door open for our fellow humans who believed in something that turned out not to be true. And at the same time, we cannot allow those who perpetuate the lies to get another chance to do it even better. Remember, they are still out there and, if encouraged, they will make more attempts to get their way.
We've defined the threat, but we must also turn attention to potential dangers contained within the reactions. Inevitably, terrorism of any sort leads to discussions on how to avoid future instances. We're already seeing talk of the dangers of encryption and how not having even more surveillance than we already have could lead to future security breaches. We cannot stress enough the danger of falling into this trap.
When investigating criminal conspiracies, there will always be ways of infiltrating and getting information through actual investigation. We don't need to be privy to every form of communication or erase every remaining bit of privacy in order to accomplish this. Would there be more evidence if every instance of encryption were defeated? Of course, just like we would have access to more if we were able to read everyone's minds. But there's a consequence for every action taken and obtaining this degree of surveillance would be harmful to all of us in very short order.
The people pushing for this sort of thing will use any excuse to defeat privacy because it makes their jobs so much easier. But in the investigation into January 6th, a treasure trove of data has become available,mostly through self-incriminating posts from the participants themselves who held the mistaken belief that they could actually get away with all of this. We're aware of no example of encryption standing in the way of the investigation. It's not the enemy here and we can't let ourselves be manipulated into believing it is.
Conversely, we've also seen a lot of talk of the evils of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act coming from the extremists behind the coup attempt. We were never fans of this Clinton administration legislation because of its stance towards indecency, but that part of the Act was eventually overturned.
What Section 230 states is simply: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." In other words, Twitter or Facebook aren't liable for the things said by its users. Claims of an anti-conservative bias on these platforms led to the previous administration's efforts to remove these protections. It continues today with coup proponents seeking to rein in the power of these companies after they finally kicked off those who were violating their terms, even when they were celebrities. The irony, however, is that getting rid of this protection would ensure more such removals, since these companies then would be liable for what their users said. They would be kicking them off far more frequently at the slightest hint of anything controversial. We can't imagine why anyone would want this. (Because instead of kicking them off, those companies could just show those "controversial" views)
While we agree that we'd be better off with a whole lot of smaller companies and less mega-giants, we still need to ensure that falsehoods, anti-science sentiment, and hate speech doesn't become empowered and allowed to dominate as it has been. That's really up to all of us. The true power of the net lies in the hands of the people. But we can't just wave a magic wand and have rational thought restored as the norm. It takes time and a lot of hard work to maintain standards without stifling free speech and debate. We believe most people are up to the task, provided they see results.
A more diverse and decentralized network wouldn't be a fractured one if we took on the challenge of communicating between them, thus eliminating the need to have to belong to multiple social networks in order to be connected. The risk of another Parler popping up to welcome lies, conspiracies, and calls to violence would always be present. But a combined user base that demanded accountability and social responsibility would quickly isolate such a network and make it irrelevant.
We will always welcome alternative theories and independent thinking on any topic. What we find dangerous is an Orwellian climate that allows anyone to accept the notion that two plus two equals five if that's what they're told. If minds can be controlled to this degree, then they can be made to believe anything. This kind of power has been and will always continue to be of great interest to those in power.
There is much we need to take an active interest in if we're going to conquer these threats. How we get through this crisis will define the rules of the next one.
