Ask Lemmy

More context please?

The Post-WW2 reeducation programs for denazification were probably justified. Like showcasing the horrors of the nazi regime by giving people mandatory tours of the concentration camps etc.

When trying to combat verifiable misinformation. We've got people working in bad faith to muddy the waters in democracies around the world, they're purposely trying to amp up the chaos in the social space and sow division amongst different groups.

I think if some people are found to be purposely spreading misinformation on a mass scale, there needs to be some sort of special punishment that restricts their freedom of speech. Maybe they're restricted from social media altogether, fined, or there's jail time, I don't know, but something should be done to weed heavy, repeat offenders (above and beyond just misquoting something or throwing out an opinion or whatever 90% of the population probably does).

Obviously, some guardrails would need to be put in place to prevent Trump or others from turning around and using that to silence critics or journalists, but at the same time, people/organizations who are heavily abusing our democratic system should be punished somehow. It's a really fuzzy line between a journalist just getting their facts wrong on a developing story vs entire news organizations that are purposely trying to misinform people.

I don't. Who would? This sounds like the plan of an evil dictator, a deranged cult leader, or a cartoon supervillain.

I don't.

Neither censorship nor reeducation would be generally voluntary, so somebody would have to be given the authority to mandate them.

There's a simple test then for whether or not something is a good idea:

Think of the person or people or political party you consider to be the greatest threat to others. Then think of what they would do with that power.

Because it doesn't matter what the original intent is - if such a power is granted, no matter to whom or for what, those people WILL, sooner or later, get their chance to wield it.

I think censorship and reeducation are both contradictory terms, there couldn't be reeducation if you censor things, it wouldn't work, people shouldn't ignore things to be properly reeducated.

It's just like human mind works, you learn from your errors if you never commit errors or you didn't know about some errors what will make you avoid commiting these errors?

In my personal POV any kind of censorship including cancel culture it's harmful for society.

@MGN22 One can always try to justify using information control tactics as a way to manipulate in favor of what is right, correct or just. But using manipulative tactics for 'doing good' cannot guarantee that they will not be used, in return, for 'doing evil'. It just means someone else decides for you what the narrative is, gets to decide what is right or wrong, and gets to decide how you think, rather than you being able to get ahold of all the information and making that decision for yourself.