Every single one of us likely supports freedom of speech — people sharing thoughts, questioning power, and swapping ideas without fear of being silenced or punished. It’s a right we hold dear and want protected. Keeping free speech strong, protected by the U.S. First Amendment and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is something we get behind no matter our political affiliation.
Enter stage left… social media…
Hate speech, deepfakes, and coordinated disinformation campaigns reach huge audiences before anyone can react. Algorithms feed you more of what you already like, which can drown out opposing views. Disagreement often turns into harassment, scaring people into silence.
Social media is a global megaphone on fire…
Social media platforms, owned by corporations, control what literally billions of people see. It’s censorship by corporations — accounts get suspended, posts get hidden, or entire topics get throttled —sometimes for valid reasons (like stopping violence), but often based on vague rules or political pressure.
Social media gave everyone a microphone, but also handed a few big companies the volume knob—and sometimes a mute button. The fight for free speech now happens as much in Silicon Valley as in courtrooms or parliaments.
Enter stage right… main stream media…
Did you watch the 60 Minutes interview of President Trump? I did.
But I also watched the extended interview (the uncut version) on youtube. It’s like a totally different viewpoint! Listen, I get modifying content to fit a timeframe. But when the content is cut in a manner that is favorable to one side or the other, that’s manipulation of viewers. Isn’t it? It doesn’t mean you have to agree with what’s being said by the person being interviewed. It only means that the people get the full picture and make up their own minds.
If you’re going to air 60 minutes… or 45 minutes… or 30 minutes… then that should be the length of the interview. Why not just do the interviews live and stick to a timeframe?
When my brother (or any other professional) is asked to provide content to an audience for 60 minutes, everyone knows in advance what content will be covered, and that’s what the audience is served. Don’t like it? Don’t believe it? Get up and go to the bathroom. Just serve it up and let people — the audience — take away from it what they will. Some in the audience listening to my brother take away points on creating distinction, while others only laugh at the jokes.
And speaking of my brother… it’s his birthday!
Happy, happy birthday to the best brother on the planet. Probably the best brother ever. Nobody knows brothers like I do. To say there’s a better brother is fake news. He’s great. So great. Very special. 😉
The bottom line:
If social media vanished, (oh, how I wish it would!!) we’d lose scale and speed, but regain gatekeeper accountability and human-scale connection. The marketplace of ideas wouldn’t die; it would just move back to coffee shops, newspapers, and town halls—slower, messier, and weirdly more human. In the meantime, use common sense.
If main stream media would just exercise unbiased reporting, people could make up their own minds. If you are of the opinion that the general public can’t see through the rhetoric, maybe you should advocate for competency tests for all voters. In the meantime, research for yourself and do what you can to get the full picture, and make decisions based upon your own takeaways… not what corporations want those takeaways to be.
Now you know: LAX Airport lets pilots and employees live on airport property, renting them parking space for their personal RV’s for $60 per month.