Facebook Redux and Freedom of Speech
It's very hard not to have a conversation with anyone any more without Facebook coming into it. As much as I promise myself I will only look at it to check my notifications, I end up scrolling down the newsfeed, and usually wasting time, getting annoyed, shaking my head at some silliness, and occasionally learning something and being encouraged.
Part of the problem is that I have an ungodly number of "friends" so I see too much stuff. I could get rid of 75% of them and still have too many.
Today I defriended or defollowed someone I barely know due to a political post, a straw man argument that just hit me wrong and I said, I don't need this hassle. I feel guilty and defensive about it. Why?
Also earlier this week, the daughter of a friend posted a highly disturbing post that sounded suicidal, and then two days later she posted that she was being required to see a psychiatrist by her employer, and she was arguing about the unfairness of it, the judgmentalism of it, and her interlocutors were trying to encourage her but also reason with her. Her question: Is there no freedom of speech on social media?
No, because there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech anywhere, in the sense that speech is free of responsibility. Yes, you can say it; but you have to take the consequences, which seems to perplex people today and I don't understand that. I expect when I post something that people will disagree with me, and they have that right; I do not understand why freedom of speech, of which I am an advocate, almost an activist, is somehow interpreted as freedom from disagreement.
Christianity Today has an article about Dave Ramsey's former employees attacking him on social media; it is an interesting take on the subject. Inside Higher Ed also has an article about a scholar at UVA, who is himself a libertarian but whose work is used by conservatives (and liberals) for political purposes. An LBGT group wants his emails revealed under the state's Freedom of Information Act. That is scary. We can't take any of this for granted.
Part of the problem is that I have an ungodly number of "friends" so I see too much stuff. I could get rid of 75% of them and still have too many.
Today I defriended or defollowed someone I barely know due to a political post, a straw man argument that just hit me wrong and I said, I don't need this hassle. I feel guilty and defensive about it. Why?
Also earlier this week, the daughter of a friend posted a highly disturbing post that sounded suicidal, and then two days later she posted that she was being required to see a psychiatrist by her employer, and she was arguing about the unfairness of it, the judgmentalism of it, and her interlocutors were trying to encourage her but also reason with her. Her question: Is there no freedom of speech on social media?
No, because there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech anywhere, in the sense that speech is free of responsibility. Yes, you can say it; but you have to take the consequences, which seems to perplex people today and I don't understand that. I expect when I post something that people will disagree with me, and they have that right; I do not understand why freedom of speech, of which I am an advocate, almost an activist, is somehow interpreted as freedom from disagreement.
Christianity Today has an article about Dave Ramsey's former employees attacking him on social media; it is an interesting take on the subject. Inside Higher Ed also has an article about a scholar at UVA, who is himself a libertarian but whose work is used by conservatives (and liberals) for political purposes. An LBGT group wants his emails revealed under the state's Freedom of Information Act. That is scary. We can't take any of this for granted.
Comments