Free Speech/Freedom of Expression Rant - get comfy...

There is a lot of debate on the issue of "free speech". A lot of people incorrectly attributing a statement to Voltaire - I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it - 1/19 #cdnpoli

which was not said or written by Voltaire, but by his biographer, Evelyn Beatrice Hall. It doesn't really matter who said it, though. Using an old quote as the foundation for an argument is a fairly weak basis. 2/19

Literary history is full of grand sounding quotes that can be used in many ways.

A lot of this discussion comes in the wake of the alt-right social media platform, Parler, effectively being shut down by what some call "Silicon Valley Tycoons". 3/19

And also the permanent banning of Donald Trump from Twitter. Many argue that if the speech of one side can be shut down, then the door is open for the speech of the other side to be shut down as well. I suggest it isn't that straightforward. 4/19

We are in an extraordinary circumstance right now where there are masses of people spreading lies, misinformation, things which are demonstrably untrue, in order to destabilize society and take power. Letting this happen in the name of free speech is actually very dangerous. 5/19

You can say it's "George's" right to believe that the COVID vaccine is actually a plot to inject everyone with tracking chips and Bill Gates is behind it, and it's George's right to tell everyone he knows. 6/19

Also, It's George's right to believe that both Trump and Jason Kenney are actually sent by God, & Justin Trudeau is plotting to steal the next election using fraudulent voting machines (which is weird because we use paper ballots in Canada, but CPC MP Michelle Rempel-Garner 7/19

made a video claiming this and people believed her) and he is wearing an ankle bracelet because he is under house arrest for treason (which is a ludicrous but widely-held belief in some circles). You can argue that George has every right to believe these things 8/19

and tell everyone, post it all over social media. You might assume that most people would look at these claims and decide George is batshit crazy. Unfortunately, there are an awful lot of people who will believe George and share his memes and PragerU and PostMilennial 9/19

and Rebel articles and videos. And before you know it, we have masses of people who are completely detached from reality.

There are lots of people walking amongst us who are completely delusional about political reality. 10/19

And some will take it into their heads to act on their delusional beliefs, like the guy who tried to assassinate our Prime Minister this past July, and the people who stormed the Capital Building in Washington last week. Something must be done about this. 11/19

The conservatives are promoting these delusions and their followers are repeating them.

We have people like CPC MP Pierre Poilievre making claims like "Trudeau is building a secret palace at Harrington Lake using taxpayer money" and even 12/19

those who are usually stable and rational may look at this and have concern, because it is almost possible. Except it isn't. The work being done at Harrington Lake is renovations and restoration under the auspices of the National Capital Commission, an independent body 13/19

that looks after all our official residences and public buildings, and the work was planned and budgeted while Harper was PM. But since so few people seem to know how things actually work, Poilievre's mad claim carried enough credibility that some people believed it. 14/19

This is wrong. One party or political movement should not be able to just make things up to sway public opinion in order to gain power.

Not only must we stop people from spreading lies, but we must educate them so they can recognize the lies when they see them. 15/19

This is only happening very piecemeal, with a small group of people on social media trying to correct false statements. Our mainstream media is completely failing at fact checking and challenging false information. 16/19

They would rather carry water for the right because scandals attract eyeballs.

This may sound totalitarian to you, these efforts to dissuade people from their false beliefs. This is not a matter of disagreeing on something, like whether immigration is good or bad. 17/19

This is countering the spread of complete fabrications of how the world works, and trying to reinforce truth and reality. I assure you, if the people behind all the lies and misinformation take power, 18/19

we will have lost all hope of countering this alternate reality they are promoting. And things will get very, very bad. Especially for those who still see reality. 19/19