[kwlug-disc] Trust in Musk.. or go to NextCloud

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 12:50 PM Chris Frey <cdfrey at foursquare.net> wrote:

> I'd love it if the "fact checking" was done by civilized free speech
> itself,
>

I wonder what good will free speech or fact checking will do.
Hear me out ...

What I have seen is that a significant segment of society cannot be
convinced
by facts, no matter what.

As an example, watch the video clip in here
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63593153>, where the BBC reporter
interviews
the Republican (MAGA) candidate for governor of Arizona, who may actually
win
that race. If elections cannot be trusted, then the next step is surely
violence.

And she is not alone. There is a large slew of election deniers running for
key
offices where they may influence the results of future elections.

enabled by a new twitter rather than imposed by outside "authorities",
> or even worse, advertiser interests.  Sometimes the authorities need
> to be fact checked too.
>

Fact checking, to me, does not mean authority.
It means the ability to dig for information, and show that information,
with citations,
to confirm or deny a certain assertion. There is no Ministry of Truth.

I was on a hobby group that is somewhat scientific. It was 2021 (we still
had mandates,
vaccines were slow to roll out, ...etc). The pandemic was mentioned, and
someone posted
a picture saying a friend/co-worker sent him, alleging that the pandemic is
over in China,
showing people on the Great Wall enjoying themselves.

I went to Google, then Images, clicked on the camera icon and entered the
URL of the
picture, only to find out that it was from 2017 or so. When I mentioned
this in the group,
that person was offended. He kept saying things like that I was "censoring
him" ...etc.

So even presenting raw dry facts "this image is pre-pandemic, and therefore
does not
apply to this discussion" gets a hostile response from those who have made
up their
mind on something.

Which makes me question the whole premise of the utility of free speech,
fact-checking
or any of that from a purely pragmatic point of view: will it sway people?
Some maybe.
But a significant portion has made up their mind and will not budge ...
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