"This is why poor information is really a demand-side phenomenon and not really a result of supply. So, if you want to control speech, you have to address the demand for it and no one ever talks about that."
Very much so. There are supply effects here, in that the massively-increased supply of poor information introduced by the Internet age has made it easier to find things that confirm whatever feelings you want them to confirm, and the sheer mass of it all makes it even harder to grok where reality may lie. But the supply issues are only "issues" insofar as there is great demand for information that confirms our feelings.
Also, regarding the unreality of everything: I keep thinking about Baudrillard and his concept of hyper-reality. However much we dislike the postmodernists, this seems like it's onto something (forgive me) real.
Indeed! And that last point is why I literally touch trees every day. I haven't read Baudrillard. But (thanks to you) reading *about* hyper reality being all-pervasive to the point where any distinction is irrelevant makes me realise something. RC keeps talking about reality without ever saying anything about why it matters. So I'll think on that now.
"This is why poor information is really a demand-side phenomenon and not really a result of supply. So, if you want to control speech, you have to address the demand for it and no one ever talks about that."
Very much so. There are supply effects here, in that the massively-increased supply of poor information introduced by the Internet age has made it easier to find things that confirm whatever feelings you want them to confirm, and the sheer mass of it all makes it even harder to grok where reality may lie. But the supply issues are only "issues" insofar as there is great demand for information that confirms our feelings.
Also, regarding the unreality of everything: I keep thinking about Baudrillard and his concept of hyper-reality. However much we dislike the postmodernists, this seems like it's onto something (forgive me) real.
Indeed! And that last point is why I literally touch trees every day. I haven't read Baudrillard. But (thanks to you) reading *about* hyper reality being all-pervasive to the point where any distinction is irrelevant makes me realise something. RC keeps talking about reality without ever saying anything about why it matters. So I'll think on that now.