1) Government is not 'in your way' - it's 'your government'.
2) There are absolutely some areas where governance has to be there - financial disclosures and regulation, and in Healthcare. Those are two examples where the can be no substitute.
3) "I personally would very much like to make my own decisions based on the information available, and I don't need the government to limit my options or hold my hand in any way. "
You are completely incapable of doing this.
Do you have a medical research team that can research every drug you take to the full extent?
Do you have an auto safety team that can research and test drive every car you buy?
Do you have a legal and business team that can fully research every company you work with and work for?
It's absurd. We utterly depend on networks of integrity and there isn't a person who can avoid it.
That said - for more common forms of information - you can access almost anything you want on the internet. So long as you're not making bombs or threatening to kill people - you can read lies, and lie if you want - to your hearts content.
Twitter is not the Internet, or the Government.
4) " I also have no problem with letting misinformed people fail to the full extent that their failure implies, including pursuing quackery for their medical ailments."
The lack of self awareness here is borderline offensive.
In a world without regulation with respect to medical information than there is now way of determining what quackery is
YOU will 100% be a victim of 'quackery' the very first time you take any medicine at all!
Unless you can literally run a medical trial on every medicine you buy - then you have no clue if what you are buying is legit or not.
... unless you developed 'sources of authority'.
We develop these 'sources of authority' for good reason.
In the end, if you don't want to take your doctors advice, you don't have to. Nobody will stop you from ingesting poison to cure a cold, but, the rest of us want to have access to credible information, so we won't let you tell other people that your poison is a magic cure for a cold.
5) "The problem with "the truth" is that it substantially doesn't exist"
This is false.
" How do you know, for sure, as a matter of scientific fact, that the election wasn't tampered with in any way? I'm not suggesting that it was, only that it is unknowable. "
This is absurd reasoning along the lines of: "Can you prove to me that Biden and Xi are not the same person?!? How do you know for sure!?"
The election actually was tampered with. We know there are false ballots and registration with 100% certainty. We also know with very high certainty, that the issues are not widespread and that the election had integrity.
In much the same way you and your bank can agree, with a high degree of certainty, how much 'money' is your digital bank account. We have process, records, oversight, validation, systems of integrity.
Most things can be resolved to some reasonable factual basis.
"The 2020 was not 'stolen'" - That's factual.
"Ivermectin cures COVID". As far as I know, false.
"COVID Vaccines are Dangerous". Well, that's an editorialisation, but the facts of the matter can definitely be established, and put into perspective.
But finally this:
"I don't want an authority dictating what is and isn't the "right" interpretation of history or current events,"
Who is trying to do that?
What government is telling you what to think?
We're talking about Twitter moderation.
Twitter is a private company, that has some kind of relevance towards 'public commons', it means that you probably can't go on there saying things about medical technology that are completely false, and possibly not saying things about the status of state that have meaningful impact. And you can't threaten people. That's it.
Nobody is telling you what to do or what to believe, but if you're trying to lie about election outcomes (and it's having a material impact on democratic legitimacy) - you're going to be off the platform.
I'd like to note that you've disregarded my main point, that reputation serves as a fine solution to problems of trust.
> Government is not 'in your way' - it's 'your government'.
Government is in my was as soon as it prevents me from peacefully doing something/transacting with someone. If I want to take a loan and would only qualify at a rate deemed "predatory", it may still be in my interest to do so. If I want to pursue experimental, unregulated treatment for an ailment, it may still be in my interest to do so.
Aside from that, if I want to sell my kidneys, take heroin, or eat rat poison, who else has the right to tell me that I can't? Who can claim more ownership over my own person than I?
> Do you have a medical research team that can research every drug you take to the full extent?
> Do you have an auto safety team that can research and test drive every car you buy?
I don't need to, all I need is to trust a reputable provider of these goods/services. Auto safety ratings for instance are perfectly provided by the IIHS, a reputable, independent nonprofit. We don't need government to solve trust problems.
> there is now way of determining what quackery is
I couldn't disagree more. Academic and medical reputation is can can continue to be the driving force for integrity in healthcare and medical science, much as it is in non-medical science.
> "Can you prove to me that Biden and Xi are not the same person?!? How do you know for sure!?"
Well today I can be reasonably certain, but how long do you think that certainty will last? 100 years? 1000? 10,000? At some point it will be akin to asking "How do we know Jesus was a real person?", which is rather a valid question don't you think?
1) Government is not 'in your way' - it's 'your government'.
2) There are absolutely some areas where governance has to be there - financial disclosures and regulation, and in Healthcare. Those are two examples where the can be no substitute.
3) "I personally would very much like to make my own decisions based on the information available, and I don't need the government to limit my options or hold my hand in any way. "
You are completely incapable of doing this.
Do you have a medical research team that can research every drug you take to the full extent?
Do you have an auto safety team that can research and test drive every car you buy?
Do you have a legal and business team that can fully research every company you work with and work for?
It's absurd. We utterly depend on networks of integrity and there isn't a person who can avoid it.
That said - for more common forms of information - you can access almost anything you want on the internet. So long as you're not making bombs or threatening to kill people - you can read lies, and lie if you want - to your hearts content.
Twitter is not the Internet, or the Government.
4) " I also have no problem with letting misinformed people fail to the full extent that their failure implies, including pursuing quackery for their medical ailments."
The lack of self awareness here is borderline offensive.
In a world without regulation with respect to medical information than there is now way of determining what quackery is
YOU will 100% be a victim of 'quackery' the very first time you take any medicine at all!
Unless you can literally run a medical trial on every medicine you buy - then you have no clue if what you are buying is legit or not.
... unless you developed 'sources of authority'.
We develop these 'sources of authority' for good reason.
In the end, if you don't want to take your doctors advice, you don't have to. Nobody will stop you from ingesting poison to cure a cold, but, the rest of us want to have access to credible information, so we won't let you tell other people that your poison is a magic cure for a cold.
5) "The problem with "the truth" is that it substantially doesn't exist"
This is false.
" How do you know, for sure, as a matter of scientific fact, that the election wasn't tampered with in any way? I'm not suggesting that it was, only that it is unknowable. "
This is absurd reasoning along the lines of: "Can you prove to me that Biden and Xi are not the same person?!? How do you know for sure!?"
The election actually was tampered with. We know there are false ballots and registration with 100% certainty. We also know with very high certainty, that the issues are not widespread and that the election had integrity.
In much the same way you and your bank can agree, with a high degree of certainty, how much 'money' is your digital bank account. We have process, records, oversight, validation, systems of integrity.
Most things can be resolved to some reasonable factual basis.
"The 2020 was not 'stolen'" - That's factual.
"Ivermectin cures COVID". As far as I know, false.
"COVID Vaccines are Dangerous". Well, that's an editorialisation, but the facts of the matter can definitely be established, and put into perspective.
But finally this:
"I don't want an authority dictating what is and isn't the "right" interpretation of history or current events,"
Who is trying to do that?
What government is telling you what to think?
We're talking about Twitter moderation.
Twitter is a private company, that has some kind of relevance towards 'public commons', it means that you probably can't go on there saying things about medical technology that are completely false, and possibly not saying things about the status of state that have meaningful impact. And you can't threaten people. That's it.
Nobody is telling you what to do or what to believe, but if you're trying to lie about election outcomes (and it's having a material impact on democratic legitimacy) - you're going to be off the platform.
That's it.
It's really not even that big of a deal.