Why more legislation is not a smart way to fight fake news

More legislation to fight fake news simply means the custodians of power can only eventually become more powerful as they will become the final arbiter of the truth.

That is OK if the governments have a stellar trek record fulfilling their duty of care to thr general public by keeping to the truth.

The problem is they ALL have a terrible trek record of being truthful.

As frequently they do all sorts of things to information from embellishing it to giving it a good spin so much so that the last thing that ever comes out from anything the government manages in the form of the apparatus of the ‘truth’ resembles anything to do with the truth….and that is the very sad and inconvenient truth.

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‘If we are to listen to officialdom. They will tell you and I that the human race is at the verge of being destroyed by the advent of fake news. Just look at what is happening. There’s alot of people scrambling here and there and recounting with great urgency their version of how they believe post truth age is closer to predition than salvation and that something needs to be done about it.

They all speak as if this is something that is new that requires something radically new as well to counter…and that is the problem. Because more laws simply means the problem gets outsourced to government…more laws also means the problem is given the reductive treatment where everything that doesnt abide to one version of the truth is considered fake news and since everything is reductible to a crime…the real problem doesnt get solved.

What might we ask is the real problem? The problem as i see it is simply this, people need to innoculate themselves with critical thinking skills to enable them to winnow truth from lies! I mean if a girl kissed me and i stick my tongue out and she starts to panic and insist that very act will make her pregnant…then whose fault is it?

Perhaps what i am trying to convey here is at some point in the causal chain…at some point in the blame game. The individual who stands before fake news has to take responsibility for his thought processes.

The problem is not as easy as catching those people who generate fake news…that can never be the solution. Anyone who has two brain cells will tell you that, but it seems these days even common sense doesnt seem to be that common.’