John Gruber commenting at Daring Fireball about Facebook allowing “climate deniers” to post “disinformation” without their content being “fact checked”:
Facebook can’t have it both ways. They can be a haven for right-wing disinformation or they can be a part of civil society. Zuckerberg seemingly thinks they can have it both ways, but it can’t hold.
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I used to admire Mr. Gruber because he valiantly defended Apple from all those who maligned and misunderstood it. Yes, Apple is just a technology company, but at least under Steve Jobs it was, in it’s own small and imperfect way, dedicated to what is true, good, and above all beautiful.
But Mr. Gruber has, in the Age of Trump, become increasingly political, and my own views have developed into something he, no doubt, would consider execrable. So I don’t much like reading him any more, or listening to his podcasts. No one likes tromping through the jungle undergrowth in enemy territory when there are ideological landmines about the place.
But he still provides some of the best commentary on Apple, so at this time of year (when Apple holds its annual developers conference, WWDC) I risk it.
And today, I found on his blog that jewel of bigotry and intolerance quoted above.
A man who so dedicates himself to defending the maligned (Apple, and its fans), is yet so guilty of the same injustice, when it really matters, namely, when he regards his fellow citizens.
He appears to have no awareness of the fact, nor could he even imagine, that there are intelligent, thoughtful people—including, yes, scientists—who have evidence-based disagreements about climate predictions. Are they right? Perhaps not. Perhaps they are disastrously wrong.
But is it not right and just for Facebook to regard as opinion a stance about which, it turns out, reasonable people disagree?
According to John Gruber, no. No. Because it is not merely a different view of a difficult and complex subject; it is “right-wing disinformation.” And the people who hold that view are not fellow citizens with a right to express their viewpoint in a public forum like Facebook without fact-checking that nullifies, even if it does not outright silence, their views.
Such people are not, according to Mr. Gruber, “part of civilized society”.
Where, I wonder, does Mr. Gruber—and progressives like him—think that it will lead when they persistently and obnoxiously brand anyone who disagrees with them beyond the bounds of civil society?
If progressives like him keep pushing this line, then, I fear, society will become quite uncivil indeed. And they will pine for the golden days when their world view, destructive and disgusting as it is, was so generously and peacefully tolerated that they mistook our temporary malaise for their total victory.
No, John, it cannot hold.