In the short term and from where we are - yes it is a bad thing; because the censorship is mainly used to exclude true content and give lies and evil a monopoly.
But in the long term, strategically? Maybe not - because the overwhelming problem with the mass and social media is the mass and social media themselves; not the bias of their content.
99% of the damage done by the mass/ social media is irrespective of their content: even if they were only publishing true, beautiful and virtuous stuff; still the scale, pervasiveness, invasiveness and addictiveness of the media are what does most of the damage.
(Think back a couple of decades to when the internet was 'free' - were things then moving in the right direction? Obviously not.)
I personally will be sad when I am shut-down or compelled move onto a micro-medium (sending-out group e-mails, perhaps?); but the fact is that nowadays there is already so very little of the mass/ social media that interests me (and much less that benefits me), that I wouldn't much miss it too badly - indeed, it would do me good, overall.
Insofar as monitoring, control and censorship inevitably reduces usage; and insofar as once begun, censorship is likely to continue to increase exponentially... then anything which reduces the impact of the mass/ social media is probably a Good Thing.
Indeed, unless the mass/ social media collapse down to a small fraction of their current size - we really have no realistic hope.
So from where we are now, Leftist censorship is a Bad Thing - but its net effect may well be to begin to move things towards where we ought ultimately to be - which is a world without them.
(To see this argument in full, read my 2014 mini-book Addicted to Distraction)
I would say that an essential aspect of what is true, beautiful and virtuous is that it invites us to pause and consider what we should do and why we should do it.
ReplyDeleteThus, if the content of the media really was true, beautiful, and virtuous it would not be addicting nor distracting. In fact, this is the common response when you do happen to encounter something really true, beautiful, and virtuous. You suddenly are drawn out of your enjoyment of it to contemplation of what it is demanding that you go forth and do in the real world. Not merely because you know that the next link you click is unlikely to be as good...no, because any act of mere continued audience seems inadequate to the impulse which touches our heart.
Even more so if you knew that the next meme, or video, or blog post, or whatever would be equally edifying and inspiring. You would absolutely need to take some kind of true, beautiful, and virtuous action yourself in response to most recent inspiration before moving to the next. That's what it means to be inspired.
When we are addicted to distraction, we are merely talking about gradations of debasement of our mind and spirit, not some choice of things that are really good rather than bad.