I feel that change for the better can only come about by having a general consensus and a common view in society about what is descent and honourable. That’s not the same as everyone agreeing with a the way forward. Feelings and a common consensus can be manipulated and used to divide rather than unite. We now seem to live in a society where facts have little value and it’s opinion leaders who hold sway. A free and Independant media has throughout history been the catalyst of change and for holding people or institutions to account. For me it’s a slippery slope we are on where as a society we are, I believe, becoming increasing distrustful of the press or the facts that are being presented.
I find it difficult to understand how we are drifting into a situation where freedom of speech, expression of ideas or concepts are being prohibited regardless of how controversial they may seem today. After all, it’s not that long ago slavery was accepted, women didn’t have the vote and we imprisoned and sometimes chemically treated anyone not heterosexual. It was the minority who held a different view, and were able to be heard that brought about change through the presentation of facts. What is of concern is that the media is leading and encouraging the charge down the rabbit hole. In all situations all major changes for the better has been led by the dispersal of facts not opinions.
There will always be extreme views, after all a Gaussian curve defines anything normal. We will always have the 6 sigma extremes on every opinion, what used to happen is the media helped to pull society around from drifting/ sleep walking to either extreme position; right or left. Using maths as the example, if you start chopping out parts of the Gaussian curve, it’s no longer normal, it becomes extreme by definition, it needs all of its parts to be in balance. The curve is only as representative of the population as the data that is used to create it. Hence the overwhelming frustration that real factual based news seems to suffering the fate of the dinosaur.
What has happened historically is when any part of society becomes isolated, facts affecting it being presented distorted or relying on opinions terrible consequences quickly follow.
