Censoring Science

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Has anyone else been troubled by all the censorship being done by the big tech companies lately?  Several entities from YouTube to Facebook and others have unveiled various levels of censorship against discussion topics that go against the current narrative on the covid-19 response.

Now, I get the value of having a consistent message in a crisis in order to help drive consistent actions in society.  And if I saw hard science proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current actions were beyond reproach, then yes, for the good of society a case could be made to limit propagation of ideas that could harm the broader needs of society.

However, what we really have is an unproven hypothesis with incomplete information.  I will assume intentions are good, but the road to destruction is paved with good intentions.  But that also means we do not have all the answers.  If we had those, the virus would be whipped and my daughter could get a real graduation ceremony versus some sort of virtual one.

But instead, we are suppressing voices that could provide an alternative perspective and prompt intellectually honest conversations that could get us to answers faster.

There is a lot of noise on social media.  But if we let the government entities either directly or indirectly dictate what the “correct” opinion or guidance is, where will that leave us?  Scientists and doctors afraid to express ideas?  How is that helpful to solving problems? 

Unfortunately, this is becoming more and more brazen in the US.  We have seen it on more fringe political groups.  We now see it on the covid response against licensed medical doctors.  Where will we see this next?  Mainstream political thought?  Any opinion that goes against the mainstream narrative?  This is pretty scary.

The first book in the Dreamer series touches on this, but the second book Free to Dream addresses it in detail.  This mindset of silencing causes scientific progress to come to a screeching halt because people are afraid to advocate for an idea that may not be in current favor with the government guidance and entities.    Scientific progress only happens efficiently when there is freedom of thought and action.  When people are afraid to act, well, you get the status quo – Something I am not sure many people want to hold on to right now.