Trump’s supporters cannot all be bad. Even the people who responded to the call to Washington to influence Congress to protect their votes, in an election they were led to believe was illegitimate, were not necessarily bad. Those supporters who were encouraged to march toward the Capital, by their President, to let Congress know that their votes should not be disregarded were probably not bad.
There is no question that the people who forced their way past barriers, broke into buildings, and attacked police officers were wrong, criminal, and in many cases extremist, racist, scumbags, undeserving of the rights they take for granted in America. There is also no question that the President and his stooges, who incited a crowd to become a violent mob, are responsible and should be held accountable. But, there is something bigger afoot. We need to ask ourselves how this could happen.
Imagine if the President you voted for, asked you for help. Imagine if the news you listened to reinforced the idea that your rights were being taken away and the President you voted for, had been robbed of his second term. What if your family and neighbors believed that your country was under attack from within, and something needed to be done? What if it was all a lie? How would you know? What would you do?
Let’s accept, for conversation sake, that we may have gullible people insulated in an echo chamber. Let’s assume that elected officials are and will place their interests and desire to retain power above what is right, or what is best for the county. Our Founding Fathers knew this would happen. They intentionally structured our government to keep such individuals from being able to amass too much power when elected.
There will always be extremists, racists and others who want to destroy America. There will always be selfish and corrupt politicians willing to mislead their constituents for personal gain. Unfortunately, there will also always be people susceptible to the influence of those they view as “rich and famous.” It seems like the underlying question must be, how do we prevent this from happening again?
Some of our founding fathers felt that we, the people were too uneducated, uninformed and removed from the seats of power to be trusted to recognize a tyrant and make a proper decision. Those founding fathers felt we should be protected from ourselves. The Electoral College is a remnant of that thinking, but overall, we were left to make our own choices and suffer the consequences.
Deceivers need a way to pass their message. Imagine if Hitler had Social Media. How might things have been different. There is a growing consensus that Social Media needs to change. This change will not happen voluntarily until there is financial incentive to do so. Right now, the more sensational the lie, the more money everyone makes. Section 230 of the Communications Decency act needs to change, but not for the reason that Trump wanted.
This is not Conservative Censorship, or a violation of someone’s First Amendment Rights. Private companies are not held to the same standard as our Constitution holds our Government. Republicans are supposed to stand for small government, and free markets. Where Don Trump wanted to be able to threaten or strong arm a private company to let him lie at will, Section 230 needs to be reworked for the good of the world.
Social Media, like any other media outlet, should be accountable for the information that they distribute to the public. If we take a minute to ask ourselves, how did we get to this point? How were so many Good Americans misled? A big part of the answer is that people have been free to distribute lies and intentionally false information online through Social Media, and no one cares. Let’s have Congress do their job and figure out the right way to revise Section 230 to cut down on the misinformation flying around the internet. What do you think?
