> There’s no evidence that sunlight is actually the best disinfectant;
We've never found anything that works better. For any given idea discussing and examining the positions for and against it is still the best way to get to the truth. The more transparent that process is, the better.
Conspiracy theorists don't care about facts or truth. They will act as they do regardless, but free speech ideals make it very difficult for echo chambers to exist because all ideas can be publicly challenged.
there were, numerically, basically no alt-right people 20 years ago. now regular assholes are being infected by this stuff and a huge percentage of the information storm coming at me every day is either angry, an outright lie, a reposting of something hateful or untrue, and "sunlight" isnt helping anything. we are creating an insane landscape of anger, loathing and unreality, and now more and more public figures are amplifying it, including the owner of a major social media site.
sunlight being disinfectant is not true. stochastic terrorism driven by media hyper engagement is definitely true.
> there were, numerically, basically no alt-right people 20 years ago.
Although it's never had a good one, for any reasonable definition of "alt-right people" this isn't true at all. It's the same racist far-right folk as always, just now online (like we all are).
> now regular assholes are being infected by this stuff
Not really. The idea of racist ideology as an infection is dangerous and simply wrong. You could spend all day every day listening to racist propaganda and hate speech and you'll never suddenly wake up thinking some people are better than others because of race. If everyone who listened to hate speech became mind-controlled into being "radicalized" researchers and anti-racist activists who do follow that stuff would have a massive problem, but it doesn't happen. There are people who are vulnerable to falling in with that sort of crowd, but even then it's not the message that hooks them.
> a huge percentage of the information storm coming at me every day is either angry, an outright lie, a reposting of something hateful or untrue and "sunlight" isnt helping anything.
the internet has enabled easy global communication and some of what we get is malicious and manufactured to deceive, but mostly it's a distorted reflection of what people are feeling in real life. Social media platforms encourage the worst in us, and reward exaggerated anger and extreme inflexible positions. That's largely to do with how social media platforms are designed and the algorithms that drive engagement. We don't need massive amounts of censorship to solve that problem.
Sunlight is helping!
I've seen people (even on this site) post information only to be corrected by others. I've even seen some of those people acknowledge that they were wrong and start to question their sources!
Having hate groups in massive online communities made it easier than ever to keep an eye on them. It's enabled us to see what lies were being spread and get fact checks published to increase exposure to the truth before many people were exposed to the lies (research has shown it's far more effective to inoculate people with education before exposure to misinformation than it is to get them to change their mind on something after they've been misled).
Because many of the traitors planning to attack the capitol on Jan 6th were on well known social media platforms like Facebook and Parler police and researchers were able to use those posts to identify and prosecute people they wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
It all comes down to this: You can't fight against something you aren't allowed to see. As long as people are able to communicate (online or offline) they're going to spread misinformation. We shouldn't just sweep it under the rug so that we can pretend the problem is solved. We have to confront it directly and openly even when it's uncomfortable.
We've never found anything that works better. For any given idea discussing and examining the positions for and against it is still the best way to get to the truth. The more transparent that process is, the better.
Conspiracy theorists don't care about facts or truth. They will act as they do regardless, but free speech ideals make it very difficult for echo chambers to exist because all ideas can be publicly challenged.