ThirstyFish

Traditionally, in theaters and lecture halls, actors and lecturers took the stage and addressed a large audience sitting in an amphitheater. Now, especially with the advent of television and the Internet, the roles are being inverted. Increasingly, the individual is put on center stage and then bombarded with thousands of conflicting lectures, images, opinions, perspectives and ideas, each competing for influence. Most individuals are left in a permanent state of confusion, unable to reconcile the huge number of contradictions. It's become impossible to know who to trust, what to believe and how to think critically. Consequently, many simply turn their backs to knowledge.

At first, it might seem plausible to explain this inversion through many theories about the natural and unpreventable side-effects of information overload arising out of technology; Simply put, this might be due to the unprecedented amounts of information we now have to sort through. On the other hand, confusion is not only in inherently controversial or conspiratorial subjects, but also in subjects we would expect to be "contradiction free", because they're supposed to be based on facts; Mathematics, science and the news.

What is the unemployment rate? Is it 5.7 percent, or 56 percent? Are the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over or not? Why did we go to war in Iraq to begin with? Is the U.S. economy recovering, or is it not recovering? Is global warming real, or is global cooling real? Is climate change a threat, or is it exaggerated? These are not questions that have contradictory answers. What makes them controversial is not the "facts". The only thing that makes them controversial and confusing is the misinformation disseminated by certain special interests and governments. What keeps people in a constant state of confusion is not the information overload, it is the premeditated propagation of disinformation.

Freedom of expression has become a cover to invert the amphitheater. Those who can actually inform us and put things in a coherent perspective are being removed from the stage, replaced with a mob of news anchors, pseudo-scientists, experts and politicians intentionally bombarding us with inaccurate and contradictory information. Facts are being substituted with opinion. And, perpetrators are claiming that this is their First Amendment right. How is, intentionally confusing people to the point of stupor using falsehoods and false narratives, a "right"?

Despite all the evidence, if you are still claiming that the earth is flat, you have a right to your opinion, but you shouldn't expect a stage and the privilege to confuse people. Similarly, if you are claiming that the unemployment rate is 5.7 percent, you shouldn't be given a platform...