I’m pretty sure giving every moron on earth a globally-accessible soapbox is about the stupidest idea humankind has ever had.
I'm also not sure why your worldview seems to be that given access to all opinions, the stupidest ones too, people will not and cannot learn to make informed judgements for themselves. You will see some stupidity but it's a very bleak and arrogant worldview to presume that people are incapable of making rational decisions given information and time.
"Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past." -- Jean-Paul Sartre
Look at Twitter and reddit, two sites where it's impossible to have a serious discussion because those who hold platform-approved opinions "like to play with discourse" and "seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert."
"They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly" for fear of the moderators.
Skilled, professional, human moderation might counter that, but doesn't scale.
One could make the argument that the eras in which only those who had money or political power had a real voice resulted in a more stable society. Allow everyone to have a voice (full freedom of speech) but outlaw platforms that truly try to give a voice to everyone. If someone really wants to put out a message they can go to the street corner and shout whatever they like, no matter how bad it is, unrestricted.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/11/darwin-day/
But no I'm sure it would be far better if we banned such heretic thoughts and enforced our worldview.
"It's just evolution" did change noticeably, but it's still only 22%. That's up from 9% in 1983.
So presumably the "i dunnos" are decreasing. But nothing seems to alter the misinformation very much.
It's all about the context, and having the requisite creativity to see the drawbacks on the horizon.
I think social media and surveillance marketing are good examples of what he was probably talking about. (Actually, IIRC, the quote was in relation to dating strippers, but you get the idea.)
There are a few “thought leaders” (without much diversity), each followed by a tedious and repetitive peanut gallery.
I’m getting far more from reading on Substack.