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Comment by bheadmaster | Hacker News Reader

> I think psychology and history is quite clear that sunlight isn't the best disinfectant

It doesn't seem quite clear to me. Would you care to provide some more information on the topic?

> And it ignores that bandwidth is limited, so kicking off crackpots can actually improve the negative freedom of everyone else to communicate.

And who exactly should have the authority to decide which ideas are allowed and which are not?

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  "It doesn't seem quite clear to me. Would you care to provide some more information on the topic?"

There are a few areas of study that tease this out. The study of social contagion primarily. Studies of memetics. Studies of influence and persuasion that show the impact of social proof and repetition. Cultural histories that look at how fact-free mind viruses (such as nationalism or antisemitism) shaped societies. Studies about the neurological underpinnings of what kind of content people seek out (it's a part of the brain that's involved in pain). Studies into human tribalism and how our beliefs just mimic that of our in group.

  "And who exactly should have the authority to decide which ideas are allowed and which are not?"

There's no easy risk free way to draw a line, but at the same time drawing no line poses incredibly large downsides, so I'd say something like Canada's approach where democratically elected people decide is the best.

I agree with what you said mostly

> And who exactly should have the authority to decide which ideas are allowed and which are not?

This is the scariest part, because in the end everyone has their own bias.

However, don’t you agree that things like speech can soon become an ideology at some point? Which we already blocked anyway i.e communism, nazism

It is indeed a hard problem to solve and hard decision for the leader of big tech companies tbh

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