Is it normal don’t value free expression?

What we see the more open people are about themselves is that most people aren’t very interesting. Just anecdotally on this site for example, a new person might expect to find a bunch of crazy weirdos, when it’s actually people who think that using drugs or being mildly promiscuous sometimes are substitutes for a personality. From a data perspective there’s a lot of evidence that people are mostly the same and predictable, and that almost nobody has very original opinions, skills, or abilities. By giving someone a couple short personality tests you can accurately predict major life outcomes, beliefs, mental health risks, job performance, etc. Most people are also mediocre even in their own career field, and the great artists like Ye or da Vinci, great athletes like Michael Jordan, or great statesmen like Putin are a tiny outlier minority of people.

Maybe instead of every mediocre person online having an equal platform to say they like watching the office or that those darn vegans are so annoying, an authoritarian regime should give more resources and a platform to the exceptional people to shine among the others. Also to be clear, I’m not claiming to be an interesting person myself, just that I can clearly tell who is and isn’t.

Is It Normal?
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Comments ( 15 ) Sort: best | oldest
  • While it's true that most people are pretty mediocre, that isn't really the point of free expression. We should all be able to be ourselves. The problem is that most of us don't know how to do that. The online world is so full of regurgitated ideas that it's hard to know what is authentic. Add to that, the trolls who enjoy the chaos of lies, free expression is meaningless on most platforms. That doesn't mean we stop. We do these things for our own sense of self, or at least we should.

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    • Well said.

      As for trolls,they wouldn't be so bad if they were ACTUALLY funny or entertaining in their trolling. But 98% of the time they're as predictable as feces.

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  • I'm not entirely sure what your point is. Yeah, some people have more input to particular topics but the existence of those that don't does not take away from the gifted being able to express themselves and contribute to any given topic.

    Then we'd obviously get to the point where "the gifted" are man made puppets groomed in to selling what those in power want sold to the public.

    I'd rather everyone be able to express themselves and not have my expressions taken from me just because Michael knows how to bounce a ball more effectively which somehow makes his expressions more valuable. Lol

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    • There is so much noise out on social media that if I draw a stick figure I can get more clout than an actually talented artist because maybe I have more friends or am more tech literate or better at marketing. It’s my opinion but I think it’s disturbing

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      • It is true that because of things like ai art a lot of true talent is going unnoticed and that's pretty sad but I don't really want that to affect my ability to express myself.

        I want everybody to express the things they like I enjoy hearing people express the things they love and having fun.

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      • I get where you're coming from but I don't think what's suggested here would ever work even if we were in complete agreement. I'd imagine that this idea put in to practice would just result in actors in Hollywood being asked to spread whatever message Hollywood wants.

        Validity being determined by popularity definitely is a problem but I think that problem would be 10x worse with this put in to practice.

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  • Interesting point of view...

    The idea might work if people and groups weren't corrupt, power-hungry and full of vested interests.

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  • Yeah most people are the same, so what? There's more important things to care about than how original or not one is. I don't understand your problem, freedom of expression has nothing to do with how original one is but rather that everyone has a right to express themselves. You want to live in some kind of a dictatorship or something where people aren't allowed to express their true feelings and beliefs? Geez.

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  • Lol, the point of being a person isn’t to be unique. The point of expression isn’t to be unique, it’s to connect.

    Plus like, opinions differ on who would deserve such a platform, man. I don’t really give much of a shit what Kanye or Putin have to say about anything, would much rather hear from some boring rando down the street who actually exists in proximity to my own life somehow.

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  • If you don't allow freedom of expression, even for your political enemies then everything is stifled. Also what about when your political leanings are out of power? you would be muted yourself.

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  • Yeah, that's called fascism. The only way that could work, is if the media was run by a perfectly unbiased, fully morally secure person.
    Why would you think that would work in any other circumstance? The whole idea of the internet if for freedom of expression. If that's something only given to a select few, how ould they find more? What's even the point of having a public internet?
    You see, most public platforms already work like this. You don't get some random chump off the street speaking on CNN. They won't just let anybody fulfill those roles of high profile public engagement.
    Where can us random chumps go? The internet, of course. There, everybody has an opportunity to get popular, share information, and get into the public eye.
    So, we don't have an equal platform, as you claimed. But, it is balanced.

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  • I may be misunderstanding what you're saying but I don't think lackluster art or uninteresting uses of expression is a good reason to get rid of freedom of expression.

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  • I'm definitely a crazy weirdo. I feel like I'm the only person on this site who makes truly weird or crazy posts (that are not troll posts)

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  • I’m too interesting if anything.

    🤣🖕

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