d.: I’m going to take a break from the silliness today and discuss something that has been in the news lately: free speech. Mehta has decided to fire their third-person fact checkers. If you read this blog regularly, you might be able to guess how I fee about that. I will say that it’s a step in the right direction, but is it enough?
The outgoing president wants to ban TikTok in this country because of its parent company, Byte Dance’s connection to the Chinese government, and the incoming president has already tried to do this in his first term. I can see their points, but, really, is this violating our first amendment rights?
You may have noticed that I’ve gotten away from more serious subjects after my run ins with the “Farce Checkers.” I didn’t start writing this blog to change anyone’s mind about politics, or even religion. It’s just supposed to be (mainly) for fun. However, when something is taken out of context and then deleted because it has key words that are checked by artificial intelligence, I do feel that this violates my first amendment rights, and I’m not alone.
I may not be in the majority in this thought, but my father is a retired engineer and there are numerous medical people in my family. These two professions, along with teachers, are held to a higher standard than other professionals, and I believe that is a good thing. Imagine if the Golden Gate Bridge was built to 80% of the specifications for it (or any other bridge or road for that matter). Would you trust it?
I have the advantage of being able to consult family members and coworkers before having any medical procedures done, and not everyone is privy to this kind of information. However, if a surgeon is a bit cocky, that doesn’t bother me. That means s/he is good at his or her job, and confidence goes a long way in that field. IF a surgeon tells me that this surgery has an 80% success rate, though, I’m going to look for alternative measures to solve my problem, or find a more confident surgeon.
I use 80% because that was my estimation of how accurate the (hopefully now former) fact checkers were. That was an estimation, not a scientific fact, but no one argued with my estimation, not even the “fact checkers.” 80% sounds good, but, really, do you only want to have 80% of your first amendment rights?
Cal.E. and I will be back tomorrow with more silliness that, I hope, will make you laugh, or at least smile.
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