A NEW PRICE FOR FREEDOM OR JUST DOING THINGS THE WRONG WAY?

The question of safety/stability vs freedom has been a political and philosophical question since the very first settlements. While its meaning evolved and different societies took different stances on this topic over the years, never does this question become more pertinent in times of crisis like the one we are. The specific example we have today is the Covid-19 vaccination and the wearing of a masks.

Our nation is all about personal freedom; I believe this is one of the values that makes us strong, innovative, and adaptable. The drawback, sadly, it gives people the freedom to ignore crucial information that is clearly to their benefit. Critical thinking and proper information could have certainly reduced this drawback. Unfortunately, the education and media in their present state, it’s understandable why we have senators believing in the Qanon+ conspiracy — an elaborate prank played by 4chan++ on the innocent. The drawback is obvious and dangerous. It can happen in any crisis, someone can bring down the whole ship just based on misinformation, manipulation – and lies! One can certainly make the argument that the only solution to the problem would be to mandate these things we know to be true; but as any politician in the United States fears, it will most likely be political suicide.

I would like to bring up an important point as to why we must tolerate these conspiracy theorists. It is a very slippery slope that we have been down before. It first begins with doing X for the good of society.  Then comes Y, or even worse, when the political pendulum inevitably swings; now you are playing a game of political extremes where there is no middle ground.

Unfortunately, this is how society becomes so politically divided. All they can hope for is a figure that can bridge the gap before it all collapses. This is even without speaking about the fact, that sometimes, those conspiracy theorists can be right, once in a blue moon, as we have seen with the World Health Organization (WHO),  and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) special relationship. 

I think the solution to this dilemma is for us to stick to the belief that individuals can decide what is right, but we must emphasize the importance of “education”, as well as hold the media community accountable for providing unbiased and accurate information. If not,  the alternative is authoritarianism, as experienced by so many countries that took the easy way out.

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+QAnon is a disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against U.S. President Donald Trump, who is fighting the cabal.

 ++4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher “moot” Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, music, literature, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Registration is not available and users typically post anonymously; posting is ephemeral, as threads receiving recent replies are “bumped” to the top of their respective board and old threads are deleted as new ones are created. As of November 2020, 4chan receives more than 20 million unique monthly visitors, with more than 900,000 posts made daily.