big_fat_fluffy

Well, you answered your own question 3 times. Consider the nature of that kind of conversation.

In a nutshell, thinking coarsens as it passes hand to hand. First-hand is finest. Fourth-hand is a crude and nigh-solipsistic.

So that's one argument for independent thought.

I think that isolating oneself in a cave might be best.

Imagine an illusion, the matrix, built not of scifi machinery but of habit, maintained by the presence of others.

Get alone and the habits dissolve. And then the invisible becomes visible.

Because drugs are bad mmmkay?

And drugs are defined by tv shows. Drugs are pills.

Also, talk about drugs anywhere and you'll encounter 40-somethings with an unreasonable hatred of drugs. They get crazy. That's the "just say no" propaganda talking. It was pushed in the schools in the 80s, and we still hear the echoes.

It's a testament to the power of media and propaganda.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/friendship-is-optimal

When both sides are full of professional liars, that won't work.

We might have to settle for not knowing.

Yes of course.

But by what method or algorithm does this DECENTRALIZED SOCIAL MEDIA system protect us from propagandists and censors?

What is a method in THAT?

Distributed tagging and voting? The grace of our benevolent moderators? Something else?

I mean, combatting propaganda and censorship is the #1 issue here.

How do we protect ourselves from propagandists and censors? Large, small, popular and individual.

I might add, "become comfortable with uncertainty". Because nothing drowns you in a swamp of bullshit like an excessive need for certainty.

Repeating "they are bad and dumb" ad nauseum is no way to inspire sane conversation. It's just echo chamber circle jerk.

I find that the people who use terms like "right wing loser" are indistinguishable from the people who use terms like "left wing loser".