It's honestly quite scary to me how we're able to censor people off the internet from popular discourse. Yes, they're absolutely private companies with the ability to do what they need in service of profits and their own values but it's almost chilling to see how effective this can be on individuals/ideas.

On the flip side, there is a need for action against ideas and individuals that are dangerous to society...but should we really trust google, twitter, amazon, et al., to be the judge, jury and executioner for all this with an entirely invisible process? Are there not elected officials that we've explicitly given this power to?

I have little hope that the legal system will be adapted to the current technocratic society we currently live in given that the average age of someone in Congress is 58 and in the Senate it's 62. That said, if they ever get around to it, they should investigate "shadow banning." The ability to silence people without any notification or even any way for the effected party to prove it is pretty insidious and should have some regulation behind it. They can effectively skirt any public scrutiny and control the entire discourse of a country.

Another (absolutely horrible) reminder that mental health is complex and almost invisible, "justice" seems to mean "money to lobby" more and more, and that the parasitical industry of academic publishing aims to gatekeep knowledge (that we paid for!) from those who are unable/unwilling to pay them again.

So read, learn, do, and don't forget the failings of the mental health system, justice system, and academic publishing industry.

And as a final question: How can we do better in each of these areas? What can be made to help out?