Now The Open Marketplace of Ideas Is Considered To Be The Dark Ages?

The purpose of the Society’s Building Blocks blog is “Critically Thinking About Things That Change Society” and it’s been a rather depressing task in the 21st century to witness all the absurdities coming to the forefront of our society that are destroying our culture and the core foundations of our country.

Today I’m going to discuss the following statement that was in another blog I read this morning.

“I can’t just suddenly decide that things like free trade, technological progress, science, reason, tolerance, free speech and the rule of law are negotiable. I won’t willingly return to the Dark Ages.”

Since the Dark Ages is generally considered to be the period between the years 500 to 1000, or the first 500 years of the Middle Ages, but it can also mean the entire Middle Ages, which stretched between the years 500 to 1500. It’s really difficult to derive which specific period of time the author was referring to or why he is using the word “negotiable” when he seems to be making this comparison with the Dark Ages. Let’s see if we can figure out what the author is trying to imply.

To begin the discussion, I’ll start with a brief review of the word “negotiable”.

Negotiable: open to discussion or modification.

So, if I interrupt this segment in full context with the rest of the author’s blog post and literally replace the word “negotiable” with the phrase “open to discussion or modification” then the more full meaning appears to be revealed; it appears to me that the word “negotiable” is being used to represent, “challengeable by free speech”. The reference to the Dark Ages appears to be being used as an intentional rhetorical smear aimed directly at anyone that might challenge the approved narrative on things like “free trade, technological progress, science, reason, tolerance, free speech and the rule of law”. It appears to me that the author chose his words carefully to dig deep into a very dark place in your mind that might be teetering on the indoctrination fence to convince you to believe that challenging an approved narrative(s) is engaging in heresy, and I think is why the author compared “negotiable” to the Dark Ages in the way he did.

Here’s the problem with the implications in this apparent comparison.

We live in the United States of America and we have a Constitution which enumerates freedom of speech which helps our society and culture to maintain that the market place of ideas is open for all, even if you disagree. Things like “free trade, technological progress, science, reason, tolerance, free speech and the rule of law” are absolutely open to discussion or modification. Revisions to narratives can be based on lots of things including societal and cultural shifts, changes due to additions to our knowledge base, changes due to new facts that contradict old facts, etc. Having an open marketplace of ideas is absolutely essential to our society, culture, freedom, and liberty – it’s a core foundation. This author essentially told his readers that having an open marketplace of ideas where people can challenge an approved narrative is equivalent to allowing heresy. Of course those that openly challenge an approved narrative are engaging in heresy and are attacked for exercising their free speech and speaking out. I’m sure you all can search history and find out how heretics were treated, persecuted, and even killed in the name of maintaining the narrative that’s declared as the only truth.

So returning to what this blog is all about, “Critically Thinking About Things That Change Society“; it’s not so hard to see how this anti-free speech line of thinking is anti-Constitutional and can easily be used to suppress our freedom of speech by persecuting those that challenge approved narratives until there is no freedom of speech left. This line of thinking is a serious threat to our society and culture.

Take heed my fellow Americans, there’s a very slippery slope that some of our fellow Americans have stepped on regarding free speech and they’re slowly sliding directly into the teeth of an Orwellian styled totalitarian society, the problem is, they’re rationalizing their thinking. Many are so close to it that they can’t see how steep the slope is. It’s kind of like the old “frog in the pot” metaphor, people aren’t unaware of how their thinking is anti-free speech and how that kind of thinking threatens to our society and culture because those thoughts developed so gradually that it made them seem normal.

Addition: There were some other issues I had in the blog posted discussed in this blog post but I chose to address those in a comment that was not posted so I posted it in a different blog titled, “What’s Wrong With The Democrats?“