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I was watching a rerun of "Highway to Heaven" with Michael Landon and Victor French yesterday when I got the wind knocked out of me. It all started making sense. Two boys had published a false story in the school newspaper that resulted in serious consequences and firing of somebody. It all got straightened out and a front page retraction was printed in a special edition. Two women were reading it, and one said "It was all a lie". Then, Landon spoke the words of the First Amendment aloud. The second woman then said "I'm not convinced. I've learned where there's smoke, there's usually fire". That was the end of the episode. The intent was to point out the awesome responsibility given to journalism and we as a free people, but there were/are ramifications to prostituting and bastardizing the intended purpose. Then, I saw clearly what is going on with social media platforms and the end result if we're not careful. Big Tech is aiding and abetting usurpation of our Constitutional rights ! Bear with me......... There's a reason fakebook and tooter have their thought police, fact checkers, missing contexters, and "independent" boards. When I saw two posts on here yesterday, I got it. The first said Hillary had been hung at Gitmo at 9:05pm in Gitmo, the second stated Soros had died two hours earlier in the day, but news wouldn't be released until today. This morning, I saw a post shared from Babylon Bee, the satire site. The person who shared it had taken it seriously, and commented as such. All the commenters did, too. Who shares this stuff? Where's it come from? What's going on? By flooding other platforms with misinformation and propaganda, they're lending credibility to their own platforms. Why? They're tanking, and unless they get other platforms censored, they can't reclaim their pinnacle. They'll keep posting such trash to besmirch this and other platforms. Then, they can point to themselves as the shining example of their techniques to justify their censorship. Same as they did by touting "Vote for Joe, he doesn't tweet mean things". Thought police are most certainly in our future if we don't start standing up for something before we fall for everything. Personal responsibility and adult behaviour are requisite right now. Verifying info BEFORE you share it doesn't take that much time. When you check on me when I tell you the DOJ is attempting to interfere in the Arizona recount, or the House is pursuing new charges against Trump, you'll find out I'm correct. The disinformation only destroys the reputation and credibility of the one who spreads it. I don't want that mantle any more than I want the fact checkers, missing contexters, or censors. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Then, unfriend. Too much garbage in is too much garbage out, and our nation is becoming inundated with enough garbage to last hundreds of years. We all bear the responsibility to be morally upright and creatures of integrity. Failure to be that WILL allow the destruction of our very foundations. Narcissism is a bad substrate to erect a building on ! Daily doses of misinformation and propaganda aren't new. They were effectively used in the past. People need to remember Nurembourg, though. That penalty isn't pretty !