You know, I think lots of us on HN, can at least be the people who can and should go to next levels of this discussion.

So yes - we should definitely agree that all new technology for publishing (publishing? COntent creation?) result in issues of free speech.

I will say that each of these, have had different issues, and that from Radio onwards, we are dealing with several issues (side effects ?) that become more intense with each new media developed.

I'll jump to the end, but Social media is definitely different from the printing press.

We certainly get new and improved benefits, such as the distribution of publishing power to individuals.

At the same time, we are getting issues with an abundance of content, that people need content to be eye catching, in order to gain an audience.

Theres also a tendency for networks to consolidate over time, so at the start of the radio era, or TV era, you have a bunch of cable networks, then over time they start collapsing into larger groups, which are better able to survive.

Fully admit that these are highly generalized, I am just thinking of what others can chime in with.

To be fair, scripture doesn't actively change to increase obsessive engagement at the expense of all else.

it does, just more slowly - modern religions are absolutely the result of natural selection for virality and fervor in the field of ideas

I'd argue the two are like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, there is a competition of ideas, but accepted scripture is changed so much more slowly than society itself that it cannot exploit the zeitgeist of any one trend. More importantly, it doesn't change differently to each individual to maximize addictive interaction. The slowness is a feature. I'm not saying there aren't some problems with religion being exploitative, but the responsiveness is what makes social media a much more effective manipulator.

But the argument was that your average peasant would not be able to understand the scripture and be deceived.

Not that different from arguing that your average American can’t see through propaganda on TikTok - I think they can.

And if the argument is that it’s addictive, I mean ok? Lots of things are addictive that aren’t severely harmful. We tolerate those as well.

The argument about teens is an entirely different one, I’m talking about adults.

Not entirely inaccurate! Martin Luther's 95 Theses propagated from Germany to England in a matter of weeks, thanks to the printing press. I think society got better but it sure did change a lot.

the government of China is a hostile adversary and they dont just spread gobs of misinformation and pro-CCP propaganda on TikTok, they also heavily censor topics the CCP does not like. This is not about free expression so much as where the public square should take place. Having the US public square take place in a tightly controlled, deceptive environment controlled by our worst enemy presents an existential risk to the US.

think of the printing press as invented and controlled by your worst enemy and only printing what it deems to be acceptable.