The Accelerant of Hate in the Fire of Unreason

The Age of Reason is ending, and knowledge is being de-legitimized. Truth itself is being dismantled. A scientific consensus is dismissed. A moral decision discounted. Even scientific discourse which was doing a fair to middling job in the absence of Scriptural reasoning is being removed from the public conversation. Is biblical thinking retaking its rightful crown on the throne of thought in the world replacing the disappearance of scientific thought? No, anarchy is. Unruliness and chaos are stepping into the gap. Spirituality abhors a vacuum. God will give you what you want if you are stupid enough to ignore Him and keep pursing your sin too.

In the wake of the most recent debacle of the Christianity Today bias editorial piece written by Mark Galli this all becomes brutally evident to me. Democracy, like Christianity, depends on shared truth(s). Regardless, both are now in retreat. Driven back by the stinging whip of political biases, irrationality, unfounded emotions and political correctness. In their place a form of autocracy or tyranny, which thrives on shared lies. It is advancing at an alarming pace in an immoral blitzkrieg. In the absence of God’s truth, scientific truth poorly tried to fill the gap. Now neither fulfill the need and reason is folding under the onslaught. Bedlam and confusion are usurping them.

Division is fomenting. Hatefulness is surging. There are violent, libelous and slanderous attacks on religious and non-religious alike. Yet all this discontent and division has something in common. It's being enabled by a handful of Internet companies that have become the largest most dehumanized propaganda machine in history. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media platforms reach billions of people. The algorithms these platforms depend on deliberately amplify content that keeps users engaged (Cambridge Analytica, Emerdata, SCL Group) with content that appeals to humanities vilest sinful nature(s) (Romans 1). Thereby triggering rage, anger, division and idiocy.

Companies are weaponizing data against you via misinformation.

That is why fake news outperforms real news on social media. Lies spread faster than truth. In my experience most do not even fact check something before spreading it or reposting it online. Truth is, even 'fact checkers' cannot be trusted as they too are compromised politically/morally. It doesn’t matter if they are Christian or not. I’ve seen just as many Christians as non-believers propagating patently false or error laden information. We have lost a shared sense of responsibility of maintaining the integrity of the basic facts upon which democracy depends. Why? Because we’ve destroyed the family unit or are in the process of destroying it by redefinition of it. No proper fertile ground to cultivate and teach proper behavior and ideas in a well-structured family, teaching gets subverted or eliminated completely. How many criminals come from broken homes?

Society, like the church is built upon a simple premise. As a house is built upon a firm foundation so to the principles of a society. A house is a home just as a family is the rudimentary building block of not only a church but also of the society itself. Destroy the family - destroy the church. Destroy the family, destroy society. You see, the devil is concerned with destroying family because it destroys his most hated enemy’s structure for proper societal organization…the church. Fortunately for the devil though, the fringe byproduct is the degradation of society also.

How to speed the degradation along? Misinformation in the absence of the holistic educational family unit. Social media platforms make it easier for people who share the same false premises to find one another. Internet connectivity and technology act as an accelerant for toxic thinking. Like gasoline on a flame of discontent. When false information takes hold, it's like the plague or pestilence in tightly confined groups. It becomes epidemic/pandemic in its scope. The problem with making the world a smaller place is that it is easier to spread the contagion of false information. It’s like a disease.

Facebook alone already counts about a third of the world's population among its users. Social media platforms should not give violent unstable people and pervs a free platform to amplify their views and target victims. In the absence of a moral benchmark or guiding influence (parents) the worse this will get and it is exactly what we are seeing now in the world. I’ve said it before that the First Amendment says that "Congress shall make no law" abridging freedom of speech, but this does not apply to private businesses. So, when companies like Facebook censor or fail to censor based on arbitrary (censor) or non-existent rules (non-censor)… all hell breaks loose.

The social media platforms seem to equate regulation of their companies to the actions of the repressive states like China. Yet Facebook is one of only half a dozen companies that decide what information is acceptable for the world to see. Companies by their very nature are amoral. Therefore, they do not seek out the well-being of the users of their goods. When the leaders of said companies are primarily amoral or immoral, we have a recipe for disaster. That is what we are seeing. A rudderless propaganda machine a fascist state could only dream of.

Half a dozen unelected companies beholden to no one but themselves. Self- governing régimes functioning within national governments with their own sovereignty. We are witnessing a political and moral coup d'etat and our own elected officials are too morally debased and too stupid to see it. If they do see… they are doing very little to prevent it. Facebook, Google and their ilk are weaponizing data and not only turning it against the American public, they’re turning it against the government itself that is allowing it. It’s happening right under the noses and they’re blind to it…or ambivalent of it.

In the absence of our government governing the systemic default is allowing a very small group of tech giants to redefine what is moral, ethical, biblical, constitutional or even reasonable. Legislative bodies should legislate not defer to amoral corporations. The Churches should be defining what is biblical not unbiblical entities/people. Amorality breeds amorality or worse…immorality by absence of definitive morality. No answer is still and answer. No answer is a free pass and a blank check.

These companies allow for a "diversity of ideas” but sometimes bad ideas are just that…bad or evil. They should not be propagated and circulated like crap hitting the fan. A line needs to be drawn. Companies are not capable of regulating morally. They are driven by money and advertising. An amoral or unprincipled impetus. By attempting to claim freedom of thought these companies are obliquely asserting that they are somehow more noble or altruistic. In truth their sole driving force is monetizing their bottom-line. In truth these companies need to abide by basic standards and practices of morality just like the ones that apply to churches, schools, news agencies, television and movies. To me it is obvious that they cannot be trusted to regulate themselves not can most of the sinful people that use their platforms. The powers that God puts in place above us are there for reasons (Romans 13).

We as users have an obligation also. Start fact-checking posts or ads before you repost them. Stop micro-targeted lies to specific groups you don’t necessarily agree with. When statements or ads are patently false, don't publish them. In truth, if its false and you repost it, you should be held responsible. Fined if necessary. If I catch you doing something stupid like reposting something clearly wrong, you will be rebuked.

In the end, we all need to decide what kind of world we want to live in. We need to decide what type of church we wish to learn about God in. Do we wish to live in a nobler less divided world or do we wish to live in a divided falsified world of our own making due to our sin? These freedoms we hold so dear and the freewill given to us by God are not an end unto themselves. They are also a means to an end. That end being the type of life and world we chose to live in. A violent false life or a unified communal peaceful one. Sadly today, because morality and truth have had their heads bashed against the rocks, we are all threatened by hate, conspiracies and lies. I do not wish to live in a society where people are targeted, harassed or hated because of who they are, where they come from, who they love or how they pray. Let God be the judge of that stuff as He is the only one qualified. I just wish to live and let live in peace. Am I an idealist? No, I’m a sinner saved by grace.