A train of thought and nothing else – no data, no statistics, and no experts.
Apparently, we humans are social animals and tend to seek understanding and companionship among people like ourselves. Very few of us are happy or healthy if we spend too much time alone, too often.
Some of us seek out people who question, analyze and critique everything to death. Other people prefer belief systems that offer rigid rules for behaviour. Even the legendary cat ladies whose homes you can smell a block away are seeking understanding and companionship from their broods of 20, 30 or more cats.
There have also been certain kinds of people rejected, despised, and feared by the vast majority of humans – including, mass shooters, rapists, murderers, pedophiles, serial killers, etc. Any hope of personal safety required these kinds of people to hide their true desires. While that made for very lonely lives, it also kept these people in check.
Along came the internet, and these kinds of people (let’s call them deviants) began to find each other and build “on-line-communities”. Instead of society keeping their desires in check, these on-line communities offered deviations support, understanding and companionship. These on-line communities also built confidence – and licensed the behaviour of deviants.
As they say, misery loves company and the internet brought deviants company from all around the country. My word, deviants suddenly had celebrity status among their own. Soon enough, deviants began sharing techniques, strategies, etc. for acting on their desires and succeeding (without getting caught). The who, what, when, where, and how of finding easy victims. How to groom children. And how to identify other “deviants” in public.
The news media and television shows, like Criminal Minds, and podcasts, like Morbid began offering deviants lessons in how the authorities catch these people. Of course, that made it even harder to catch them.
The vast majority of us have never considered what “privacy” and “free-speech” meant to seriously sick and dangerous people. Mass shootings became normal. Pedophilia became rampant. News of Christian institutions, including the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts, ,getting away with raping and molesting tens of thousands of children, encouraged everyone with even the slightest pedophilic desire. Political and financial corruption and toxic behaviours grew pervasive too fast, to stamp out – before it spread.
As you point out correctly, we have no tools for stemming, let alone stopping the growth of these deviant cultures among us. Harder still, our children’s still developing minds are locked inside social media with no way out – and we have no way to protect them. Unless we are willing to put some limits on ourselves, we have no way to protect children from becoming victims.
Harder still, we now know that the same genes that produce a scientist, can also produce a serial killer. It all depends on the “environment” genes adapt to. The possibility that genetic tendencies can be mis-directed by exposure to people and ideas inside the internet, is real – terrifying real. That we can all end up with more serial killers, than scientists, is very possible.
Personally, I am totally in favour of regulating internet platform providers with the same vigor we apply to terrorists, hardened criminals, and enemies of the state.
I have a Pinterest page for human figures that I use for reference in my artwork. I have received two notices from Pinterest, telling me they had taken down my page. Can you guess the reason? Answer: I have a couple dozen images of overweight people – and someone found those wonderful pieces of art so offensive, they reported me.
I did not argue with Pinterest and after they did their due diligence, they put my page back up. Waiting for Pinterest to do their thing, is a small price to pay for keeping deviants out of my life.
