Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and Instagram are going to embrace free speech and openness, similar to the way X has been doing.
This is a model that Scripture Central could/should follow, as discussed below.
The legacy media is dying because people are realizing it promotes coordinated narratives that deprive readers and viewers of context and the full range of information and perspectives. That's the identical problem with current LDS apologetics, most glaringly at Scripture Central.
Here is Zuckerberg's explanation:
https://x.com/BasedBeffJezos/status/1876602383754789079
Excerpts:
More specifically, here's what we're going to do.
First, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.,
We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth.
But the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created…
... what started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasing been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas and it's gone too far so I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms
One commentator describes the change this way:
Zuckerberg is insanely smart and capable. (I could end the analysis here.)
He's reading the room. He's a patriot. Apparently, he likes free speech as much as you do and sees the same issues you see.
Business-wise, he needs the US government to pressure other nations to stop censoring. No other way.
Facebook has been crippled by their own biased fact-checkers. Community Notes works, so he's a fast-follower.
Summary: Smart, perfectly timed, on point.
_____
Like Zuckerberg, the founders and management of Scripture Central are smart and capable. But they don't read the room and they don't value openness, even within the zone of faithful Latter-day Saints.
Since its founding, I've hoped that Book of Mormon Central, and lately Scripture Central, would become an inclusive resource for all Latter-day Saints and their friends.
The people who work and volunteer there are awesome in every way and have tremendous potential. I suspect most of them value openness, along with freedom of speech and thought. Most want to help people make informed decisions, despite the editorial policies of their management that opposes these values.
Scripture Central could immediately become a legitimate academic resource where faithful Latter-day Saints can learn about and discuss a variety of faithful perspectives.
But sadly, the organization instead remains a dogmatic promoter of specific narratives designed to persuade Latter-day Saints to disbelieve what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery said about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon.
In coming days I'll post more examples of this dogmatic content from Scripture Central.
_____
No comments:
Post a Comment