Perhaps this is what freedom of speech gets you. Once you lose the filter of publishing choices, any idea can be spread. It turns out people will write things that are based on their imagination or their suspicions instead of reality; and people will read things without checking them for accuracy if they agree with their prejudices.
As usual, you find what appears to be an unalloyed good (freedom of speech) is more practical when it is modified by exceptions (freedom from damaging sorts of speech, such as untrue political speech or fake news or defamatory commentary or information which is intended to corrupt minors or the electoral process).
You may have seen that I have written rules for this board around the concept of word pollution. Some sorts of commentary don't thrive when other people decide they want to insult posters they don't like. Unfortunately, this requires a moderator to enforce the rules. Open exchanges seem to encourage a race to the bottom. The more people are involved, the more facile the conversation becomes. People with interesting opinions based on deep knowledge exit, because why waste their time.
The internet's fathers thought linking people in free expression would reveal the will of the people in despotic societies. Who would have thought that it would unravel America so quickly? It has provided the perfect sea of ignorance upon which to deliver Trump. Let's hope he doesn't master it as a means to remain in power.
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