Are people idiots?

Perhaps I am overly optimistic, but my answer to this question is no. This answer, however, makes it very difficult to understand what is going on in the world today.

I see various people’s statements getting censored simply because they are considered wrong in some sense by the people in power of making such decisions in media.

Now, if people are idiots I can really understand why this is necessary, since idiots do not have the capacity to discern which statement is right or wrong. (This is why they are called idiots.)

If people really are idiots, there is a high risk that they will catch on to any statement that is made, which could be disasterous if indeed it is wrong.

But if people are not idiots, they will find out if a statement is right or wrong by examining it and compare it to competing or adverse statements concerning the same subject, and check what facts each statement is based upon.

And if – for some reason – they cannot do this, they simply refrain from having any opinion at all about the statement.

I strongly advocate the viewpoint that people are not idiots, and therefore should be allowed not only to make statements that are wrong, but also to take part of statements that are wrong. Nothing bad can result from this – unless people are idiots, that is.

But maybe I’m wrong? Maybe the people in power really know that people are idiots and censoring is very much needed to keep people from getting ideas that challenges the ideas of the people in power?

Is there any way to measure if people are idiots or not? It would indeed be very useful to determine this once and for all! Then we can decide whether to advocate censorship or not depending on the outcome.

But for now, all I have is my strong belief that people are not idiots and should not be censored.

What is your belief? Or maybe you actually know?