If you look at the feat that Julian Assange pulled by understanding the political system and playing it, power isn’t as centralized as it was in the past.
If your science gets censored in France because of France latest idea that censorship is the way to go you are free to move to a different country and there are plenty to choose where you are relatively free to express science.
If you look at the feat that Julian Assange pulled by understanding the political system and playing it, power isn’t as centralized as it was in the past.
On the other hand Julian Assange did lose his ability to move freely so, it’s not like the state lost all it’s power. http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2014/02/update-on-one-man-vs-the-world.html is a nice blog that covers how the size of superempowered individuals that do have power in a decentralised way that wasn’t there in the past.
If your science gets censored in France because of France latest idea that censorship is the way to go you are free to move to a different country and there are plenty to choose where you are relatively free to express science.