Let&#x27;s say that magic is real, OK? Magic actually works. Science hasn&#x27;t noticed it yet because psychologists don&#x27;t get network effects and don&#x27;t have the data sets. But let&#x27;s say this is the case.<p>That means words have power. Certain words and phrases, repeated in the right way, perceived in the right way, will get people real sick. Names and labels have even more power. The right name can change people, give them a new identity. They change the way people see themselves, how they behave.<p>Some websites, some communities, are chronic incubators of the bad kind of magic. Enough exposure to it and you&#x27;ll start having bad thoughts, you&#x27;ll get depressed, withdraw from society, maybe start giving a harmful kind of name to yourself, maybe hurt yourself or other people. Sure, the boundary between mental illness and not-a-mental illness is vague, and maybe subject to abuse (just ask the Russians). But some stuff is unquestionably both contagious and harmful.<p>We just have to be careful not to get exposed to bad juju out there.<p>We don&#x27;t have to sterilize every water source on the planet. Some people like drinking out of rivers. But we&#x27;d be crazy not to treat our water for obvious bugs.<p>But it does mean we should be prudent about what we&#x27;re consuming, and what our families are taking in. And if you were a government, you&#x27;d be tempted to do some harm-benefit analysis. You could say that free speech isn&#x27;t an absolute, and promoting, say, bulimia or terrorism carries great harm and should be minimized, as many governments do.