Public Entreatise

A bad habit Joligrans have of using a public forum to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories.   Joligry is the home of too many rumor-mills to count, but not all rumors spread equally. In the stated name of equality and equity, Joligry settlements feature multiple small forums for public speaking and public debate. Additionally, paid news criers do use these metaphorical soapboxes as stops on their rounds, since they are already equipped with public permanent seating and many citizens spend leisure time in those areas.   A citizen - specifically, someone who is not a journalist or news crier - can hold an Entreatise at any time of day or night, wherein which they entreat the general public to hear and come to understand a topic of their choice. While this was originally intended for post-school education and trade lectures, it has since been co-opted by people looking to spread well-crafted misinformation, rumors, conspiracy theories, and plain lies.   This is perhaps unfair to the many Joligrans who do not spread or give credence to such speeches, but vulnerable minds see no protest being posed against such radical thinking and assume it must all be true--or at least true enough to think about. As a result, an entreatise is largely considered a multi-layered event, underlaid with usually-unknown motives and intentions. News criers, professors, artists, and others who make use of these forums are not performing an entreatise, and as time goes on, people take greater and more obvious pains to make it clear whether or not they are entreating their audience.   Some of these forums have been established in Kznian settlements outside Joligry's new borders, much to Kznia's deep disapproval. Kznian cities do not tolerate public entreatise as a practice, which Joligrans are all too happy to point at and call oppression, censure, and evidence that the would-be speakers are right in their outlandish claims.


Cover image: by Ty Barbary with Midjourney AI