Wow. Uncontrolled mass media is such a danger to civilization now; it's a wonder how we've come this far without destroying ourselves.
The horrors of unfettered speech are not so scary: this has all happened before. Usenet dramas had as much consternation for those involved, those people had more in their lives than just the one forum, however.
The fallacy is you're assuming 'destroying ourselves' means that everyone is dead (I guess?).
Take French Canada for a great counter-example. One could argue that the mailbox bombs and kidnappings of the 60s/70s were fine because Montreal is a very beautiful and livable city today.
However, it caused hundreds and thousands of people to flee their homes and caused Montreal to lose its place as Canada's leading city.
Don't confuse 'humans are adaptable' with 'anything goes and civil society is pointless.'
The horrors of unfettered speech are not so scary: this has all happened before. Usenet dramas had as much consternation for those involved, those people had more in their lives than just the one forum, however.