The information society of the existing world order of the late 20th — early 21st centuries envisaged free exchange of information flows as one of its foundations, and vice versa, freedom of information was considered as a fundamental principle of information relations. The communication component of civilization is determined, among other things, by rationality as a set of innate and socially acquired characteristics. In turn, rationalism is interpreted by many scientists as a civilizational structure that has its own internal features and laws. In this sense, rationality is the antipode of irrationality, chaos, absence of structure [1]

Today’s world is imbued with a spirit of contradiction and crisis. “The crisis of European existence can end in only one of two ways: in the ruin of a Europe alienated from its rational sense of life, fallen into a barbarian hatred of spirit; or in the rebirth of Europe from the spirit of philosophy, through a heroism of reason”[2] The state of crisis is now characteristic of the entire practical rationality of people. Common sense and human reason also give room for doubt and criticism.

The wide dissemination and availability of any information in the 21st century became the basis for the creation and substantiation of almost any point of view, which at all times, up to the beginning of the 21st century, could only be a rare subjective opinion of one person or group of persons. The reason for the growing segregation and radicalization of public consciousness was the flip side of the information process – the promotion of key opinion leaders or “influencers” as “ideologists”, who in many ways began to shape the information and socio-political agenda.

The «radicalization» of mass consciousness is evident. The emergence of influencers and people who imitate them and impose their «exclusive» point of view, while inclined to express their own opinions on a very different range of issues, leads to a massive blurring of the boundaries of understanding between objectivity and illusion. In many ways, the foundations of rational thinking are undermined by the so-called «argumentum ad auctoritatem».

Being a call of the times earlier, it also remains relevant in modern sounding. The influence of new ideologists (“influencers” and leaders) at the present time, with the necessary accumulated potential of critical thinking, is no less relevant now. Let’s call this consequence the «effect of involvement.». Moreover, the personal opinion coinciding with the opinion of a key opinion leader (and it is becoming less and less difficult to find such people on the Web) gives rise to the phenomenon of an illusory «social significance» of the issue or guided discourse. Completely different issues can be used as a reason – from political and religious-philosophical to environmental ones. In other words, the crisis of rationality in this sense is manifested as a small degree of intensity of the realization of rational consciousness. The idea of «forced rationality», expressed by Bakhtin, is usually produced by external circumstances (with a lack of one’s own free will). [2]

That is why decisions made by a person often seem to be «reasonable and balanced», based on the logic of reason. The crisis of rationality is of a global nature precisely in the light of the spread of mass Internet knowledge, which is essentially ignorance or deliberate distortion of facts. [4]

The situation is reinforced by the anonymity and openness of the Internet, which make it possible to widely disseminate information, regardless of the position of the performer or their moral qualities. And the emergence and rapid development of neural networks makes it possible to prescribe an algorithm for justifying or bringing any position, even the most aggressive or extremist, to the “scientific basis”.

In addition, the absolute spread of the Internet and the ability to lead a double / triple and so on virtual life with impunity leads to the rise of aggression and mass bullying. Evident and imaginary «support» for a remark or proposal expressed incognito leads a person to the effect of false realization. Moreover, what is virtual here is similar to what is real. The higher the level of incognito communication using «user pics», the higher the level of aggression is usually observed, which, among other things, represents a growing crisis of rationality.

Getting back to the issue of “freedom of speech”, it is its abuse, expressed in human rights violations and disregard for public interests, that is becoming an increasingly visible and socially dangerous phenomenon. Many countries are now experiencing similar socio-political upheavals.  France, Germany, even the Czech Republic, amid the growing economic crisis, are regularly experiencing aggressively-minded people rioting with demands “to change the situation at any cost”. Thus, in terms of the formation of a new scheme of “freedom” (of a person, mass media, personal statements), modern means of communication play an increasingly destructive role, leading to even greater frustration of society. The reasons for this are primarily of economic nature, but there are also socio-philosophical reasons. The issue of economic realization and social recognition of people and our civilization as a whole takes on the form of a fully conscious materialization, leading to a crisis of rationality as a constructive and creative principle.