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Political Correctness Killer for Social Media
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoIt looks like this is a "safe space" for people with rude opinions about a bunch of things including probably the concept of safe spaces.
- x3n0ph3n3 11y agoIs a rude opinion necessarily incorrect? I understand the need to engage civilly, but there are probably uncomfortable truths that others find rude.
- splitrocket 11y agoThen you should be willing to suffer the consequences of truth telling. It's a fairly common pattern in history.
- philwelch 11y agoThe entire point of having a relatively free society is to reduce those consequences so that people can freely search for the truth without fearing for their livelihoods, reputations, or lives. We make a lot more progress now that the Church doesn't haul people in for saying the earth revolves around the sun, and now that people don't get blacklisted from their careers for being suspected of communist sympathies. Just because heliocentrism and communism aren't taboo anymore doesn't mean we've figured everything out and can abandon these principles.
- zem 11y agonone of those opinions would be labelled "politically correct"; the term is a dog-whistle for people who want to express opinions like "what if women are simply less capable than men?" or "black people would get a lot further if they'd just clean up their act and behave like civilised folk". google for "politically incorrect but" if you are disinclined to take my word for it.
- philwelch 11y agoYeah, those are examples of opinions that are politically incorrect today, but so are more sophisticated and plausible opinions, like "genetics may be expressed in behavioral ways that predict criminality", "the distribution of cognitive and personality traits differs between sexes and races", "Islamic immigrants to Europe are disproportionately responsible for cases of sexual assault", "some women falsely accuse men of rape", or even "it's not realistic to expect people to coexist in society together when they hold entirely different social mores and norms". You may agree or disagree with any of these statements, but the notion of political correctness is that we are not even allowed to discuss whether or not these propositions are factually correct, because they are already politically incorrect. But the real risk of political correctness isn't just the possibility that some politically incorrect proposition turns out to be true. It's that reality is always more complicated than we think it is. Two opposing propositions might be true in different contexts. For instance, the NBA slam dunk competition was this weekend; I don't think it's a stretch to say that in that particular context, women are, in fact, less capable than men. What if that's true about things other than dunking basketballs? We're not even comfortable contemplating that notion. That discomfort is a bias on our picture of the world.
- waterlesscloud 11y agoThere are a lot of common patterns in history we should avoid repeating. "Suffering consequences" for truth telling should be one of them.
- whybroke 11y agoTruths have truth value while opinions do not. Uncomfortable truths exist. And like all fact based observations they require evidence and are susceptible to disproof. The interesting case is when one takes an internal personal dislike (opinion) and rephrases it as if it is a true property of the world and thereby spreads that dislike. e.g. "all martians are immoral". More interesting still is when such a person convinces himself that his opinion is based on such "facts".
- patmcguire 11y ago"Defy political corrextness"
- patmcguire 11y agoAnd all the photos still have the stock stuff on them... this is more likely to be a weird phishing operation or a honeypot than an actual product
- Propopulo 11y agoThanks for that, did that while I was in the car. Corrected.
- ld00d 11y agoHard to believe that this 1) is possible, 2) made it through FB's approval process, and 3) is legit.
- Bud 11y ago"Political correctness" is a phrase used by assholes who haven't figured out what free speech is. They think it means they can say whatever they like, without fear of repercussions or consequences. And they get very offended and hurt when they find out that isn't so.
- funkyy 11y agoAnd they have right to attack people that have different than mainstream media opinions.
- zem 11y agoyou have to wonder why someone has gone through so much time and trouble to let people post things anonymously on social media, when they know their friends are likely to dislike said posts. seems like jerks all the way down.
- Propopulo 11y agoI posted my reasons in a comment above. I don't think I'm a jerk, just a quiet physicist. You should get to know me :-)
- zem 11y agoi'm even more inclined to believe that as a physicist you're going to hide behind "i just provide a value-neutral tool; it's up to people how they use it.". can you think of many "politically incorrect" opinions that don't simply reinforce biases against an already marginalised group?
- omonra 11y agoYou sound rather smug and happy that people who hold opinions differing from yours can not express them for fear of repercussions. That must feel great.
- Bud 11y agoNice personal attack. :) But no, I'm afraid you are mistaken. What I am is dismayed that so many mistake fundamental free-speech rights for the right to be an offensive asshole and be tolerated.
- Bud 11y agoBTW: address is in Ohio, phone area code is in Silicon Valley.
- bracewel 11y agoDope watermarks.
- foolrush 11y agoCue the green accounts of all those downtrodden people that can't express these sorts of “truths” publicly...
- krapp 11y agoSo this is basically sockpuppets as a service?
- carsongross 11y agoThe comments on HN about this software confirm its own necessity. I find this quite funny.
- Propopulo 11y agoThis is great! I love all of the opinions! Thanks so much for your feedback. I'll try you answer all the comments when I have time, I'm on the road right now. Yes, this is legit. We're in beta. Still very rough around the edges. Obviously there's room on this site for abuse, but it's meant to address a larger social issue. Voices and opinions on the periphery of society have been scorned in such a way that no one ever talks about them anymore. This is an opportunity to have educational, yet progressive discussion. At the same time, all character bias is removed and your friends won't view your comments as coming from a particular race, background, nationality, or the like. Users have an opportunity to evaluate comments for their logic and core tenets, not the messenger. Please keep the feedback coming, good, bad, or indifferent. Thanks everyone.