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It's not uptight to object when someone is (as far as we know) expressing their honest, fair opinion and they're pretty much forced to change their expression o

It's not uptight to object when someone is (as far as we know) expressing their honest, fair opinion and they're pretty much forced to change their expression of that opinion. [EDIT. I want to add a bit more. A person's list of their important films for aspiring directors is just one tiny part of all their views. A person can think that women have faced a lot of sexism, and that this has prevented many women from directing films -- and that if that sexism hadn't existed we'd have many more excellent films by female directors -- while at the same time thinking that, out of all the films that have been made so far, the ones that they think are most important for aspiring directors to see is this set, which just happens to not include any films directed by females.] EDIT 2: In response to mikeash's reply, that would be assuming that Lee has a bias against films directed by women. Would you care to explain how you think he managed to overlook those films in the first place? It may well be that he does have such a bias. And if so, that's a shame. But then think what that would mean: it would seem to mean that he has suddenly been able to overcome that bias, and see things fairly - something which, unfortunately, rarely happens.

mikeash 11y ago
As far as we know, the revised list is also their honest, fair opinion. People are just arbitrarily declaring the original list to be the One True List, and the revised list to be a forced change. It could just as easily be that the original list was not completely thought out, and the revised list is the true reflection of Spike Lee's views. Why do people insist on only considering the first possibility? Why assume that this change was forced?
aninhumer 11y ago
> Would you care to explain how you think he managed to overlook those films in the first place? Because he's human? I'm baffled by the number of people who seem to think any individual, even a talented director, is somehow able to bring to mind all films that meet a particular criteria, with such absolute precision that a film's exclusion from the initial list is a definitive statement that he considers it unworthy.
- mikeash 11y ago
  It's typical hacker absolutism. You see it everywhere. The very notion of subjectivity is rejected because it's too difficult to deal with. It shows up all the time in discussions of hiring diversity. A large number of people assume that hiring decisions are done by making a perfect ranking of all candidates by ability, then choosing the one at the top. Any deviation means you're getting someone suboptimal. Thus, any hiring diversity initiative necessarily means a decrease in worker quality. Same thing here. Spike Lee created an exact, perfect list of films that exceed some threshold. Altering it afterwards means the list is no longer perfect.

mikeash 11y ago

As far as we know, the revised list is also their honest, fair opinion. People are just arbitrarily declaring the original list to be the One True List, and the revised list to be a forced change. It could just as easily be that the original list was not completely thought out, and the revised list is the true reflection of Spike Lee's views. Why do people insist on only considering the first possibility? Why assume that this change was forced?

aninhumer 11y ago

> Would you care to explain how you think he managed to overlook those films in the first place? Because he's human? I'm baffled by the number of people who seem to think any individual, even a talented director, is somehow able to bring to mind all films that meet a particular criteria, with such absolute precision that a film's exclusion from the initial list is a definitive statement that he considers it unworthy.

mikeash 11y ago
It's typical hacker absolutism. You see it everywhere. The very notion of subjectivity is rejected because it's too difficult to deal with. It shows up all the time in discussions of hiring diversity. A large number of people assume that hiring decisions are done by making a perfect ranking of all candidates by ability, then choosing the one at the top. Any deviation means you're getting someone suboptimal. Thus, any hiring diversity initiative necessarily means a decrease in worker quality. Same thing here. Spike Lee created an exact, perfect list of films that exceed some threshold. Altering it afterwards means the list is no longer perfect.