4 ms·

We may be coming back to the "old internet" mentality where we don't write anything we wouldn't want on a poster stuck up in a public place. I'm perplexed that

by tjr 11y ago

We may be coming back to the "old internet" mentality where we don't write anything we wouldn't want on a poster stuck up in a public place. I'm perplexed that anyone ever left that mentality. As an internet user in the 1990s, that was drilled into me pretty hard.

tremon 11y ago
I don't think many "left" that mentality, it's more that many new people entered the Internet without being properly drilled. In a way, it took society 20 years to learn what we already knew.
PavlovsCat 11y ago
I also abide by it. It's just that I would want all of it on a poster stuck in a public place. > When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech no matter what other power you may lose. If you can take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course, you become dampers, mutes, and hooded executioners. > As a practical matter, a mere failure to speak out upon occassions where no statement is asked or expected from you, and when the utterance of an uncalled for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrence in palpable iniquity. Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound. It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct. It is a note from a friend of your father's, offering you a place at his office. This is your warning from the secret police. Why, if you any of young gentleman have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations, and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well. > I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and wait. They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. "In a few years," reasons one of them, "I shall have gained a standing, and then I shall use my powers for good." Next year comes and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought, his ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say. I give you this one rule of conduct. Do what you will, but speak out always. Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged. The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time. -- John J. Chapman, Commencement Address to the Graduating Class of Hobart College, 1900 I don't mean this to say you should spill out your heart on FB, there probably are better ways. But as a matter of principle, it's not you who should be afraid of your "peers" and "authorities", it should be the other way around. There are countries where speaking up for what is right and going to jail for that is the norm, and people still do it. We don't for fear of not getting our dream job instantly...?! Yeah, I exaggerate, and I don't want to shame anyone who doesn't "dare" to post certain things, or just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with the reactions of friends/relatives/bosses. Do what feels right for you, obviously. But one thing is objectively true, a democracy however you understand it requires informed citizens, and so it can't be democracy to never talk about anything but then vote every X years. And if we "can't" talk about politics with our friends, online or offline, and can't be open about what we do and think (among other things to make NEW friends who might share some interests with us) because every boss and their dog thinks they're entitled to be a snoop that way, then we need to change that, not to stop talking. It's not us who are out of line for enjoying our human rights and citizenship, and it is not fit for a sovereign, which is a role citizens share with their fellow citizens, to be blackmailed into submission like that.

by tjr 11y ago

tremon 11y ago

I don't think many "left" that mentality, it's more that many new people entered the Internet without being properly drilled. In a way, it took society 20 years to learn what we already knew.

PavlovsCat 11y ago

I also abide by it. It's just that I would want all of it on a poster stuck in a public place. > When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech no matter what other power you may lose. If you can take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course, you become dampers, mutes, and hooded executioners. > As a practical matter, a mere failure to speak out upon occassions where no statement is asked or expected from you, and when the utterance of an uncalled for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrence in palpable iniquity. Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound. It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct. It is a note from a friend of your father's, offering you a place at his office. This is your warning from the secret police. Why, if you any of young gentleman have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations, and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well. > I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and wait. They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. "In a few years," reasons one of them, "I shall have gained a standing, and then I shall use my powers for good." Next year comes and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought, his ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say. I give you this one rule of conduct. Do what you will, but speak out always. Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged. The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time. -- John J. Chapman, Commencement Address to the Graduating Class of Hobart College, 1900 I don't mean this to say you should spill out your heart on FB, there probably are better ways. But as a matter of principle, it's not you who should be afraid of your "peers" and "authorities", it should be the other way around. There are countries where speaking up for what is right and going to jail for that is the norm, and people still do it. We don't for fear of not getting our dream job instantly...?! Yeah, I exaggerate, and I don't want to shame anyone who doesn't "dare" to post certain things, or just doesn't want the hassle of dealing with the reactions of friends/relatives/bosses. Do what feels right for you, obviously. But one thing is objectively true, a democracy however you understand it requires informed citizens, and so it can't be democracy to never talk about anything but then vote every X years. And if we "can't" talk about politics with our friends, online or offline, and can't be open about what we do and think (among other things to make NEW friends who might share some interests with us) because every boss and their dog thinks they're entitled to be a snoop that way, then we need to change that, not to stop talking. It's not us who are out of line for enjoying our human rights and citizenship, and it is not fit for a sovereign, which is a role citizens share with their fellow citizens, to be blackmailed into submission like that.