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It's not news though. I've positioned myself squarely on "the left" without much of a thought before the Brendan Eich case. Then I discovered that "the left" ha

It's not news though. I've positioned myself squarely on "the left" without much of a thought before the Brendan Eich case. Then I discovered that "the left" has no intellectual integrity whatsoever. The dishonesty has become unbearable. They turn you into a straw man and then ostracize you, just like a cult. You have to constantly police your own thought, lest you say something that can be used against you in the worst possible way, by someone who doesn't like you. It's "orwellian" in every sense of the word.

Goladus 9y ago
A minor nitpick, I would say that the main difference between what's happening now and the Orwellian model is that the coercive pressure for maintaining ideological conformity is mostly not government power (yet, in the US). Instead, it's corporate and similar organization power (such the organizing board of a popular conference).
- galacticpony2 9y ago
  When people say "orwellian", they're often thinking "1984". I'm thinking "Animal Farm". It's a process, a takeover of the mind. It doesn't start with government and doesn't end at government. To be fair, it's not "orwellian" in literally every sense of the word, that was just a figure of speech.
  - Goladus 9y ago
    Some smart people think that you may be more right than I realized: https://blog.simplejustice.us/2017/08/10/walter-olson-a-circle-of-silence-without-responsibility/ https://blog.simplejustice.us/2017/08/10/walter-olson-a-circ... Effectively they're saying that the "Hostile Work Environment" clause is used to pressure corporations to limit speech of their employees. Evidence also suggests enforcement is ideologically biased.
- Boothroid 9y ago
  No doubt the US govt has its levers to pull in media and business. And I venture that as regards our use of the term Orwellian Orwell was discursive of power in general, rather than governmental power in the specific.
Boothroid 9y ago
I couldn't agree more. It used to seem like the left was more scrupulous but as I get older I wonder whether that was just youthful naivety. Certainly they seem to have abandoned their scruples these days.

Goladus 9y ago

A minor nitpick, I would say that the main difference between what's happening now and the Orwellian model is that the coercive pressure for maintaining ideological conformity is mostly not government power (yet, in the US). Instead, it's corporate and similar organization power (such the organizing board of a popular conference).

galacticpony2 9y ago
When people say "orwellian", they're often thinking "1984". I'm thinking "Animal Farm". It's a process, a takeover of the mind. It doesn't start with government and doesn't end at government. To be fair, it's not "orwellian" in literally every sense of the word, that was just a figure of speech.
- Goladus 9y ago
  Some smart people think that you may be more right than I realized: https://blog.simplejustice.us/2017/08/10/walter-olson-a-circle-of-silence-without-responsibility/ https://blog.simplejustice.us/2017/08/10/walter-olson-a-circ... Effectively they're saying that the "Hostile Work Environment" clause is used to pressure corporations to limit speech of their employees. Evidence also suggests enforcement is ideologically biased.
Boothroid 9y ago
No doubt the US govt has its levers to pull in media and business. And I venture that as regards our use of the term Orwellian Orwell was discursive of power in general, rather than governmental power in the specific.

Boothroid 9y ago

I couldn't agree more. It used to seem like the left was more scrupulous but as I get older I wonder whether that was just youthful naivety. Certainly they seem to have abandoned their scruples these days.