4 ms·
Using social pressure to silence certain viewpoints is a terrible precedent to make. Social consensus is a terrible benchmark on whether or not something is bad
by TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
Using social pressure to silence certain viewpoints is a terrible precedent to make. Social consensus is a terrible benchmark on whether or not something is bad. It was once consensus that black people were inferior to whites. It was once consensus that socialists were the enemy, and tons of people were pushed out of the labor market for it[1].
Internet corporations bowing to social pressure to silence certain viewpoints is abhorrent. It's starting with Nazis, but chances are good that it won't end there[2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
[2] https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392 https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392
- gremlinsinc 9y agohow bout we just silence rhettoric directed at broad groups...regardless of who says it..oh that's pretty much everything that comes out of a Nazi's mouth...so yeah..warranted. Also -- Nazi's aren't far from a terrorist organization should these companies also allow ISIS and Taliban sites to recruit new members on their servers? Because - - censorship!
- TheAdamAndChe 9y ago> how bout we just silence rhettoric directed at broad groups By that definition, we should silence any discussion of Democrats, or Republicans, or blacks, or latinos, or whatever "broad group" you'd like to suppress discussion of at the moment. An actual good argument is that we should suppress views that may lead to terrorism. I'm pretty sure it would be easy to argue that Nazi viewpoints can be pretty terroristic. But then where do we draw the line? How do we as a society decide what is allowed and what isn't without opening up the system to exploitation by an authoritarian regime?
- analogmemory 9y agoWanting specific types of humans dead/removed is a not a valid viewpoint.
- s_kilk 9y agoLess than a century ago we used artillery, machine-guns and nukes to silence the same viewpoints. A little bit of social pressure ain't so bad.