4 ms·

Let's imagine we work together. I say your politics, whatever they are, make me feel hurt, scared, and angry. Obviously you can't argue with this; my feelings

Let's imagine we work together. I say your politics, whatever they are, make me feel hurt, scared, and angry. Obviously you can't argue with this; my feelings are my feelings and are thus inarguable. Therefore, by your basic rule, you are no longer allowed to even state any of your political beliefs, because such would make me feel hurt, scared, and angry. And it doesn't matter what your beliefs are or how you arrived at them or what reasoning is behind them. Because according to you, maintaining my feelings, no matter how fragile or hypersensitive or unreasonable they may be, is an absolute imperative and all other values must be sacrificed to achieve that goal. Now I've got total control over the speech of anyone around me. I can shut down anyone, making any statement on any topic. I need only declare that I feel hurt, scared, or angered by that statement - and such inarguable declarations have absolute unappealable power to silence. See the problem here? It's obvious you can't run a society this way. It just becomes a race to the bottom of people being more and more hypersensitive to gain power. At a certain point, people do need to be told to grow a thicker skin.

archagon 9y ago
> Now I've got total control over the speech of anyone around me. I can shut down anyone, making any statement on any topic. Not really. This only works if your opinions are part of the current zeitgeist. If not, then nobody will really care what some loner is hurt by, and will probably just avoid talking to you, period. > At a certain point, people do need to be told to grow a thicker skin. OK, but that doesn't work. It only makes people angrier and even more determined to exclude you.
thedz 9y ago
> Now I've got total control over the speech of anyone around me. I can shut down anyone, making any statement on any topic. I need only declare that I feel hurt, scared, or angered by that statement - and such inarguable declarations have absolute unappealable power to silence. If someone, in your place of business, says "what you just said was hurtful and offensive", then yes, I think maybe you shouldn't say it. Or at least take pause and consider why what you said may be hurtful. None of that prevents your ability to say what you want outside the office.
- peoplewindow 9y ago
  You can stop and consider it, and then say "actually, you shouldn't be offended by that. It is immature to be offended by that. Please grow up" That will offend them even more of course, which is why companies that don't have tough management will all be wrecked by this social strategy in the coming years. Google is already clearly far gone. At some point employees that constantly claim to be offended need to be told they'll be fired if they don't toughen up.

archagon 9y ago

> Now I've got total control over the speech of anyone around me. I can shut down anyone, making any statement on any topic. Not really. This only works if your opinions are part of the current zeitgeist. If not, then nobody will really care what some loner is hurt by, and will probably just avoid talking to you, period. > At a certain point, people do need to be told to grow a thicker skin. OK, but that doesn't work. It only makes people angrier and even more determined to exclude you.

thedz 9y ago

> Now I've got total control over the speech of anyone around me. I can shut down anyone, making any statement on any topic. I need only declare that I feel hurt, scared, or angered by that statement - and such inarguable declarations have absolute unappealable power to silence. If someone, in your place of business, says "what you just said was hurtful and offensive", then yes, I think maybe you shouldn't say it. Or at least take pause and consider why what you said may be hurtful. None of that prevents your ability to say what you want outside the office.

peoplewindow 9y ago
You can stop and consider it, and then say "actually, you shouldn't be offended by that. It is immature to be offended by that. Please grow up" That will offend them even more of course, which is why companies that don't have tough management will all be wrecked by this social strategy in the coming years. Google is already clearly far gone. At some point employees that constantly claim to be offended need to be told they'll be fired if they don't toughen up.