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What makes it even worse is that there are always people who will try to put forward the worst possible (mis)interpretation of what you said, ie: in the guise o

What makes it even worse is that there are always people who will try to put forward the worst possible (mis)interpretation of what you said, ie: in the guise of social "justice", and the domain of what constitutes acceptable discourse (the overton window) is constantly shrinking. There is a fair chance that some of what you posted, which was considered perfectly acceptable and maybe humorous 10 years ago, is now considered toxic / harmful / triggering / misogynistic / oppressive / etc. Heck, what you say now can put you in trouble today. There are a number of opinions that I hold which I consider to be fairly balanced and mild, but am afraid to discuss online, because I think they could put me at risk. If you upset the online twitter mob, they're not going to fight you with coherent arguments and thoughtful discourse. They're going to insult you, threaten you, publicly shame you, and maybe get you fired from your job.

andrepd 9y ago
I think you may be exaggerating a tad. I think it is hardly a significant phenomenon, people getting fired from their jobs for saying stuff online. As for insults and threats, well that's a consequence of being able to say what you want to people halfway across the word. 99% of people saying mean stuff on social media wouldn't say it to people's faces.
adventured 9y ago
And further to that point, the way it works for partisans, is that if someone from their side did/said something terrible in the past, then presumably they have learned from it and should be forgiven; if someone on the other side did/said something terrible in the past, then it should still be used against them today. The political landscape in the US today is overflowing with that style of aggressive hypocrisy.
nasredin 9y ago
The attempts to demonize the words "social justice" are quite Orwellian. "Justice" is literally the last word in America that I thought would be used in some RWA-type context.
- lainga 9y ago
  Yes, how dare they? I imagine Father Coughlin [0] and the NUSJ are spinning in their graves. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin
- jklinger410 9y ago
  Are you familiar with how senators name bills in the US? The patriot act, no child left behind, so-on. If you are against the patriot act, are you against patriotism? If you are against no child left behind, would you prefer to leave children behind? I suggest you reconsider what end you define as Orwellian.
- gaius 9y ago
  The attempts to demonize the words "social justice" How do you feel about despotic regimes that prefix themselves "Democratic"? People have been hiding behind benign-sounding words for a very long time.
- tachyonbeam 9y ago
  What's Orwellian is being publicly lynched for wrongthink. The far-left is just as authoritarian as the far-right, IMO. The left accuses the right of living in a bubble, but they're completely unaware of their own dogmatic echo chamber. I'm queer. I'm in favor of universal access to abortion and socialised healthcare, but there are a few things I could say that would quickly get me labelled as right-wing and all sorts of bad things. It used to be that being liberal, being left stood for freedom of speech and the open discussion of ideas.
  - fzeroracer 9y ago
    Ah yes, the ever-famous both sides argument. I always hear this alongside arguments from people using the word Lynch in an incredibly inappropriate context.
- jstalin 9y ago
  "Social justice" is the opposite of justice.
agumonkey 9y ago
To me all this hints at an emerging religion like idea that data is important and of value. I think society is going into quant/science/algo because of a mix of trend, boredom, distress, desire to control and predict more (probably caused by distressing times). And now everybody is scrutinizing every little fact, piece of text, "citing sources"; because many believe it's truer than just babbling around as most of us do. Side note: after diving into a lot of research topics (as a semi educated newb), I realized that there's a focal point of science, above it you're ignorant, on it you know the mainstream accepted battle tested science of the day, after that you enter another domain of blur where a lot of things are "maybes" including possible refutation of accepted ideas (maybe not in physics, but medical domains for instance).

andrepd 9y ago

I think you may be exaggerating a tad. I think it is hardly a significant phenomenon, people getting fired from their jobs for saying stuff online. As for insults and threats, well that's a consequence of being able to say what you want to people halfway across the word. 99% of people saying mean stuff on social media wouldn't say it to people's faces.

adventured 9y ago

And further to that point, the way it works for partisans, is that if someone from their side did/said something terrible in the past, then presumably they have learned from it and should be forgiven; if someone on the other side did/said something terrible in the past, then it should still be used against them today. The political landscape in the US today is overflowing with that style of aggressive hypocrisy.

nasredin 9y ago

The attempts to demonize the words "social justice" are quite Orwellian. "Justice" is literally the last word in America that I thought would be used in some RWA-type context.

lainga 9y ago
Yes, how dare they? I imagine Father Coughlin [0] and the NUSJ are spinning in their graves. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin
jklinger410 9y ago
Are you familiar with how senators name bills in the US? The patriot act, no child left behind, so-on. If you are against the patriot act, are you against patriotism? If you are against no child left behind, would you prefer to leave children behind? I suggest you reconsider what end you define as Orwellian.
gaius 9y ago
The attempts to demonize the words "social justice" How do you feel about despotic regimes that prefix themselves "Democratic"? People have been hiding behind benign-sounding words for a very long time.
tachyonbeam 9y ago
What's Orwellian is being publicly lynched for wrongthink. The far-left is just as authoritarian as the far-right, IMO. The left accuses the right of living in a bubble, but they're completely unaware of their own dogmatic echo chamber. I'm queer. I'm in favor of universal access to abortion and socialised healthcare, but there are a few things I could say that would quickly get me labelled as right-wing and all sorts of bad things. It used to be that being liberal, being left stood for freedom of speech and the open discussion of ideas.
- fzeroracer 9y ago
  Ah yes, the ever-famous both sides argument. I always hear this alongside arguments from people using the word Lynch in an incredibly inappropriate context.
jstalin 9y ago
"Social justice" is the opposite of justice.

agumonkey 9y ago

To me all this hints at an emerging religion like idea that data is important and of value. I think society is going into quant/science/algo because of a mix of trend, boredom, distress, desire to control and predict more (probably caused by distressing times). And now everybody is scrutinizing every little fact, piece of text, "citing sources"; because many believe it's truer than just babbling around as most of us do. Side note: after diving into a lot of research topics (as a semi educated newb), I realized that there's a focal point of science, above it you're ignorant, on it you know the mainstream accepted battle tested science of the day, after that you enter another domain of blur where a lot of things are "maybes" including possible refutation of accepted ideas (maybe not in physics, but medical domains for instance).