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The world is always a poorer place without people with minority opinions, no matter how immoral or heinous. Separate your politics from your rational mind. Fre

The world is always a poorer place without people with minority opinions, no matter how immoral or heinous. Separate your politics from your rational mind. Freedom of speech means people making well-reasoned essays for things you might find horrible. That's the entire point, peaceful persuasion through reason and civil discourse. And if it were only things we found comfortable, we would stagnate as a species. Running around with your head on fire in a moral panic constantly doesn't accomplish much for your side -- and it makes for horrible public policy. We should mourn the loss of any civil person who makes a reasoned and rational case for anything. Even if they are wrong, they raise a new generation on understanding why they are wrong and being able to think their way through the issues. In fact, the people who are the most wrong -- as long as they are civil, rational, and make well-reasoned arguments -- are the most valuable protector of a free and moral society that we have. I swear I'm getting an inflatable copy of "On Liberty" and start beating people over the head with it. Western society went over this ground 200 years ago. Nothing has changed since then.

iron0013 8y ago
A lot of what you're saying makes sense, thank you! From now on I will strive to separate politics from my rational mind. To that end, I will do everything I can to encourage those with the most deeply immoral and heinous opinions to speak up, and speak loudly -- as long as they do so in a civil, rational, and well-reasoned manner, of course. I hear Miss Manners is working on the most sober and logically consistent defense of incestuous cannibalism that you've ever heard.
- CWuestefeld 8y ago
  Sadly, the counterexamples we see to DanielBMarkham's point is our neighbors cruelly assassinating each other's character, people "defriending" one another, and so on - and doing so in the name of goodness and peace. Thanks, but I'll take DBM's world, where I can listen and make up my own mind.

iron0013 8y ago

A lot of what you're saying makes sense, thank you! From now on I will strive to separate politics from my rational mind. To that end, I will do everything I can to encourage those with the most deeply immoral and heinous opinions to speak up, and speak loudly -- as long as they do so in a civil, rational, and well-reasoned manner, of course. I hear Miss Manners is working on the most sober and logically consistent defense of incestuous cannibalism that you've ever heard.

CWuestefeld 8y ago
Sadly, the counterexamples we see to DanielBMarkham's point is our neighbors cruelly assassinating each other's character, people "defriending" one another, and so on - and doing so in the name of goodness and peace. Thanks, but I'll take DBM's world, where I can listen and make up my own mind.