4 ms·

Judging a group by a subset of their membership is a bad idea. We "got it" with racism and sexism and stereotyping... but it appears we still haven't quite "go

Judging a group by a subset of their membership is a bad idea. We "got it" with racism and sexism and stereotyping... but it appears we still haven't quite "got it". If some posts on gab are direct incitement of violence, they should (and as I have heard, do) get removed. Trashing the entire service is IMHO something else entirely. If a legal activity (gab acts entirely above board) simply cannot operate, not for lack of customers or other business operations but because they are blackballed, then something is rotten in the state of Denmark. I don't know what the right solution is.

tptacek 8y ago
Gab's own (verified) Twitter account posts anti-Semitic slurs and retweets white supremacist garbage. They openly court white nationalists. They've since tried to delete posts, but, of course, many of them have been screenshot. They don't even have the courage of their own convictions. The idea that they just happen to have had some nasty users is a scam that they're trying to get the rest of the world to buy into. Argue whatever you'd like about whether, on the modern Internet, they're entitled to use mainstream providers on FRAND terms. You can build a coherent argument on either side. But please don't amplify their bogus claim of being an innocent victim.
- mikedilger 8y ago
  If what you say is true, then I was ignorant and I apologise for that. I suppose judging them for them is just fine. But I stand by the rest of my comment. "Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself." - John Stewart Mill (in On Liberty)
  - tptacek 8y ago
    No apology needed! I understand how attractive the argument Gab is making is. That's why they're making it. There's no reason you should have had to be vigilant about this bunch of evil randos. I appreciate you taking a beat to listen.

tptacek 8y ago

Gab's own (verified) Twitter account posts anti-Semitic slurs and retweets white supremacist garbage. They openly court white nationalists. They've since tried to delete posts, but, of course, many of them have been screenshot. They don't even have the courage of their own convictions. The idea that they just happen to have had some nasty users is a scam that they're trying to get the rest of the world to buy into. Argue whatever you'd like about whether, on the modern Internet, they're entitled to use mainstream providers on FRAND terms. You can build a coherent argument on either side. But please don't amplify their bogus claim of being an innocent victim.

mikedilger 8y ago
If what you say is true, then I was ignorant and I apologise for that. I suppose judging them for them is just fine. But I stand by the rest of my comment. "Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself." - John Stewart Mill (in On Liberty)
- tptacek 8y ago
  No apology needed! I understand how attractive the argument Gab is making is. That's why they're making it. There's no reason you should have had to be vigilant about this bunch of evil randos. I appreciate you taking a beat to listen.