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There has always been a limit to what people within a community will tolerate, even in the name of "freedom of speech." It used to be a widespread virtue for p

There has always been a limit to what people within a community will tolerate, even in the name of "freedom of speech." It used to be a widespread virtue for people to cite "freedom of speech," let people say their piece,then just go on with your own life. The people who were going around trying to persecute others were bigots trying to exclude Jews and Asians from their clubs. (Happened to my family.) The people who were going around to people private lives with toxic behavior justified by their beliefs were people like the Klan and the Westboro Baptist church. Now, people proclaim as if it's "mainstream," that it's a virtue to give people "consequences" and engage in the same kind of impingement on private lives, exclusion, and active persecution those bigots once engaged in, then call it "justice." It's quite a huge difference in society. Such active persecution used to be the sole province of widely recognized fringe bigots. Now, it's supported by politicians at the national level and it's claimed by people who purport to be mainstream and normal. It's no longer a live and let live society. We should be suspicious of those who would engage in an Orwellian retcon of the past, and pretend it was always so.

braythwayt 8y ago
Elon Musk made a baseless accusation that an experienced cave diver who criticized Musk's rescue plans was a pedophile. In public, and with millions of followers hanging on Elon's every word. Now you're here with rustled jimmies acting like there's something wrong with society, and with me, for thinking that no, he should not be able to make such baseless statements without consequences. You are what is wrong with society. Your pretend-utopia where anyone can say anything doesn't exist. In reality, when someone like Musk calls a man a pedophile, some people go ahead and believe it. The cave diver faces consequences: He may lose his job, his friends, even his life if a vigilante takes matters into their own hands. And especially so if there is no pushback against Musk. And if you leave the pushback up to the victims of Musk's rhetoric, realize that they are outgunned by millions of dollars and millions of followers. What value is truth in today's social media? Let's move on from Musk. In your world, people can launch conspiracy theories about sex rings in pizza parlours, without consequence of any kind. For them. But the pizza parlour has a consequence if people stop going there. The pizza parlour has a consequence if armed vigilantes show up to "investigate." This happened. Speech has consequences whether you pretend it doesn't or not. It's not enough to imagine a nice world where everything works perfectly provided all of the people in that world act in good faith. You have to think about what happens when people don't act in good faith. In your world, other people get thrown under the bus, and you either haven't considered that, or don't care about their consequences.

braythwayt 8y ago

Elon Musk made a baseless accusation that an experienced cave diver who criticized Musk's rescue plans was a pedophile. In public, and with millions of followers hanging on Elon's every word. Now you're here with rustled jimmies acting like there's something wrong with society, and with me, for thinking that no, he should not be able to make such baseless statements without consequences. You are what is wrong with society. Your pretend-utopia where anyone can say anything doesn't exist. In reality, when someone like Musk calls a man a pedophile, some people go ahead and believe it. The cave diver faces consequences: He may lose his job, his friends, even his life if a vigilante takes matters into their own hands. And especially so if there is no pushback against Musk. And if you leave the pushback up to the victims of Musk's rhetoric, realize that they are outgunned by millions of dollars and millions of followers. What value is truth in today's social media? Let's move on from Musk. In your world, people can launch conspiracy theories about sex rings in pizza parlours, without consequence of any kind. For them. But the pizza parlour has a consequence if people stop going there. The pizza parlour has a consequence if armed vigilantes show up to "investigate." This happened. Speech has consequences whether you pretend it doesn't or not. It's not enough to imagine a nice world where everything works perfectly provided all of the people in that world act in good faith. You have to think about what happens when people don't act in good faith. In your world, other people get thrown under the bus, and you either haven't considered that, or don't care about their consequences.