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better find each other, legitimize each other, spread their views and recruit others to their causes? It's allowed everyone to do that. That's why we have more

better find each other, legitimize each other, spread their views and recruit others to their causes? It's allowed everyone to do that. That's why we have more acrimony today. Allow a level playing field, and the violent stupid losers will lose. Start taking away people's rights, and you've only given those toxic people a pretext. (Which is exactly what the Christchurch shooter was trying to do.)

zimpenfish 7y ago
> Allow a level playing field, Say by allowing a clearly incompetent and deranged lunatic the same airtime as his opponent? Or by giving a racist grifter airtime on a flagship political program? > and the violent stupid losers will lose. Alas, Trump won. Farage won. Bolsonaro won. Duterte won. The violent stupid losers keep winning despite their views getting wide public airings.
roca 7y ago
Are the stupid flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers losing? No, they're doing much better than they ever were before, thanks to Internet platforms.
- stcredzero 7y ago
  Are the stupid flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers losing? No, they're doing much better than they ever were before, thanks to Internet platforms. Yes, relatively speaking. Everyone is more organized and connected. Everyone has more media creation capability. Everyone is more deeply ensconced in like-minded groups and more deeply taken by groupthink. This is no different than most everyone in the industrialized world having access to refrigerators, washing machines, and antibiotics. (Note that we aren't as acrimonious about the misuse of that last one, even though it's arguably just as bad or worse as vaccine shenanigans in the long term. Could that be due to the perpetrators being of high socioeconomic level?) What you want to do is to single out a segment of the population, give up on them, and withhold the benefits of progress from them. That's a big red flag right there. We shouldn't have a society where the majority gets to arbitrarily suppress the minority. A part of the point of the US constitution is that the minority is also protected from the majority. If you are really for justice and equality, then don't ask for the power to create second class citizens.

zimpenfish 7y ago

> Allow a level playing field, Say by allowing a clearly incompetent and deranged lunatic the same airtime as his opponent? Or by giving a racist grifter airtime on a flagship political program? > and the violent stupid losers will lose. Alas, Trump won. Farage won. Bolsonaro won. Duterte won. The violent stupid losers keep winning despite their views getting wide public airings.

roca 7y ago

Are the stupid flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers losing? No, they're doing much better than they ever were before, thanks to Internet platforms.

stcredzero 7y ago
Are the stupid flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers losing? No, they're doing much better than they ever were before, thanks to Internet platforms. Yes, relatively speaking. Everyone is more organized and connected. Everyone has more media creation capability. Everyone is more deeply ensconced in like-minded groups and more deeply taken by groupthink. This is no different than most everyone in the industrialized world having access to refrigerators, washing machines, and antibiotics. (Note that we aren't as acrimonious about the misuse of that last one, even though it's arguably just as bad or worse as vaccine shenanigans in the long term. Could that be due to the perpetrators being of high socioeconomic level?) What you want to do is to single out a segment of the population, give up on them, and withhold the benefits of progress from them. That's a big red flag right there. We shouldn't have a society where the majority gets to arbitrarily suppress the minority. A part of the point of the US constitution is that the minority is also protected from the majority. If you are really for justice and equality, then don't ask for the power to create second class citizens.