3 ms·
I am glad that people didn't force Chomsky to resign from MIT due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faurisson_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faurisson_affa
by js8 7y ago
I am glad that people didn't force Chomsky to resign from MIT due to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faurisson_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faurisson_affair.
Freedom of speech means that people are free to defend what other people find morally objectionable. The idea that the "leaders" should be morally pure is understandable, but ultimately very elitist.
It also reminds me of this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/neurodiversity-truth-telling/592465/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/neurodiver...
- thundergolfer 7y agoThe situation with Chomsky is not equivalent to this. Chomsky did not want Faurisson prosecuted by French law for his views. Chomsky did not himself express the bad views. Stallman here was the one expressing the bad views, so he is Faurisson not Chomsky.
- js8 7y agoLike Chomsky, Stallman did nothing illegal or immoral himself, just with his speech defended somebody who (potentially) did an illegal/immoral thing. So if we consider "holocaust denial" to be the bad action (whether it is or not, that is for another discussion), then the analogy holds.
- ptah 7y agofreedom of speech merely means the government can't act against you. it doesn't bind any other entity from responding freely: in fact their response is also freedom of speech
- dtornabene 7y agoyeah, uh, these are not the same, at all. Chomsky did not do a holocaust denial, Chomsky isn't the one whose speech was under a microscope, he was the one standing up for the right do socially unpalatable scholarship (or whatever you call what Faurission was doing). And for the record, the Faurisson affair comes up all the time from people who hate chomsky and want to see him brought down in the world.