3 ms·
Do I really need to think hard about my support for basic human freedoms, every single time I see someone write a "well thought out" post about why they want to
by core-questions 6y ago
Do I really need to think hard about my support for basic human freedoms, every single time I see someone write a "well thought out" post about why they want to take them away? Is this kind of tensiment worthy of some kind of "well supported argument"? Will citing the great philosophers of history change any minds here? Do I need to quote S. G. Tallentyre, will her tired catchphrase strike home?
If the article had been about how we don't deserve the right to vote, or the right to free association, because we might vote for the wrong people or hang out with the wrong people, would you react the same way? Those rights are just as important, I believe.
There comes a point at which the feeling is, oh great, here we go, we've found yet another moneyed professional who has decided that because they personally agree with everything the establishment says, does, and wants, there can be no reason why anyone would want to dissent without being immoral and evil and so forth. Time to shut down people's freedom so they stop saying such annoying things, and then we can finally relax, all the problems in society will be gone!
If only we can make sure that only the Ministry of Truth vets every single thing before people say it, then we can make sure that pandemics never happen, that nobody ever gets mad enough to harm someone else, that nobody ever has a bad day ever again. It will be fantastic! It will be like LinkedIn, everywhere! Nobody will have anything negative to say, and so therefore nobody will ever have anything negative to think. Perfect. Can't wait.
Yes, he's a nanny-state toady. Anyone who wants to use the powers of surveillance capitalism to tell me what I can and cannot say and think is precisely that. It's not meant to be a nice thing to day, it's meant to engage you emotionally, because your freedom is being threatened as much as mine is by sentiments like this.
How much of an argument do I need to summon, when generations of my ancestors and those of many, many people in the west fought for these rights as a new pinnacle of human achievement? Do I really need to expend a ton of personal effort explaining to you why I don't think giving corporate HR departments the ultimate arbitrary authority over what is acceptable to say is the proper way to run society? Are you so hoodwinked? Are you a proud, outspoken person who somehow has zero critique of the current social order?