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I don't think that's the case. Every single instance of genocide in the last 150 years or so started as just some folks expressing a relatively fringe ideology

I don't think that's the case. Every single instance of genocide in the last 150 years or so started as just some folks expressing a relatively fringe ideology, with plenty of others debating against it vigorously. For whatever reason, that ideology caught on, and then the mass murders start. People, as a general group, don't evaluate their beliefs in a rational manner. They are biased in favor of the first things they heard; and whatever is most palatable given their emotions and things they already believe. It's how you can get into a situation where massive numbers of people believe some combination of the ideas earth is 6000 years old and also flat and also that 5G causes covid and also covid was a hoax and face masks are just a mkultra trauma psyop run by the pedophile satanic illuminati cabal run by Hillary Clinton and George Soros. If people can hold all that in their heads, and not believe any evidence to the contrary; then the idea of suppressing the notions that Black folks/Jewish folks/Muslims/migrants/whatever are the root of society's problems and we should do violence to them starts to make a lot of sense. I also think that the idea that markets, particularly abstract ones, such as the "free market of ideas" are capable of producing long-term positive outcomes for most participants is, at best, without evidence and at worst pure fallacious thinking.

raxxorrax 6y ago
I think it was a charismatic figure convincing others that they are victims in most cases. That is not the whole truth of course, but far more accurate than saying the freedom of expression hurts minorities and leads to genocide. That is some class-A bullshit and revisionist of history. On the contrary, restricting people from stating their opinion reinforces their believe that the world is conspiring against them. You need to have some trust issue to come up with ideas like that. Flat earthers are only a problem to themselves so I don't understand your fascination with that group. The free market of ideas has produced the most free societies. Not just in history, it can be also be seen today. > They are biased That is true for nobody or everybody. In both cases it wouldn't matter, would it?
- jfengel 6y ago
  Flat earthers may only be a problem of themselves, but climate denialists, anti-vaxxers, and creationists are not. (Creationists are constantly fighting to have theology taught as science, and even today biology textbooks isolate and underplay evolution to avoid offending them.) As you say, they all respond to attempts to restrict their falsehoods play into the paranoid narrative. But sunlight doesn't disinfect it, either. They've set themselves a very attractive head-I-win-tails-you lose scenario, making them impossible to stamp out or even mitigate the damage.

raxxorrax 6y ago

I think it was a charismatic figure convincing others that they are victims in most cases. That is not the whole truth of course, but far more accurate than saying the freedom of expression hurts minorities and leads to genocide. That is some class-A bullshit and revisionist of history. On the contrary, restricting people from stating their opinion reinforces their believe that the world is conspiring against them. You need to have some trust issue to come up with ideas like that. Flat earthers are only a problem to themselves so I don't understand your fascination with that group. The free market of ideas has produced the most free societies. Not just in history, it can be also be seen today. > They are biased That is true for nobody or everybody. In both cases it wouldn't matter, would it?

jfengel 6y ago
Flat earthers may only be a problem of themselves, but climate denialists, anti-vaxxers, and creationists are not. (Creationists are constantly fighting to have theology taught as science, and even today biology textbooks isolate and underplay evolution to avoid offending them.) As you say, they all respond to attempts to restrict their falsehoods play into the paranoid narrative. But sunlight doesn't disinfect it, either. They've set themselves a very attractive head-I-win-tails-you lose scenario, making them impossible to stamp out or even mitigate the damage.