3 ms·

> ..the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who di

> ..the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error. John Stuart Mill https://www.utilitarianism.com/ol/two.html https://www.utilitarianism.com/ol/two.html

drchopchop 6y ago
Should all expressions of opinion be given equal weight? Is an average person able to evaluate what's factually correct, and what's not? Just think of all the assumptions that you need to make when you figure out "should I take a COVID-19 vaccine": * Is this vaccine safe? What do I know about the companies that are making it? * What even is a vaccine? Are they all the same? How do the different ones work? * Is COVID-19 even real? Have I personally witnessed people getting sick? Is there statistical evidence that large amounts of people are getting sick? Is the death rate worse than the average flu? * How do we even know this is transmitted between people? Do masks work? What even is a virus? How do they grow and replicate? * Are doctors lying to me? Do they have an incentive to? How do I fact-check these claims when I can't travel around the country and see with my own eyes? * et cetera You have to rely on some assumptions to be able to answer these questions, which is the whole point of having an educational system at all, and necessarily prioritizes ones that we have deemed "correct". Is this authoritarian? Should we just let children loose on Twitter after they're born and have them re-derive all information for first principles again?
- mrfusion 6y ago
  Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. -- Ronald Reagan
- inglor_cz 6y ago
  "be given equal weight" By whom, that is the question? By the listener? Probably no. But once you get committees and probably bots (b/c there is not enough people to judge the entire information flow of today) that decide the weight of X using some flexible criteria for others out there, the bad actors will do their utmost to influence them and get them under control. And, ten years from now, hey presto! Whatever the Prime Minister does not like, will be classified as misinformation. This system is accountable to Darwin, not Newton. It evolves. https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/darwin-newton/ https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/darwin-newton/

drchopchop 6y ago

Should all expressions of opinion be given equal weight? Is an average person able to evaluate what's factually correct, and what's not? Just think of all the assumptions that you need to make when you figure out "should I take a COVID-19 vaccine": * Is this vaccine safe? What do I know about the companies that are making it? * What even is a vaccine? Are they all the same? How do the different ones work? * Is COVID-19 even real? Have I personally witnessed people getting sick? Is there statistical evidence that large amounts of people are getting sick? Is the death rate worse than the average flu? * How do we even know this is transmitted between people? Do masks work? What even is a virus? How do they grow and replicate? * Are doctors lying to me? Do they have an incentive to? How do I fact-check these claims when I can't travel around the country and see with my own eyes? * et cetera You have to rely on some assumptions to be able to answer these questions, which is the whole point of having an educational system at all, and necessarily prioritizes ones that we have deemed "correct". Is this authoritarian? Should we just let children loose on Twitter after they're born and have them re-derive all information for first principles again?

mrfusion 6y ago
Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. -- Ronald Reagan
inglor_cz 6y ago
"be given equal weight" By whom, that is the question? By the listener? Probably no. But once you get committees and probably bots (b/c there is not enough people to judge the entire information flow of today) that decide the weight of X using some flexible criteria for others out there, the bad actors will do their utmost to influence them and get them under control. And, ten years from now, hey presto! Whatever the Prime Minister does not like, will be classified as misinformation. This system is accountable to Darwin, not Newton. It evolves. https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/darwin-newton/ https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/darwin-newton/