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> All I am advocating is that whatever your idea is should be reflected on your reputation. I think the difference is when society figured out the internet ena

by kodah 5y ago

> All I am advocating is that whatever your idea is should be reflected on your reputation. I think the difference is when society figured out the internet enabled mobs and mobs can snap reputations like twigs on a whim. There are folks who deny this occurs but there are high profile cases that exemplify it, and if you keep your ears open you'll see it happen to laypeople people too. Brendan Eich is one such person, as frustrating as he can be at times, and as much as he and I may disagree at times, being cancelled from being Mozilla's CEO was a direct harm to both Mozilla and himself. A harm which was led by a mob that had fuel poured on it by OKCupid. People didn't just invent a need for anti-censorship, it was always prevalent within our society, but mostly locked to a local level until the internet gave it a global voice. That's the american-centric view. The global populace is still dealing with authoritarian regimes that want to control all speech, which these tools would aid in fighting against. We had political forces in the form of "think of the children" and "terrorism" which could rise to the level of an authoritarian state in the US, but we're probably a ways off from that. It would be nice if these tools existed (and were updated) by the time that arrives, if it does.

wussboy 5y ago
Thanks for your reply. I think you're touching on a different issue as well: "Everything I say is knowable by everyone, forever." For most of human history the words and ideas that came out of most people's mouths were not recorded and were almost immediately forgotten. This tends to winnow out many bad ideas, as only something truly remarkable would bear the effort of writing it down or of remembering it to speak to someone else later. Our current social media world does not allow people to make mistakes or to learn, explore and develop. That is one of the many reasons I stay off it completely (forestalling any 'HN is social media' comments, I post only here (and that carefully) and from my Reddit porn account (whose reputation has been so thoroughly destroyed, I do not even try to bring good from it.)) It is very liberating. And later, when I take over the world, there will not be 20 years of public posts where I learned who and what I was about to drag me down. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.
BrendanEich 5y ago
Sorry if I frustrated you. If you frustrate me, I'll try to overlook it. Nevertheless, we are now in a different era, where enough people (a majority or a plurality) can move to cancel someone, and mostly get their way for a time. What to do about it? Pick user-first software that isn't beholden to coordinated cancel mobs. I'm not touting just Brave here, there are many such options now.

by kodah 5y ago

wussboy 5y ago

Thanks for your reply. I think you're touching on a different issue as well: "Everything I say is knowable by everyone, forever." For most of human history the words and ideas that came out of most people's mouths were not recorded and were almost immediately forgotten. This tends to winnow out many bad ideas, as only something truly remarkable would bear the effort of writing it down or of remembering it to speak to someone else later. Our current social media world does not allow people to make mistakes or to learn, explore and develop. That is one of the many reasons I stay off it completely (forestalling any 'HN is social media' comments, I post only here (and that carefully) and from my Reddit porn account (whose reputation has been so thoroughly destroyed, I do not even try to bring good from it.)) It is very liberating. And later, when I take over the world, there will not be 20 years of public posts where I learned who and what I was about to drag me down. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.

BrendanEich 5y ago

Sorry if I frustrated you. If you frustrate me, I'll try to overlook it. Nevertheless, we are now in a different era, where enough people (a majority or a plurality) can move to cancel someone, and mostly get their way for a time. What to do about it? Pick user-first software that isn't beholden to coordinated cancel mobs. I'm not touting just Brave here, there are many such options now.