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Are you implying the alt right employs bad faith trolling? Cry bullying? Way too often, free speech debates are hijacked to normalize a fascistic movement in A
by Zigurd 4y ago
Are you implying the alt right employs bad faith trolling? Cry bullying?
Way too often, free speech debates are hijacked to normalize a fascistic movement in American politics. The left is feckless because they don't think like Peter Thiel or Steve Bannon.
Certainly there are days when the mass of normal opinion outweighs the straussian tactics of the right because the position of the right has gone ridiculously too far and it is obvious that it isn't normal. But it is difficult to count on that happening reliably.
- neilv 4y agoAgreed, visible mass of public opinion isn't a panacea. And there seems to be a widespread anti-intellectualism movement, from multiple directions, that's turning all of us into bickering reactionaries. Someone has to start bringing us back to aspiring to sophistication of intellect and character, to both engage in genuine dialogue, and to recognize when someone else isn't. MIT, as one vanguard, doesn't have the last word on this (it has its own biases), but IMHO not surprising to see them taking a confident stand for a kind of intellectualism that's in a relatively good direction. We need the influence of others, to address concerns/perspectives that are not as much on the radar of MIT.
- buescher 4y ago> Way too often, free speech debates are hijacked to normalize a fascistic movement in American politics. The fun thing about this statement is that it's just as true, but much more clear, if you consider "fascistic" to be "anything to the right of Angela Davis".