3 ms·
The main problem with Mozilla's initiative is that it presupposes a definition of what's "healthy". This won't be popular with some of the progressive set here,
by helloworld11 4y ago
The main problem with Mozilla's initiative is that it presupposes a definition of what's "healthy". This won't be popular with some of the progressive set here, but for many people, being exposed to a freewheeling landscape of ideas that aren't censored or controlled based on their "correctness" or evidence base is a wonderful thing.
The simple knowledge that even the crazy and unfounded can be allowed to express itself so that really interesting notions, connections and concepts can filter their way forward can be satisfying for many reasons, aside from moral questions of free expression. Prima facie, nobody can easily know what good ideas vs- bad ideas are, or where exactly good will evolve from crazy notions. The freedom to express is a fundamental step in discovering that.
I consider a place that allows it to be much less "toxic" than some stultifying, taboo-ridden supposedly healthy social landscape in which you get canceled or burned for going against some dominant grain of thought or any tangent of it, or for violating the dictates of some vocal minority that can't stand divergent thought but shields itself in labels of being "tolerant and diverse" or rational. Often, as we've all seen in recent years and since long before, such people are none of those things, but suffocate the real expression of many unique arguments.
Sure, many people in such an openly permissive and genuinely tolerant environment will engage in flame wars, bad faith argument, drama and all kinds of stupid bullshit and terrible thinking, but it will open room for interesting thinking to filter forward to those who can make better sense of it, without censoring others.
Many of history's best breeding grounds for incredibly creative thinking were places where free expression was raucously, tacitly cultivated in all its sometimes supposedly toxic glory of the stupid and mean sharing space with the thoughtful.