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I love how someone always hauls out that set of speech codes every time there's any discussion of race or gender in a forum, as if there's a "correct way" to pa
by cantastoria 14y ago
I love how someone always hauls out that set of speech codes every time there's any discussion of race or gender in a forum, as if there's a "correct way" to participate in these discussions. You're not our proctor. If you want to let that absurd list of rules dictate how you discuss these issues then go ahead but please don't expect the rest us to follow suit. Hopefully the rest of HN doesn't subscribe to that kind of self-censorship.
- erikpukinskis 14y agoIf I am having a conversation with my friend about struggles he's having with his boss, and you come in and start talking about how difficult is is to hire good people, you're being an asshole. It's not wrong to talk about hiring, but you're a jerk if you insist on derailing our conversation. Now being a jerk isn't so awful. But we could just walk away and have our conversation in private, right? It's a free country after all. But when this kind of derailment happens over and over again to the point that no matter when or where you bring it up, SOMEONE finds a way to derail the conversation, it starts to become oppressive. At that point the community is conspiring to prevent people from discussing racism. And so we implore you to decide, FOR YOURSELF, that you would like to join us in making space for real talk about racism. The notion of "self-censorship" is nonsense. We all have free will and and we can decide what to speak about. I'm not going to get the government to silence you, I'm asking you to understand the effects of your words and to take responsibility for them.