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Stuff like that is analogous to threatening or killing cartoonists who mock Muhammad (that is, insanely extreme reactions to relatively innocuous actions). We j

by Kenji 12y ago

Stuff like that is analogous to threatening or killing cartoonists who mock Muhammad (that is, insanely extreme reactions to relatively innocuous actions). We just happen to agree with these cartoons, therefore we take the side of the cartoonists. The mindset described in this article (social justice bullying) is as much a hinderance to free speech as islamic extremism. But we are blind to it.

matthewmacleod 12y ago
I find it difficult to believe you actually think that – it's not really a self-consistent viewpoint, given that what you describe as 'social justice bullying' is absolutely free speech.
- Kenji 12y ago
  What is a hinderance to freedom of speech is not the bullying itself, but the mindset behind it. If you can't make a foolish joke without having your entire life ruined and getting fired, then yes that is the very definition of lack of freedom of speech. Getting fired for a joke, come on? Action and reaction are completely disproportionate. But worry not, I will absorb the downvotes like a sponge for I know that my common sense has not gone missing yet.
  - matthewmacleod 12y ago
    I do agree that having one's life ruined over this sort of thing is disproportionate, and that's something worth talking about. But we've got to be careful not to overreact to this sort of thing, which just results in shouting matches. Let's remember that it's one thing to 'make a foolish joke', and it's another thing to 'make a foolish joke in front of millions of people.' One of the issues here is the lack of understand that people have about the act of publishing, and I think we'd be better focusing on that.
  - notahacker 12y ago
    As over the top as the internet lynch mob might have been, I don't think a private company opting to fire a PR director for badly misjudging a public communication falls into the same category as making blasphemy a capital crime.
waylandsmithers 12y ago
Are you sure about 'relatively innocuous'? My impression was that any depiction was extraordinarily offensive to most Muslims, not just extremists. I don't think the cartoonists deserved to die, but I thought their intentions were to inflame in one way or another.

by Kenji 12y ago

matthewmacleod 12y ago

I find it difficult to believe you actually think that – it's not really a self-consistent viewpoint, given that what you describe as 'social justice bullying' is absolutely free speech.

Kenji 12y ago
What is a hinderance to freedom of speech is not the bullying itself, but the mindset behind it. If you can't make a foolish joke without having your entire life ruined and getting fired, then yes that is the very definition of lack of freedom of speech. Getting fired for a joke, come on? Action and reaction are completely disproportionate. But worry not, I will absorb the downvotes like a sponge for I know that my common sense has not gone missing yet.
- matthewmacleod 12y ago
  I do agree that having one's life ruined over this sort of thing is disproportionate, and that's something worth talking about. But we've got to be careful not to overreact to this sort of thing, which just results in shouting matches. Let's remember that it's one thing to 'make a foolish joke', and it's another thing to 'make a foolish joke in front of millions of people.' One of the issues here is the lack of understand that people have about the act of publishing, and I think we'd be better focusing on that.
- notahacker 12y ago
  As over the top as the internet lynch mob might have been, I don't think a private company opting to fire a PR director for badly misjudging a public communication falls into the same category as making blasphemy a capital crime.

waylandsmithers 12y ago

Are you sure about 'relatively innocuous'? My impression was that any depiction was extraordinarily offensive to most Muslims, not just extremists. I don't think the cartoonists deserved to die, but I thought their intentions were to inflame in one way or another.