Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger words and safe spaces

Re:Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger wo... by wanda on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:15AM (#11478547)

Fry is a pretentious ass and there's no denying it. Beyond that which you mentioned, there is also the fact that he is essentially a charlatan who has made a career out of appearing to be an intellectual. He seems to suffer from the same special-snowflake syndrome mentioned in some of the other comments.

All of this sjw/triggering stuff is nonsensical and baffling, but it is also baffling that we live in a society where attacks on a person's character and history somehow influence the validity of what that person says. Anyone has the capacity to say something that is true. If a murderer stated that the Moon orbits the Earth, you would have a hard time convincing rational people not to listen just because he was an immoral person.

Ultimately, it is fallacious to disagree with someone just because you don't like them or because they are hypocrites. Hypocrisy doesn't make a statement or set of statements true or false.

Attacking a person's character or history instead of attacking their argument represents an act of dissociation or insansity, either of which would equal triggering in the magnitude of its infantile absurdity.

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Re:Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger wo... by vidarh on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:22AM (#11478569)

> Attacking a person's character or history instead of attacking their argument represents an act of dissociation or insansity, either of which would equal triggering in the magnitude of its infantile absurdity.

I find this quite amusing as the end of a comment that started with an attack on someones character.

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Re:Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger wo... by zuminator on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:32AM (#11478618)

I believe the intent was that despite the flaws in Fry's character, it doesn't make his argument any less compelling.

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Re:Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger wo... by vidarh on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:48AM (#11478691)

I get that, but the personal attack is still there. The comment just also says that we shouldn't let personal character affect the argument, which I agree with. I just found the structure of the argument where the commenter basically ends by arguing that they themselves have engaged in "an act of dissociation or insansity" quite amusing.

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Re:Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger wo... by wanda on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @12:14PM (#11480847)

Actually I just wanted to agree that Fry is a bit dodgy but also point out that it is irrelevant that anybody thinks he's dodgy.

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Re:Stephen Fry hits out at ‘infantile’ culture of trigger wo... by icebraining on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:53AM (#11478716)

Mind the "instead" carefully positioned in that phrase.

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