Our fundamental right to shame and shun the New York Times

Re:Our fundamental right to shame and shun the New York Times by lliamander on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @06:47PM (#30772611)

I can't find the quote, but Norman Rockwell said that the inspiration for his Freedom of Speech painting was a town hall he attended where a man not much liked by the community was allowed to speak his piece, even when the people did not like what he had to say.

I'm not arguing we shouldn't be able to shame or shun (the NYT itself would be my preferred target). I think the idea is that we should aspire to resolving our differences through dialog. What we have now is a crowd of people who feel that dialog is no longer necessary, and that to even simply engage in dialog with one's political enemies is bad and might somehow taint you.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Our fundamental right to shame and shun the New York Times by RangerScience on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @08:57PM (#30773593)

> What we have now

But this isn't a new thing, not even a little bit. The House Unamerican Committee, and anti-abolitionists (as in slavery) are both examples of exactly this from history. Arguably, worse and more extreme because of all the, you know, death and murder.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Our fundamental right to shame and shun the New York Times by lliamander on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @11:57PM (#30774774)

Of course political violence is not a new thing. And given your choice of examples, I feel compelled to remind you that it is certainly not just a right-wing phenomenon.

I am simply stating the ideal, and how the present state of affairs differs from that ideal. I would also add that we are the downslope from a relatively high-water mark period of free speech, and I see no value in regressing in the manner we have.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Our fundamental right to shame and shun the New York Times by RangerScience on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @12:52PM (#30780510)

> we are the downslope from a relatively high-water

Thing is, I'm not sure that's true. When do you think that high-water mark was?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Our fundamental right to shame and shun the New York Times by yeetsfromhell on Tuesday March 22, 2022 @08:03PM (#30773223)

Once US society made the jump from "right vs wrong" to "good vs evil" it became an intractable problem.

@dang: was this a mistakenly flagged post? I don't think what I said was off topic or objectionable...to anyone, really.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Our fundamental right to shame and shun the New York Times by dang on Wednesday March 23, 2022 @03:54PM (#30782557)

I suppose some users thought it was too unsubstantive, given the inflammatory topic.

[ Parent | on HN ]