Speech is violence? Not if we want a liberal, intellectual society

Re:Speech is violence? Not if we want a liberal, intellectua... by realjhol on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @06:03PM (#34812194)

The idea that we can have value-free laws instituted by impartial institutions is a fantasy. By its very nature politics is about rewarding friends and punishing enemies.

If the state - any state - regards you as deplorable, then it is totally irrelevant that some piece of paper somewhere might claim you are entitled to some rights. In practice this won't matter. The state will crush you, and the mob will cheer.

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Re:Speech is violence? Not if we want a liberal, intellectua... by nbardy on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @07:11PM (#34812976)

There is no true scotsman. Doesn't mean we can't have truth

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Re:Speech is violence? Not if we want a liberal, intellectua... by realjhol on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @07:27PM (#34813149)

That's irrelevant.

The fact is that we don't have neutral institutions. Even theoretically it would be extremely unlikely, and in practice it won't happen, chiefly because it would involve people in the in-group making comittiments to deplorable people in the out-group.

This might be approximately possible in a united cohesive high-trust society... but that bond of kinship simply doesn't exist anywhere in the West today

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Re:Speech is violence? Not if we want a liberal, intellectua... by raxxorraxor on Thursday February 16, 2023 @03:24AM (#34816328)

Journalists thought the same while feeling decently smart. They were neither smart nor produced articles worth reading in the end.

Anyone can strive to objectivity. Even if you can never reach it, the quality between someone who tries and someone who gives up is tremendous.

[ Parent | on HN ]