Viewing profile — wilsocr88

We should be extremely slow to "universally condemn" things, though. Free speech requires that universal condemnation is very difficult to reach. The reality of a free society is t…

What we mean is when groups of loud activists pile onto a wrongthinker en masse and demand that the person's life and livelihood be destroyed, or else engage in targeted harassment…

I think it all stems from this idea that we can't be made uncomfortable ever, or we are a victim. The whole point of colleges and universities was to be confronted with some very u…

Yep. There is no freedom of speech unless the most batshit insane ideas can see the light, be understood truthfully, and criticized freely. And, I'd add: we need to respect the rig…

That is truly unfortunate to read. Those people are not serious about free speech; they are deeply hostile to it. If they were serious about free speech, they would welcome the cri…

In my experience, the "anti-free speech" things they complain about are generally the actions taken by powerful private institutions (PayPal cutting people off, complete bans from …

Free speech exists to prevent "nasty behavior". The whole point is that you speak your mind instead of getting violent. The whole idea is to invite criticism for "nasty behavior," …

The point of the bit about Western Europe was to point out that hate crime laws in practice achieve the exact opposite of their intended goal: They make societies more bigoted. The…

No, it's precisely the other way around. The XKCD comic attempts to reframe one of the most important philosophical foundations of democracy as somehow legally unsound, or otherwis…

Emacs was released in 1985. That's 36 years ago. Half of that is 18. What am I missing?

I think you're noticing the autoimmune reaction of a corrupt central bank to the first real competition it has ever received. There are many private institutions in the US experien…

"Central" is the opposite of good practice in the IT world. So, in context, I guess this doesn't really surprise me.

The fraud Facebook habitually engages in is one thing. The psychological effects of their apps on their users is another. Machine learning gears the content toward what spikes emot…

Great points. I suppose, in the end, that social media are like any mind-altering substance. But, it seems to me that we're not fully aware of just how "mind-altering" they really …

Wow, that's discouraging. I thought the barrier to entry would mean better content across the board. But, I suppose that's the difference between a falsely erected barrier to make …

I feel out of the loop for never having read this guy's work before this faux-outrage-turned-scandal, but everything I'm reading of his is great. He's focused, honest, and straight…