91–100 of 105 posts
Science. The only culture that ever begot science was the tradition of greek philosophy and democracy that you could discuss everything, and that everyone was on the same playing ground. Materially, China could have come up with scientific progress for a thousand years, but they didn't, because they lacked the culture for open debate and expression of ideas. No freedom of press, no cars. That's the historical perspec…
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20221537.
It's a truly fascinating piece, but wow, I didn't expect going in that I'd come out not liking him. On the other hand, I didn't really know anything about Liu Cixin or his work before now, so maybe this is all well-trodden ground for everyone else.
I think you have to look very hard to find anything positive written about China or Chinese people in western establishment media. Especially anything that gets posted on HN.
It's a truly fascinating piece, but wow, I didn't expect going in that I'd come out not liking him. On the other hand, I didn't really know anything about Liu Cixin or his work before now, so maybe this is all well-trodden ground for everyone else.
The journalist worked hard to achieve that effect.
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The journalist worked hard to achieve that effect.
You sure it wasn't Liu Cixin's own statements that were working to achieve that effect? The journalist just asked questions and wrote down his response.
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You sure it wasn't Liu Cixin's own statements that were working to achieve that effect? The journalist just asked questions and wrote down his response.
"Just"? We must have been reading different articles.
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Freedom of speech refers to the government not being able to infringe those rights. It says nothing about freedom of consequences for one’s shitty beliefs from prospective employers.
I have never seen a definition of freedom of speech that is restricted specifically to government action. Certainly, internationally recognized definitions like that in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights don't make that distinction. If saying something can essentially wreck your life and turn you into a pariah because you can't even get a job, what does it matter if it's a government or not doing it? When the…
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>If saying something can essentially wreck your life and turn you into a pariah because you can't even get a job, what does it matter if it's a government or not doing it? Conversely, it's impossible to have a "marketplace of ideas" if all forms of criticism, regardless of their source or intent, are considered a violation of someone's freedom of speech, and this presents the paradox of only considering active speech…
"all forms of criticism" Criticism is fine, trying to shut opponent's mouth is not, punishment is not.
Now define "criticism" in a way that can't be arbitrarily equated to "punishment" or "trying to shut your opponent's mouth."
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"all forms of criticism" Criticism is fine, trying to shut opponent's mouth is not, punishment is not.
Ok. Now define "criticism" in a way that can't be arbitrarily equated to "punishment" or "trying to shut your opponent's mouth."
Demanding the person to be fired is not fine, ad hominem attacks are not fine, sharing private information about the person is not fine. You get the idea.
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"Just"? We must have been reading different articles.
If the author simply transcribed every conversation and printed it, we would still come out with the same impression that this is a guy with some pretty shitty beliefs. Everything else in the article is just window dressing around those facts.