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Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

edwardsnowden.substack.com

171–180 of 266 posts

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#171
post #149

The phrase that stands out to me in this is "the riot of human diversity". It's a great phrase. Probably worthy of a book or even a manifesto. I'm a multicultural person. Dual US/EU citizen. I've spent years living in each of the US, South America, the Caribbean and Europe. Since the mid-2010s, I've been acutely aware of different societal pressures to conform, and I've been "cancelled" by various groups of aquainten…

> do no harm. Beyond that, there is room for tolerance and disagreement.

This is just a nice-sounding platitude. What is or isn't harmful is not written in stone. On the contrary, is a hugely polarizing topic that informs the legal system. People get to live or die because of views and opinions.

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#173
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You do not extend tolerance to those who would deny your humanity. Probably a bad ethos to harbour, one that I imagine quickly rationalizes violent behavior. And I think we're all fortunate that in the US there is no prevailing force denying any specific race of their humanity. Is there scar tissue from the past? Certainly. As Snowden states "freedom is a direction" and we've certainly moved in the right direction…

Imagine you were a Black woman born in late 1865. You were among the first never to have known slavery. You witnessed the first Black folks elected to Congress and even considered it normal. Then Reconstruction ends with a whimper. Burning crosses are showing up everywhere. Thousands flee north as a reign of terror grows. Your voting rights are curtailed then eliminated. When Black folks are elected, they are driven…

That's a lot of text, but I fail to see your point. Is there one?

In keeping with the spirit of the author; freedom is not a goal, but a direction. And broadly speaking, we're moving in the right direction.

Unfortunately, you sound like you've become somewhat of a zealot. A byproduct of being spoon fed rage via the nightly media /twitter cycle.

Statistically there's one specific group of peoples that drive a disproportionate amount of violent crime. Specifically murder, rape, robbery, and assault.

Raw data is here: https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-...

I think stepping back and realizing how far we've come, not only as a country but also globally is worth recognizing. Harboring venom from past wrongs won't do you any good; if anything it appears to be obfuscating the present.

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#174
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does any of that matter?

Why should I care what a serial exaggerator and liar computer technician thinks?

In this case he is not making factual claims. It is purely a philosophical discussion. You can agree or disagree with the content itself. But I don't think a person being a liar or not should necessarily stop you from interacting with their content. If you found out Plato or Aristotle often lied in their daily life would that stop you from reading their works?

That would be strange to me.

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#175

Are there any projects to actually try to evolve the web to avoid censorship / intermediation? It seems to me we are good at identifying the negative trend but aren't actually acting on them. Or am I just missing the obvious?

https://prism-break.org

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#176
post #149

The phrase that stands out to me in this is "the riot of human diversity". It's a great phrase. Probably worthy of a book or even a manifesto. I'm a multicultural person. Dual US/EU citizen. I've spent years living in each of the US, South America, the Caribbean and Europe. Since the mid-2010s, I've been acutely aware of different societal pressures to conform, and I've been "cancelled" by various groups of aquainten…

>I have one moral standard to which I hold myself and others: do no harm.

How do you define "harm"? What if one's view(s) prompt them to vote in favor of things (or support policies - take your pick) that bring harm to others?

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#177
post #168
post #149

The phrase that stands out to me in this is "the riot of human diversity". It's a great phrase. Probably worthy of a book or even a manifesto. I'm a multicultural person. Dual US/EU citizen. I've spent years living in each of the US, South America, the Caribbean and Europe. Since the mid-2010s, I've been acutely aware of different societal pressures to conform, and I've been "cancelled" by various groups of aquainten…

> I have one moral standard to which I hold myself and others: do no harm. Right, but who determines what's "harmful"? Is it more harmful to punish a child or to not punish him? Is a cartoon of Jesus harmful? Muhammad? Are "micro-agressions" actually traumatic? Furthermore, what does it mean to "do" something? Is "meat-eating" a default state, or are you actively "doing" harm every day you continue to not be a vegan?…

> Right, but who determines what's "harmful"?

Well, it's certainly not determined by some objective standard, or a god. Every culture, and even every individual has different moral views. When I say "do no harm" that's a relative statement, relative to the context and parties involved. What's morally apporiate changes depending on the moral contract between parties. I can call my drinking buddy a "fucking idiot" for making a mistake, and there's no harm done. But if I call my grandmother a "fucking idiot", it would harm her a great deal. What's harmful in one context may be fine in another. Morality is like an instinct that humans have evolved to allow us to detect when something may be considered harmful to ourselves, our partners, our community and our planet. It's not always an infallible sense, but it's often pretty good and useful to pay attention to.

Back to your question: who determines what's harmful? Our innate sense of morality has evolved to show us what's harmful and what's not. The more each of us focuses on listening to and improving our own sense of morality and harm, the better we'll be at making decisions that avoid harm as a society and as a species. Ultimately, I'm a humanist, and one of my favorite quotes about morality is GK Chesterton's response when asked to write an article answering the question, "What's wrong with the world?". His response, "Dear sir, I am."

One reason I don't concern myself too much with the morality of others, is that the only person's morality I am responsible for determining is my own.

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#178
Gotta love all these comments about censorship but not a peep that FB/Twitter were running a huge censorship campaign against Trump last year - like covering up the fact that Biden's son was fucking underage girls on camera and was under multiple federal investigations for corruption.

Also, funny the same people here talking about freedom are the very first people to declare you must be wearing a mask and be vax'd with boosters and a return to lockdowns.

You are all posers.

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#179
post #158

Excellent article. For years I've suspected that when American 'leaders' look at the kind of power the Chinese government (or the Saudi government) has over its people, their main emotion is not revulsion but rather envy, and this seems rather bipartisan in nature, and is a sentiment found not just in the political sphere but also the corporate sphere. It's the complete intertwinement of the corporate and political s…

It’s not really ‘the American model’ - it’s the model America was founded to try to avoid. The trend you identify seems to be in all political systems. The fact that america as a political ideal is not immune to the trend does seem to be a failure.

In what way is this "the model America was founded to try to avoid"?

Re: Freedom is not a goal, but a direction

#180

Gotta love all these comments about censorship but not a peep that FB/Twitter were running a huge censorship campaign against Trump last year - like covering up the fact that Biden's son was fucking underage girls on camera and was under multiple federal investigations for corruption. Also, funny the same people here talking about freedom are the very first people to declare you must be wearing a mask and be vax'd wi…

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