Comment by gedpeck
6 days ago
I’ve been on the site since the beginning under various usernames. I agree with your point overall but sometimes something said truly is “bad” (idiotic, foolish, whatever) and is deserving of being called so.
I believe writing “after the riots of 2020” and framing what happened as “wokeness” qualifies as idiotic.
I made my points and haven’t responded further. I don’t believe I’ve said anything else that can be considered flamewar style commentary. I’ll keep in mind what you’ve said.
The trouble is that all those labels do is rile up people who use opposite labels, or put the same labels on opposite things. Then we get into a label war, which is bad for everybody and invariably deterioriates into acrimony. We're trying to avoid that sort of internet here.
You got a lot on your hands and I’m writing what follows more for myself than for an attempt to change your mind. The Overton window has greatly shifted rightward the last 50 years. The sort of statements being made by people like Musk merit condemnation. It’s no longer a matter of let’s politely disagree and state our mutual positions. We are well into the realm of the Paradox of Tolerance. Normalizing abhorrent viewpoints is not a lofty goal.
I appreciate the reply and it generates at least half a dozen interesting (at least to me!) responses in me, but it would probably take all afternoon to figure out what they are and write them down, so I guess I'd better not :(
(especially because getting my wording wrong on topics like this leads to painful reactions - I don't mean from you, but the format here feels like intimate conversation when in fact it's public broadcasting)