Lately I see a lot of calls do have specific instances defederated for a particular subset of reasons:

  • Don’t like their content
  • Dont like their political leaning
  • Dont like their free speech approach
  • General feeling of being offended
  • I want a safe space!
  • This instance if hurting vulnerable people

I personally find each and every one of these arguments invalid. Everybody has the right to live in an echo chamber, but mandating it for everyone else is something that goes a bit too far.

Has humanity really developed into a situation where words and thoughts are more hurtful than sticks and stones?

Edit: Original context https://slrpnk.net/post/554148

Controversial topic, feel free to discuss!

  • 🐱TheCatEnglish
    0•1 year ago

    I would really advise you to go read Frederick Brennan’s thoughts and watch his interviews etc. I think he will address a lot of your questions. He is also the perfect person to make the arguments because:

    • he was a handicapped youth who HATED having others protect him from content, he wanted to know what people REALLY thought, would have agreed with the most extreme people here 100% in his youth
    • he actually undertook making the idea real, while fully wanting it to succeed
    • as a result, he was forced to engage with the reality of these ideas most of us just discuss
    • his first person experience taught him lessons about this that we can all learn from, without repeating the same mistakes