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!

  • HasturOPMEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    I’d like to imagine that some people on the verge of becoming radicalized into a cult-like group could be redeemed by a socratic conversation with someone who offers differing opinions while validating them. I think many of these people have personal issues and insecrutities going on, then turn to a hateful community merely because they finally feel they belong.

    There are more examples that do seem to validate this theory. In Germany you can see that calling everybody right from the SPD party a Nazi has led people to come ti6the conclusion that if they marginalized anyway they can join the far right party and accept the political identity they were given by the exclusionists. Same happened in France with Reassemblement National and in Spain with Vox. Hungary seems to somewhat love Orban for the same reason, despite EU and especially Germany’s effort to undermine his power and position.

    Ignoring facts doesn’t help, excluding people doesn’t make these people go away.