Firstly it's very refreshing to see someone self-aware that their attitude has changed. I'm one of the few people that hasn't changed with the world, I still believe in left-libertarian values as much as ever, and it's been frustrating seeing so many other people change and then pretend they haven't.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑09 Jul 2020, 7:45pmI confess my viewpoint of public speech has altered considerably in the last few years, from a boilerplate libertarian attitude to something … much less so. While recognizing the dangers of gatekeeping and marginalizing voices, I lean more to a communitarian attitude where some speech does deserve public censure right out of the gate. Too much of the libertarian position has come to mean speech meant to offend and without consequences, which has pushed me to consider whether we, as a society, are mature enough to be entrusted with genuine free speech. Related to that, I'm bothered by the decline in the sacred. By this, I don't mean in the religious sense, but rather a shared decency. Gleefully using slurs and seeking to diminish people based on their race or gender. Some things we should understand are not appropriate, not because of law but because of shared custom. A victim, I suppose, of our fragmented culture where everything is open as a target.
A couple of other points:
- It's often better to let people say what they think and get it out in the open, even if it's uncomfortable. They will receive feedback and they'll take it on board and likely be less extreme.
- The extremist views of the last decade or so are in part due to censorship. It allows these people to believe that they are truth bearers that are being censored. It keeps them going.
- Well intentioned policy with bad outcomes is disastrous and people need to think critically when this happens and change accordingly.
- Cancel culture absolutely does exist. It isn't the same thing as censorship but it can lead to censorship. For example, if someone says something and a lot of people disagree with it and call them out on it, that is free speech both ways. If the mob 'cancel' a regular blue collar worker and their employer fires them and they can't get work any more because their name is mud and a simple google search will show how bad they are, that is censorship. To say this doesn't exist is a big cope, there are numerous examples, including where people have been 'wrongly convicted' due to fraudsters that make videos on youtube claiming racism (etc).
- Overall, the point of left-libertarian values is to take away the power from both government and corporations. It's sort of paradoxical then that cancel culture is often neither of those, but a more democratic style of backlash. But people are also not showing the kind of restraint they should, looking at both sides, being fair with people, understanding that redemption exists and people can grow etc. Without that it's horrible. Particularly bad in this post-modern culture we have now.