There are two things you could be referring to with those:
Unfounded hatred or harmful policies based on superficial concerns and lack of moral reasoning. If there is that kind of stuff here, I think you would not be alone in calling out those who perpetuate it. Please continue to confront it.
Facts and hypotheses that contradict certain dominant social narratives. These things may need care in discussion due to their sensitive nature and similarity to #1, but I think it’s incorrect to simply condemn them. What happens if reality doesn’t cooperate with your politics? Perhaps you think it’s improbable, but I think you should be able to handle the eventuality. You should especially expect that these things will come up in a community of people who are more interested in truth than politics. If reality is evil, I think the correct response is to condemn reality, not those who dare to study it.
Now of course, the first thing tries to seem like the second thing as much as it can, so I appreciate that someone bringing up certain subjects under the guise of the second thing is not strong enough evidence to overcome the higher rate of haters than scholars. Still, I think a certain level of charity is warranted.
But now I have a question. Suppose I have come to “racist”, “sexist”, “classist”, and “authoritarian” beliefs in the course of investigating reality, or at least I believe I have, but have no particular sympathy for ignorant hatred. What is your advice in this situation? I don’t think of myself as evil, and don’t seem to respond as intended to shaming, so the usual “advice” won’t work.
From my perspective, there are three explanations for your behaviour:
You are a passionate liberal such that you feel the urge to condemn anything that looks anything like Xism, and don’t think the type-1 Xism/type 2 Xism distinction I outlined above is legitimate.
You are a reasonable person who is capable of appreciating the distinction, but nonetheless have reason to believe that certain facts would be so harmful to discuss that they need to be shamed out of consideration regardless of the negative consequences for the epistemic health of the community.
You’ve had really bad experiences with Xism such that you have a visceral negative reaction to anything that looks like it, and are unable to engage with that subject rationally, and you would appreciate if other people avoided it. (If this is the case, I actually have a lot of sympathy. I know there are things like that for me.)
I’m trying to be charitable and assume you are a type 2 anti-Xist, except that if that is a reasonable position, I don’t know yet what you could know that would justify it. So again I ask for your advice: Given that I believe I am a type-2 Xist, and you are a type 2 anti-Xist, what is it that you think I should know?
You gentlemen can probably guess as to which ones of you I mean by this. Fuck you.
Oh, hey. Is this the lecture hall for Utopic Fascism Deprogramming 101? Cool, d’you mind if I sit next to you? I’m really excited about this class. We might have to drop it though, I hear that the lecturer might not even be planning on showing up.
Methinks you hate too much.
There are two things you could be referring to with those:
Unfounded hatred or harmful policies based on superficial concerns and lack of moral reasoning. If there is that kind of stuff here, I think you would not be alone in calling out those who perpetuate it. Please continue to confront it.
Facts and hypotheses that contradict certain dominant social narratives. These things may need care in discussion due to their sensitive nature and similarity to #1, but I think it’s incorrect to simply condemn them. What happens if reality doesn’t cooperate with your politics? Perhaps you think it’s improbable, but I think you should be able to handle the eventuality. You should especially expect that these things will come up in a community of people who are more interested in truth than politics. If reality is evil, I think the correct response is to condemn reality, not those who dare to study it.
Now of course, the first thing tries to seem like the second thing as much as it can, so I appreciate that someone bringing up certain subjects under the guise of the second thing is not strong enough evidence to overcome the higher rate of haters than scholars. Still, I think a certain level of charity is warranted.
But now I have a question. Suppose I have come to “racist”, “sexist”, “classist”, and “authoritarian” beliefs in the course of investigating reality, or at least I believe I have, but have no particular sympathy for ignorant hatred. What is your advice in this situation? I don’t think of myself as evil, and don’t seem to respond as intended to shaming, so the usual “advice” won’t work.
From my perspective, there are three explanations for your behaviour:
You are a passionate liberal such that you feel the urge to condemn anything that looks anything like Xism, and don’t think the type-1 Xism/type 2 Xism distinction I outlined above is legitimate.
You are a reasonable person who is capable of appreciating the distinction, but nonetheless have reason to believe that certain facts would be so harmful to discuss that they need to be shamed out of consideration regardless of the negative consequences for the epistemic health of the community.
You’ve had really bad experiences with Xism such that you have a visceral negative reaction to anything that looks like it, and are unable to engage with that subject rationally, and you would appreciate if other people avoided it. (If this is the case, I actually have a lot of sympathy. I know there are things like that for me.)
I’m trying to be charitable and assume you are a type 2 anti-Xist, except that if that is a reasonable position, I don’t know yet what you could know that would justify it. So again I ask for your advice: Given that I believe I am a type-2 Xist, and you are a type 2 anti-Xist, what is it that you think I should know?
I love you too, friend.
Oh, hey. Is this the lecture hall for Utopic Fascism Deprogramming 101? Cool, d’you mind if I sit next to you? I’m really excited about this class. We might have to drop it though, I hear that the lecturer might not even be planning on showing up.