On slippery slopes specifically, I note that Scott’s article points out that there do seem to be equilibria besides “all” or “nothing”, where “free speech” as legally understood in the US does have lots of exemptions carved out of it, and it doesn’t seem to be significantly different whether or not Holocaust Denial is one of those exemptions. (An example that does seem to matter significantly is whether truth is a defense against libel; interestingly, it was not so for criminal libel cases for a long time in England, whereas it was for civil libel cases.)
One of the differences between Schelling points and general coordination equilibria seems relevant: the former you can reach blind, but the latter you can reach using sight and convergence. Given that we have the ability to establish traditions and reach approximate convergence on standards, it’s not obvious that we should abandon that ability in order to have pure standards that are reachable by individual thought. Yes, it’s nice to satisfy that constraint also, but is it worth the cost in this case?
On slippery slopes specifically, I note that Scott’s article points out that there do seem to be equilibria besides “all” or “nothing”, where “free speech” as legally understood in the US does have lots of exemptions carved out of it, and it doesn’t seem to be significantly different whether or not Holocaust Denial is one of those exemptions. (An example that does seem to matter significantly is whether truth is a defense against libel; interestingly, it was not so for criminal libel cases for a long time in England, whereas it was for civil libel cases.)
One of the differences between Schelling points and general coordination equilibria seems relevant: the former you can reach blind, but the latter you can reach using sight and convergence. Given that we have the ability to establish traditions and reach approximate convergence on standards, it’s not obvious that we should abandon that ability in order to have pure standards that are reachable by individual thought. Yes, it’s nice to satisfy that constraint also, but is it worth the cost in this case?