It’s perfectly reasonable to marginalize viewpoints that are really, really stupid or really, really abhorrent.
Like there’s no God, and mankind wasn’t a special creation of the Lord, but shares common ancestry with chimps, rodents, and slime mold. How abhorrent!
Hitchens had it right in his comments that you point to, and you’d do better to attempt to refute them than ignore them. Hitchens in other venues has defended David Irving as “probably one of the 3 or 4 necessary historians of the Third Reich”. People who question your fundamental premises are extremely useful for helping to clarify why you believe what you do.
Having the state disqualify people for employment based on the moral repugnance of their ideas is the mark of theocracy. Out with the blasphemers!
Hitchens had it right in his comments that you point to, and you’d do better to attempt to refute them than ignore them.
And you’d do better to pay attention. You’ll notice I never argued against Hitchens. Step back, breathe, and come back to me with some thoughts. Trust me, I’ve read more of his work than you have.
An exercise for the reader: how did you get from “really bad/stupid views—our judgment of which being flawed—are a negative that should count against a potential faculty member” to theocracy?
Breathing just fine. You may have read more of Hitchens than I have. I’ve likely watched more than you. I guess we could play whose got the biggest swinging Hitchens phallus, but I don’t see the point.
An exercise for the reader: how did you get from “really bad/stupid views—our judgment of which being flawed—are a negative that should count against a potential faculty member” to theocracy?
I note that you left out the relevant part of what you originally wrote:
or really, really abhorrent.
Yes, those with ideas you “abhor” shouldn’t be hired. In what way do you find this materially different from shunning blasphemers?
Yes, those with ideas you “abhor” shouldn’t be hired. In what way do you find this materially different from shunning blasphemers?
Well you notice that I put the two different things side by side in the same sentence to make it really really easy for you. Let’s do it again with “theocracy” and “shunning blasphemers.” You’re shifting.
Here’s a hint: at no point have I said that faculty who come out with horrible views should be fired. I also haven’t said that people with horrible views should be fined, imprisoned, or banned from publishing. I just don’t think they should have an easy time finding a major publisher to air their horrible views or a major newspaper willing to run a holocaust-denying opinion column, a state of affairs which it is left to the owners and editors of such outlets to induce—not the state.
I think being nasty and stupid should cost you. I think we should minimize the nastiness and stupidity and time wasted by such people.
Like there’s no God, and mankind wasn’t a special creation of the Lord, but shares common ancestry with chimps, rodents, and slime mold. How abhorrent!
Hitchens had it right in his comments that you point to, and you’d do better to attempt to refute them than ignore them. Hitchens in other venues has defended David Irving as “probably one of the 3 or 4 necessary historians of the Third Reich”. People who question your fundamental premises are extremely useful for helping to clarify why you believe what you do.
Having the state disqualify people for employment based on the moral repugnance of their ideas is the mark of theocracy. Out with the blasphemers!
And you’d do better to pay attention. You’ll notice I never argued against Hitchens. Step back, breathe, and come back to me with some thoughts. Trust me, I’ve read more of his work than you have.
An exercise for the reader: how did you get from “really bad/stupid views—our judgment of which being flawed—are a negative that should count against a potential faculty member” to theocracy?
Some people will say anything.
Breathing just fine. You may have read more of Hitchens than I have. I’ve likely watched more than you. I guess we could play whose got the biggest swinging Hitchens phallus, but I don’t see the point.
I note that you left out the relevant part of what you originally wrote:
Yes, those with ideas you “abhor” shouldn’t be hired. In what way do you find this materially different from shunning blasphemers?
Well you notice that I put the two different things side by side in the same sentence to make it really really easy for you. Let’s do it again with “theocracy” and “shunning blasphemers.” You’re shifting.
Here’s a hint: at no point have I said that faculty who come out with horrible views should be fired. I also haven’t said that people with horrible views should be fined, imprisoned, or banned from publishing. I just don’t think they should have an easy time finding a major publisher to air their horrible views or a major newspaper willing to run a holocaust-denying opinion column, a state of affairs which it is left to the owners and editors of such outlets to induce—not the state.
I think being nasty and stupid should cost you. I think we should minimize the nastiness and stupidity and time wasted by such people.