Comment by epistasis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by epistasis | Hacker News Reader

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This sort of sophistry is a mental virus. Say what you mean, stop with the mealy-mouthed "whataboutism" and vague questions. There are no communists involved in this discussion. Nobody calls Nazis "National Socialists" unless they're trying to blame the nebulous "left" for the evils of the Nazis.

We've been through these arguments since the 1940s. Karl Popper's view of the Paradox of Tolerance [1]

>Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

If we want an open society that permits maximal freedom, we can not permit those who wish to destroy freedom to override those who wish for freedom. The white nationalist movement includes people who explicitly endorse fascism and "throwing into ovens" those who exercised their free speech. [2]

Stop defending this evil.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

[2] http://www.inforum.com/opinion/letters/4311880-letter-family...

Just for the record, this is in his bio:

>you can be accosted for publicly engaging a wrongthinker.

I don't think he cares about rationality, let alone having the fortitude to say what he means. "Everyone else is wrong and when I get called an asshole it's clearly because it's 1984."

I agree that he's probably an impossible case. He's too arrogant and far too emotionally weak if he thinks public rebuke of ideas is "accosting."

But we are in a public space, and the commonly-endorsed tactic of ignoring trolls has the unfortunate effect of letting this sort of pablum spread. I care about not letting stupid ideas and weak thinking persist without the easy counterarguments. When I say "mental virus" I really mean "mental virus." It's a sickness that only reason can defeat.

> when I get called an asshole it's clearly because it's 1984.

Well, it seems like my concerns are well-founded; because the first thing you did was look at my profile. Clearly you were looking to investigate me in some fashion, who knows why, I'm sure it'll do me no good if you're more than a peon.

Now imagine somebody else who doesn't feel comfortable with the (fairly mild here, thank you folks) level of hostility that I do; that mild-mannered person is the one I want to have an outlet for their thoughts so they don't stew in their own heads.

> because the first thing you did was look at my profile. Clearly you were looking to investigate me in some fashion, who knows why

Technically I read the thread and then looked at your profile. Because people such as yourself always have some self-aggrandizing, pseudo-intellectual nonsense in your bio that -- to everyone else -- clearly displays your ego, irrationality, and how wholly unprepared you are to seriously discuss matters in a forthright manner without trying to weasel your way around the topic. It's almost absurdly comical at how consistently you find such silliness.

>I'm sure it'll do me no good if you're more than a peon.

I'm quoting this just to draw attention to it.

> Because people such as yourself always have some self-aggrandizing, pseudo-intellectual nonsense in your bio

Well, I added it a few days ago because somebody found a way to contact me, and it made them feel less isolated. They told me that I should have my email address in my HN bio with some words of encouragement (it's meant to be playful, if you didn't detect), so I added it. If you get the impression that it's there to play into my ego, well, that's less of a problem than the crushing loneliness of even one person.

> that -- to everyone else -- clearly displays your ego, irrationality, and how wholly unprepared you are to seriously discuss matters in a forthright manner without trying to weasel your way around the topic.

What have I not been forthright about? I am here, a fully identifiable human being. I was making conversation in the wee hours of the morning, and you two took your egg accounts and started assassinating my character. I did not resort to the same tactics, and I tried to answer each jab and remark as clearly as I could manage. I made sure not to make it personal.

> I'm quoting this just to draw attention to it.

Perhaps we can all sound cryptic sometimes. I'm not sure what you're getting at here. I'm saying that if you have it in for me, and (for example) you have direct access to a blacklist of some sort (usually reserved for management, and not peons), it'll do me no good that you're upset and willing to look for my bio.

We've banned this account for violating the site guidelines.

> This sort of sophistry is a mental virus. Say what you mean, stop with the mealy-mouthed "whataboutism" and vague questions.

It seems like you had this line in your clipboard, it is inaccurate, irrelevant, and puzzling in the context of this discussion.

> There are no communists involved in this discussion.

Well, there were communists at the rally, and they came with (thankfully blunt) weapons, ready to brawl. They dressed in black instead of red because that's the trend as of late. Radical communists have been regularly assaulting people at protests and assemblies in America for at least a year.

> We've been through these arguments since the 1940s. Karl Popper's view of the Paradox of Tolerance [1]

I'm not interested in tolerating political violence, but political speech I will.

We need to make ethnonationalism and other seductive ideologies obsolete, instead of suppressing the people who go to them for help.

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