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Comment by leibwiht | Hacker News Reader

Uh, people have their livelihoods destroyed and lives ruined for having unpopular views all the time. James Watson literally had to sell his Nobel prize because he was destitute, Curtis Yarvin was disinvited from Strange Loop, to name two examples. Another example of the difficulty people have in going against the status quo is this article, which was on HN several months ago: https://quillette.com/2018/09/07/academic-activists-send-a-p... .

The problem is not that they can't accept criticism, the problem is other people disenfranchising them for their opinions.

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> unpopular views > James Watson literally had to sell his Nobel prize

He's a fairly blatant racist - I think that's a bit more than "unpopular" when it comes to views.

> livelihoods destroyed and lives ruined > Curtis Yarvin was disinvited from Strange Loop

In what way did "not being invited to speak at a conference" destroy his livelihood or ruin his life?

Being disinvited from a conference is the least of it. If he wasn’t the founder of his own company, he would have lost his job. In 2016, security escorted him off the SF Google campus when he visited a friend for lunch. Apparently his name is on a blacklist (along with other conservative & neoreactionary people).

When I met Curtis Yarvin, he told me about some efforts he’d been taking to reduce the risk of violence to him and his family. I disagree with him on pretty much everything, but it saddened me that he had to worry about that.

> security escorted him off the SF Google campus when he visited a friend for lunch

I mean, sure, that's inconvenient but it's really nothing in the grand scheme of things.

> some efforts he’d been taking to reduce the risk of violence to him and his family

If people have threatened him or his family, that definitely sucks and I cannot condone or support those people.

They’re not being disenfranchised for their opinions. It’s nobodys right to give a talk at a conference. It’s just that people don’t want to be friends with bigots.

If you spout bad opinions people like you less. If you show bad judgement people won’t want to hire you.

If you preach an ideology that implicitly concludes that a certain set of people are biologically inferior, it’s not a surprise that people who disagree will fight you about it. What else do you expect? What other outcome? “Oh cool yeah you think I’m subhuman. awesome. Let’s get to work.” In what universe does _that_ align with free association?

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