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Comment by ianwalter | Hacker News Reader

Seriously? You could just put aside that insane, clearly evil opinion and listen to them speak for an hour? Give them an applause and move on without the slightest burden on your conscious?

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Seriously? You'd ignore someone's (we're assuming, for the sake of argument) otherwise insightful and well-reasoned technical presentation because you dislike them personally for unrelated (if justified) reasons? Because that is literally ad hominem[0].

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

Yes, without a doubt. Its not about “disliking them personally”. In that example it’s about not giving legitimacy to someone who doesn’t deserve it. In the grand scheme of things, some technical insight is insignificant compared to the perpetuation of evil and suffering.

I'm not sure how listening to someone's presentation or reading their article about Ruby on Rails conveys legitimacy on their political views.

In your view, how does this transfer of legitimacy take place?

If your conscience is burdened by hearing the words someone says, may I propose you need to work on filtering words? That implies you are digesting and importing everything you hear directly into your worldview, instead of examining what people say critically in case they are lying or being disingenuous.

“Hearing the words” is an oversimplification. By attending that talk you are giving this person legitimacy. You are implicitly saying that this person belongs in our society. You are contributing, in a small way, to our society being open to wildly dangerous people. I personally don’t want to live in a society where people who wish death on minorities are accepted. This is not hard!

I continue to not buy the 'lending legitimacy' argument at all. Listening to someone's words helps me understand more accurately what they are attempting to convey. It is up to me to use that conveyed perspective correctly. I'd rather hear the words of someone I fiercely disagree with than craft a strawman in my own head to counter, because then I can correctly craft the antidote when speaking to others who /are/ being persuaded by such a view.

Maybe this person fell for a conman and in fact still DOES belong in our society. More than 49% of the country is stupid but 49% isn't literally hitler.

Well, to turn things around... You think people haven't just kept their head down, ignored the speaker's politics, and paid attention to the technical aspects of a talk when it's coming from someone on the left?

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