Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

“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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com