Comment by sixdimensional | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sixdimensional | Hacker News Reader

So what education do we need to know how to utilize total freedom of speech in a civil manner?

In other words, what needs to be taught/learned that everyone can understand globally and across cultures which helps humanity understand how to get the maximum benefit from this technology and protect oneself from the negative impacts?

I mean this honestly and literally, what would you tell or teach people? What would an educational program for this look like? What would it look like for all ages, and cultures and how could we make it universal? Is it even possible?

I feel the best way to harness the power and control the outcome in the longest run is to evolve our understanding with intent.

Because absolute freedom means without restriction and can tend towards chaos, how do we train humanity???

Maybe I'm on a tangent but I am not sure how to answer this question myself.

One thing that came to mind was secular ethics but that is far too complicated to teach directly. And I am not sure if there is any cultural bias in that idea as well.

I guess I'm thinking.. teach, learn and evolve while trying not to force control. I realize even writing it how impossible that sounds, but should we put our energy into cracking this problem?

The problem isn't that humans don't know how to use totally unrestricted speech civilly. It's that we're vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution attacks, and those who attack us in that way prosper.

We need an environment that disincentivises such things; that's the only way (known to me) to escape perverse incentives. An empty playing field is not such an environment.

Poverty leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to censorship.

When people feel (economically) insecure, they become selfish and sometimes lash out at the Other as the cause of their troubles. For 1930s Germans going through hyperinflation and WW1 reparations, the Other was the Jews. For 2010s Americans going through the Great Recession and unequal recovery, the Other (who was non-white, non-Christian, and non-patriarchal) was "taking our jobs."

Unfortunately after this pandemic, we should expect another wave of xenophobia resulting from all the economic damage, although it's not yet clear if the Other will be different this time.

And I should say that while lashing out in this way is absolutely wrong, it also should be quite understandable.

So the "simplest" fix is making the economy work for everyone, so people feel financially secure and can focus on pursuing their dreams.

maybe, but most of the contemporary calls for censorship ime are not coming from the poor, they're coming from a class of culturally sheltered, hypersensitive & over-medicated professionals.

as far as xenophobia, i think the knowledge class has largely been insulated from the effects of migration & trade policy and thus have only ever reaped the benefits. we'll see if that stays true once faang starts offshoring to remote workers in kiev and mexico city.

Right, the groups you mentioned increasingly want to censor speech from the groups I mentioned.

The original question boiled down to "can we reduce the incidents of censor-worthy speech via education?" to which I say yes, but via financial security rather than education.

I'm of the belief that everyone in life is just choosing the best option available to them. Every choice, every action can be reduced to this. And people who make 'bad' choices, or to spew out hate on the internet, are simply doing this because they have nothing better to do in their eyes. We need to give people more options in life, more opportunities. Nobody wants to be on the internet all day spewing hate, it's just that they can't do the things they actually enjoy in life.

Education helps but can't fix the problem, as the problem is the tragedy of the commons - propaganda is an attempt at the land grab for the "commons" of our collective attention and mind - and the conflict between differing self-interests and ideals / worldview. No amount of education can eliminate this. Fundamentally there's no perfect solution - we can only manage it, with a delicate balancing act.

Most of us have all successfully learned how to be kind and polite to each other.

We just have to relearn it for our online world.

> what needs to be taught/learned that everyone can understand globally

Liberalism

It is crazy that in 2020 academia is casually dismissing liberal ideals, which are the bedrock of modern secular society

https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/liberalism-and-its-...

stoicism and media literacy.

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