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Comment by imwillofficial | Hacker News Reader

I am going to charitably interpret your comment as ignorance of the topic as opposed to malicious muddying of the already confusing waters.

Self censorship is indeed driven by the judgement portion of the brain, however, what is being mourned here is the constantly shifting and uncertain ground on which our current society puts its taboos. What was once a socially acceptable position to have in polite society, is no long so. Instead of slowly changing over the course of hundreds or thousands of years, it's mutating at a breakneck pace. Most people in my experience just want to live and let live. Not exhaust ourselves at the latest target of the two minutes hate outrage machine.

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>What was once a socially acceptable position to have in polite society, is no long so.

To add on to this, it's not just that the standards change, it's that the standards change retroactively and you can be hounded out of your livelihood for an offhand comment made a decade prior.

I can at least sympathize, if not agree with "cancelling" when someone demonstrates unrepentant shittiness in the present day, but this kind of ex-post-facto thing happening against statements that weren't even tangentially offensive when they were made is horrid. There's no way such an environment can't lead to self-censorship.

> it's mutating at a breakneck pace

I agree that it's changing faster than a century ago, but I don't think "breakneck pace" is a fair qualifier. Lots of people comfortably adapt to new norms and change how they behave without significant effort.

> the two minutes hate outrage machine.

This phenomenon existed long before the internet. Heck, I'd bet long before writing was invented. Gossip in large social groups doesn't seem like something particularly new.

I still think this has nothing to do with "self-censoring out of fear" being a Bad new thing. You _should_ self-censor if you think you're being offensive. If the author of the article really wanted to harp on the fact that predicting what is offensive is hard, then perhaps that should be the focus of the article. I don't think pushing the "fear" narrative is useful nor healthy.

Agreed, you are technically correct, but you are missing the meaning. Most people did not self censor much due to fear. They held socially acceptable opinions and not much of what they thought should be kept bottled up. Now? Who the hell knows what to say and if you’ll be hunted for it later. Support feminism? Some now see you as transphobic. Support trans causes? Now some feminists say you’re raising up men and oppressing women. Don’t care about either causes? Well now you’re a monster!

Don’t worry though, much like the weather in Virginia, survive till tomorrow and it’ll change.

Also, it literally is mutating at a breakneck pace, not only compared with historic norms of idea change rates, but also even compared to people’s ability to keep up. It’s insanity.

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