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Comment by Spivak | Hacker News Reader

The other side isn’t any less dystopian, heading toward a world where the powerful get to enrage people and have the state police enforce “civility.”

You either have to recognize that sticks, stones, and words hurt people and police them all or recognize that insulting someone to the point where they put real literal bounties on your head is the cost of sticking your neck out there.

This shitty middle where powerful figures and those “protected but not bound” get to literally fan the flames and then use the police to keep a lid on it created a pressure cooker waiting to explode so here we are.

So sure the dude should be arrested because he caused harm but let’s not pretend that this was unexpected or indicative of anything other than what happens when you deeply insult an entire people. The fact that I think Rushdie is in the right is irrelevant.

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> You either have to recognize that sticks, stones, and words hurt people and police them all or recognize that insulting someone to the point where they put real literal bounties on your head is the cost of sticking your neck out there.

No I don't. I want to police hurting people with sticks and stones, but not words. Free speech is a human right, and physically attacking other people is not.

I mean this is what I was raised to believe too but this ideology isn’t without its consequences. It denies a very natural and fundamentally human anger and breaks the feedback loop that gives consequences to people who say insulting and hateful things. It takes the “find out” out of “fuck around and find out.” Surely you must see how protecting absolutely a very specific type of harm with no resource has lead to our current political climate.

Hell, we even recognize this problem and try to find “non violent” ways to hurt people who say horrible things like getting them fired, deplatformed, boycotting them, refusing service because a right hook is off the table. The most revered and romanticized political action is a protest which is literally a threat of violence.

And this protection in real life only really extends to the powerful who get the police to insulate them from consequences where if anyone else walked into a bar and said that shit they would leave with a black eye.

He didn't deeply insult an entire people - have you read the book?

I’m not religious so I can’t really understand the emotions first hand but the book is blasphemous, the Catholic Church has executed people and gone to war over less.

The most recent case appears to be Gabriel Malagrida in 1761.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Malagrida

You might lack the emotions, but you've absolutely nailed the mentality. Bravo.

I’m sure this is /s but for real Iran treats this guy like the UK treats Margret Thatcher so I’m not about to stand on some high horse and be like “clearly the intense emotions and anger of 80 million people are completely invalid and irrational” and instead take a step back and realize that clearly I lack some critical knowledge and life experience that helps me empathize because nobody gets that angry for no reason.

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