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devel / comp.theory / Commentary on a Paul Graham Essay.

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o Commentary on a Paul Graham Essay.B.H.

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Commentary on a Paul Graham Essay.

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Subject: Commentary on a Paul Graham Essay.
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 by: B.H. - Sun, 1 May 2022 22:27 UTC

I just skimmed this:

http://paulgraham.com/heresy.html

My brief comments: The idea of allowing discussion, especially in limited, safe, educational settings, of "stupid and intolerant and 'unconventional' ideas" is fine. As an exercise, you could have a discussion where you try to prove, based on reasonable assumptions, that Robert E. Lee's ideology was evil. You could try to find flaws in the argument, present suggested rebuttals to anti-racist ideology, and then work on shooting them down...it could be a neat exercise if it doesn't infuriate anyone.

At the same time, the notion of "conventional-minded vs. independent-minded" is of course a false choice, regarding the wrong question. The real question is, "right vs. wrong." Another good question is, "wrong and informationally toxic vs. not so." When does wrong information that is expressed become so offensive and outrageous that it rises to the level of "trying to seduce mentally vulnerable people into becoming extremists?"

Of course, in the USA, such hate speech isn't banned. At the same time, it is important for willing verbally aggressive people to *stand up to* the bad guys, including Graham-allies like Mark Zuckerberg, no matter how intimidating or well-connected or defended by protestations of virtuous-group membership the person might be or seem to be. It isn't "conventional-minded" to stand up against bad guy leaders like Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or Mark Zuckerberg; it is a way to do your civic duty, striving to step up to the plate in debates about right and wrong and shoot down bad-guy arguments, which are just things, but which can be intoxicating and dangerous if they go unchallenged...not everyone is as good as I am at logical reasoning and debate, and some people can be fooled by cult-leader types. That is one reason why argumentation, including sometimes aggressive argumentation, by the skilled and interested is so important. It is the antidote to wrong beliefs, dangerous beliefs, and extremism.

-Philip White (philipjwhite@yahoo.com)

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