Munn75 on 24 December 2018
| collint0101 said: This is what conservatism has become. A bunch of people defending the right for someone to use racial slurs on the internet. I have nothing against Harris but fuck Sargon he isn't entitled to someone else's platform and if it were my site I would have 0 problem kicking his edgy borderline racist garbage off |
Is that really your take away from this discussion? Simply a bunch of people defending the use of racial slurs.
I think there are quite a few other interesting points and questions raised:
- Sam Harris is liberal and yet he took a stand on principle, even for someone that he does not politically agree with.
- Patreon has been vague and contradictory with their own policies and terms of service.
- Tech companies like Patreon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. have near monopolies in the space they occupy.
- Because of this and their choice to often prioritize ideology over profit, will this lead to government regulation in a similar way to utilities?
- Should companies prioritize their ideology over profits?
- Why are we not more alarmed at what happened to SubscribeStar, essentially being deplatformed?
- Will free speech versions of Patreon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. emerge from this?
- Do we need an internet bill of rights so that these policies are transparent and applied equally to the left, right, and center?
- Will content creators continue to leave Patreon since the rules seem to be applied arbitrarily on a case by case basis and anyone that they deem unfit could be next to lose their platform and income?
- Free speech vs. hate speech. Do we want the government or private companies defining what is free and what is hate?
There are many other interesting aspects to this thread. I think to label it as simply the defense of racial slurs is reductive.
As to your last point, if you owned a platform and chose to ban Sargon based on your opinion of him being edgy and borderline racist, just understand that you empower others to ban you or I on similarly arbitrary observations and opinions. In my view, that creates a world where we cease to discuss ideas both good and bad. We polarize and things get progressively worse.
Last edited by Munn75 - on 24 December 2018"There are things which, if done by the few, we should refuse to imitate; yet when the majority have begun to do them, we follow along - just as if anything were more honourable because it is more frequent!"
-Seneca
