Oh dear, my comment didn’t fare well with downvotes. Perhaps it’s best to consider using a burner account for future discussions to avoid cancellation. :)
I downvoted both of these because I found them overdramatic and unconstructive. But you’re not cancelled by any means—lots of people (myself included) have bad takes and you are certainly very free to continue to speak on the EA Forum and I certainly won’t hold this against you (or to be honest even remember it).
Thank you for your response, Peter. Though I was overly dramatic, the point was that cancel culture harms freedom of speech, without which there is no scientific progress or democracy. Burner accounts may be a symptom of this.
I just don’t think “cancel culture” is at all a helpful concept. I think the concept tends to take a wide spectrum of critiques—many of which are reasonable and many of which are not—and shrink them into a package that can allow all critiques to be easily dismissed. That is, I think “cancel culture” is a fully general counterargument and would encourage people to taboo the phrase.
Makes sense, thanks for your comment. You made me think that I should be more careful about the terms I use, and argue more from first principles. I’ll try doing this here:
I’m concerned about the growing trend of people and social-media platforms suppressing opposing opinions. I would love a world where people are free to speak their minds without fear of cancellation. If Big Tech and the government dictate what can and cannot be said, then everyone says the same things to avoid the risk of being banned from online platforms. To advance science and maintain freedom, you need to let people express innovative and unconventional ideas, which seem crazy at first and require free speech.
Oh dear, my comment didn’t fare well with downvotes. Perhaps it’s best to consider using a burner account for future discussions to avoid cancellation. :)
I downvoted both of these because I found them overdramatic and unconstructive. But you’re not cancelled by any means—lots of people (myself included) have bad takes and you are certainly very free to continue to speak on the EA Forum and I certainly won’t hold this against you (or to be honest even remember it).
Thank you for your response, Peter. Though I was overly dramatic, the point was that cancel culture harms freedom of speech, without which there is no scientific progress or democracy. Burner accounts may be a symptom of this.
I just don’t think “cancel culture” is at all a helpful concept. I think the concept tends to take a wide spectrum of critiques—many of which are reasonable and many of which are not—and shrink them into a package that can allow all critiques to be easily dismissed. That is, I think “cancel culture” is a fully general counterargument and would encourage people to taboo the phrase.
Makes sense, thanks for your comment. You made me think that I should be more careful about the terms I use, and argue more from first principles. I’ll try doing this here:
I’m concerned about the growing trend of people and social-media platforms suppressing opposing opinions. I would love a world where people are free to speak their minds without fear of cancellation. If Big Tech and the government dictate what can and cannot be said, then everyone says the same things to avoid the risk of being banned from online platforms. To advance science and maintain freedom, you need to let people express innovative and unconventional ideas, which seem crazy at first and require free speech.