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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35092 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 28, 2022

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Take down the n-word under the untenable pretense that it's a direct incitement to violence, and then just don't make that same mischaracterization with respect to misgendering or deadnaming or whatever.

So you're arguing that a company should be intentionally dishonest and use their biases to explicitly allow one type of hate speech while banning the other?

First of all, how is that any better than how Twitter used to be? Isn't that the sort of thing that you'd want to avoid?

Second, I'd argue that your system is far worse than Twitter's old system. At least the old system had written rules and warnings instead of letting intentionally dishonest 'personal opinions' to be the determining factor.

Which of the three hands that I offered are you taking as my position? If there is a way to author a comment that is less prescriptive and more descriptive than what I did, I don't know what it is.

I don't want Twitter to ban even swastikas or n-words (or "fag" -- I'm an equal opportunity free speech absolutist). But that's about as useful as not wanting fire to be hot or water to be wet. It dies without advertising dollars, simple and lamentable as that.

It dies without advertising dollars, simple and lamentable as that.

Unfortunately, that means they have to sign on to full leftist censorship, because that's what the activists who control the advertising budgets want.

Maybe. Brand advertising is weak in a crappy economy, but when the demand is there, competition will push them into reasonable ad space.

There's no competition; it's a cartel. All the big advertisers use the same few ad agencies, who are all full of wokies.

So maybe the best way to resist is with a bit of dishonesty. Take down the n-word under the untenable pretense that it's a direct incitement to violence, and then just don't make that same mischaracterization with respect to misgendering or deadnaming or whatever.

I'm referencing this - endorsing intentional dishonesty to allow 'harmful' speech for some groups but disallow it for others.

I don't want Twitter to ban even swastikas or n-words . . . but - It dies without advertising dollars, simple and lamentable as that."

So advertising dollars would be your way to determine what forms of 'harmful' speech you'd allow? If old Twitter told you that they banned deadnaming due to advertiser concerns, would you support that move?

So advertising dollars would be your way to determine what forms of 'harmful' speech you'd allow? If old Twitter told you that they banned deadnaming due to advertiser concerns, would you support that move?

Simple necessity (via the brand advertising market) would be my way to determine how close the product can come to the absolutist free speech ideal, yes. If I were Musk, I'd go as far in that direction as I could without blowing up the economic viability of the product, forcing bankruptcy and leaving it in the hands of creditors, who are likely to more resemble Larry Fink in their outlook than @Home or @VelveteenAmbush.

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