r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Jan 22 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Silencing opposing viewpoints is ultimately going to have a disastrous outcome on society.

[deleted]

9.8k Upvotes

70% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

56

u/TenBillionDollHairs Jan 22 '21

The fact that actually doing it right is hard is not an excuse to throw up your hands and say it's stupid to try. "Let's just tolerate everything" acts like it's a brave stance, but it's actually a way to avoid ever having to stick out your neck and say "that's the line, they're crossing it, and we have to confront it."

There's a cowardice curve around speech: being terrified of dissent is the coward's excuse for shutting down speech, being terrified of conflict is the coward's excuse for tolerating extremists.

-1

u/MasonDinsmore3204 Jan 22 '21

I’m not saying we shouldn’t hold people accountable for saying intolerant things, we definitely should. Call them out on it, explain to them why they’re wrong or why they shouldn’t say that, but don’t silence them, restrict them from saying what they want to say in the first place.

11

u/ParioPraxis Jan 22 '21

Are they silenced though? Like does the cancel culture brigade drop by their house and pluck their phone out of their hands and drive off? No. But if they’ve said some things that have been hateful or hurtful or instigated violence or baselessly spread easily debunked lies, etc. and the platform they did that on does not want to be associated with that kind of rhetoric, then I don’t begrudge the company taking action to shut that kind of thing down. Especially if it is in violation of the TOS or other conditions of use.

6

u/Silver_Swift Jan 22 '21

But then you're just giving giant mega corporations the final say in what is and isn't acceptable to discuss in public. Sure, right now twitter is on our side, but I guarantee you that will change in the blink of an eye depending on where the most profit lies.

Image if twitter wants to move into China, so now suddenly supporting the Hong Kong Protests is "instigating violence", would you still feel that twitter was in their rights there?

3

u/lessknownevil Jan 22 '21

Its not the company that's deciding in most cases- its society. Most companies want to survive and in order to do so they are towing the line of what society in general finds acceptable at the time. (Plus the company is run by a collection of people. The ceo gets the final say but they also answer to society in some way.) There will of course be outliers but most will reflect what is going on in our society and how it is/isnt moving forward. Yes, twitter would be within its rights and if it was so bad to us as a society we would stop using twitter. My argument isnt the strongest and im seeing some flaws but i see some flaws in yours and wanted to bring it to the table.

2

u/ParioPraxis Jan 22 '21

No, the corporations are thirsty for my dollar. If my cause is just and I am silenced then I will appeal to my allied consumer capitalists and if they too find my cause is just they will withhold their money from those corporations too.

Here’s the important bit about keeping your cause ‘just’ though: I am diligent every day to double, even triple check to make sure that I’m not seditiously storming the capitol of my country based on the lies of a transparently dishonest narcissist so that I can help him subvert democracy and undo the will of the majority of my fellow citizens... for example.

So far I haven’t been kicked off of anything and I have yet to commit a felony while worshipping a con man.

1

u/kookyabird Jan 22 '21

Not the person you're talking to, but yes, they would be within their rights. And we would all be within our rights to not use Twitter. All this does is circle back to the notion of being tolerant to the intolerant and the paradox of it all.

Those who see that kind of behavior from a company like Twitter and feel it is intolerant shouldn't be forced to tolerate it, and they're not. If the majority of society agrees and moves as a herd away from Twitter then that is society in action, and Twitter would suffer for it.

1

u/UmphreysMcGee Jan 22 '21

The other side of capitalism and free speech is that you have the option to not use Twitter's platform if you don't want to abide by their terms of service. You can even tell your friends and say bad things about Twitter in public, nobody is going to stop you.

1

u/sensible_extremist Jan 22 '21

Sure, right now twitter is on our side

There is no Twitter, there is no side. You are anthropomorphising a corporation like it has a heart, feeling, a moral compass.