This article feels about 20 years premature. Liberalism has a long way to decline before it’s the rebellion.
But also, I probably am a liberal (maybe this is actually where the criticism comes from) but it seems like so many liberals want to sit on a hill and talk about the values of freedom while deferring implementation details or actual conflict resolution.
I remember listening to the Lex Friedman interview with the guy who founded FIRE. And he called himself a free speech absolutist, and I appreciated his commitment to that, and said Twitter was great as this public square, and in to me a sign of how out of touch he was said that as a good liberal educated engaged citizen of the world, one should read and carefully consider all Twitter responses you get.
Which is like bananas.
And it feels to me like the lack of engagement with the reality of human interaction and conflict, particularly that interaction on the internet with its low stakes and algorithmic interaction is a real blind spot to coherent free speech ideology.
The funny part of that article is its the HN community that destroyed our freedoms by working for shitty tech companies responsible for stripping us of individualism.
September 11th and the Western response to it had more to do with it. Tech companies didn’t change police behaviour, and they didn’t change laws. Those seem a greater influence on the situation.
But also, I probably am a liberal (maybe this is actually where the criticism comes from) but it seems like so many liberals want to sit on a hill and talk about the values of freedom while deferring implementation details or actual conflict resolution.
I remember listening to the Lex Friedman interview with the guy who founded FIRE. And he called himself a free speech absolutist, and I appreciated his commitment to that, and said Twitter was great as this public square, and in to me a sign of how out of touch he was said that as a good liberal educated engaged citizen of the world, one should read and carefully consider all Twitter responses you get.
Which is like bananas.
And it feels to me like the lack of engagement with the reality of human interaction and conflict, particularly that interaction on the internet with its low stakes and algorithmic interaction is a real blind spot to coherent free speech ideology.