[extropy-chat] Whoa! / Wafa Sultan

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> It says a lot about the world as it exists today, that the most stirring 
> and passionate interview I've ever seen on television, aired on 
> Al-Jazeera, and could probably never air in the US.

Please note:  I said that her words were "stirring" and "passionate", 
not "rigorously correct".

I was impressed by Sultan's willingness to call herself a rationalist 
and to speak out passionately against the flaws of a major religion; 
that's what I don't expect to see on US television.

I was not particularly impressed by, e.g., her unwillingness to condemn 
the various mass murders of American Indians.  The correct response 
would have been that two wrongs don't make a right; that we are only 
ever responsible for our own deeds, not our parents'; and that one 
should put one's own house in order.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence