[ExI] intolerant minds, a different flavor

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Thu May 7 03:43:26 UTC 2009


Stefano writes

 > ...one has to wonder whether in the long term
 > such prohibitions worked in average so well
 > for their partisans themselves... ...
 >
 > In fact, the argument requires are three distinct claims:
 > - "we know better (what is right/true/correct/better
 >   to believe in any event";
 > - "to let those with different opinions speak, and/or to
 >   let other people form their own view on it would be too
 >   dangerous";
 > - "the danger can effectively be avoided by the attempt
 >   of enforcing a prohibition".

Thanks very much for the clear analysis.

 > Unless evidence to one's satisfaction can be offered on all three of
 > them, limitations to free speech do not seem such a good idea.

It would be interesting to see those who disagree
respond to your dissection.

 > Moreover, as I am preaching that all discussions should be kept as
 > much as possible on-topic, I should submit that the transhumanist
 > discourse is itself exposed to a few risks of formal and informal
 > censorship in a number of contexts, while it is very hard to see
 > where, when and why it would ever profit from free-speech limitations.

Naturally.

What completely amazes me is just how or why some
of us (like you and me) have come to see this issue
so completely differently from others of us. The
fact that you were born and raised in Italy weakens
one of my conjectures, namely that in the 60s and 70s
I was subjected to a great deal of merely American
indoctrination on this subject.

Lee



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