[ExI] Moderation on the ExiCh list

[Lee Corbin]

Damien Broderick wrote:

> Lee Corbin wrote:
> 
>> Why does it just kill you
>> to hear someone say something totally outrageous once in a while??
> 
> There might be a clue in that word "outrageous" and more exactly the 
> "rage" part, since outrage can enrage, and bringing rage down upon one's 
> head is not a great idea.

Why so afraid?  Surely no lawsuits. Calumny?  Guilt by association? (Yes,
that latter is it, I guess.)

> Yes, the difficulty is that some people are all too easily
 > enraged and eager to lose control, so arguably they are
> the ones who need (self)moderation.

Yes, quite.  Now the "being enraged" part I understand.

The part I don't get is the tyrannical temperament of
needing to denounce (usually secretly) to the authorities
that power be used to turn off these "abhorrent" ideas.
I myself have just *never* had the urge to contact the
moderators offlist and demand the suppression of this or that.

> But to rehearse the obvious, this list is not a public
 > square, yet anything posted here can be read by anyone
 > on the planet now or in the future. Since the list owners and
> most other transhumanists don't wish to be associated with outrageous 
> proposals...

How can the vast multitudes out there not see that what
is said here is *never* official policy? "To be associated"??
I really would think that---ESPECIALLY FROM THE CONDEMNATIONS
FROM THE OTHERS ON THE LIST---that everyone perusing the list
could see what is going on: Some people believe things not
widely believed by others.

Do you really want to be afraid because it may become known
that someone you may know is a Communist? Do we want to give
into fear of things like that?

"Oh my God. Damien B. once posted on the *same* list where
someone once said terrible things!"

"Oh my God. I started a list, and someone (a single lone
voice) had the temerity to say that it would be a good
thing for China to sink beneath the waves, and even though
this was clearly not a popular view on my list, still
someone somewhere will do me or my movement great harm..."

> to (say) nuke or poison all the Muslims in the world or even 
> in a given country, or to forcibly banish blacks and other "non-white" 
> people "back to their own countries", it is very reasonable to step in 
> and remove or block posts making such suggestions--even as thought 
> experiments. If only on the same grounds that one is well advised not to 
> make bomb jokes while boarding a plane.

One cannot make bomb-jokes while boarding a plane because
of the hysterical temperament resulting from 9/11. So you
think it follows that we here must imitate such mindless
idiocy?

If a lone poster says that all Muslims should be slowly
lowered down into vats of hot Caro's acid, starting with
the toes, and a half-dozen people jump on him and say
he's wrong & he's crazy... what exactly are you afraid
of will happen? That a fatwa against *all* Extropians
will be announced?

Lee