I disapprove of slavery, with extreme prejudice. Particularly since it, like child abuse, is instutitionalized by the most fanatic of Muslims because their pox-ridden prophet practiced both.
I am a walking trigger warning. But I can talk at conferences. Not merely about technical issues: I have been known to call the current government’s policies immoral (the left can be correct at times) and advocate that we test what we bring in, moreover that our patients and families consent to changes in services.
But I call that a conference. Not a community. And I don’t go trolling through Moldbug’s writings to find a defence of slavery, or discussions of variations between races.
I assume that people at conferences are adults. Hell, half the time we have to cross the scientologist picket line to get into the building. But Alex Payne thinks he should never have to deal with disgust.
The Strange Loop organizers have worked hard to create not just an event in which people fling technical ideas from their mouths into waiting ears, but a community. That community is one of the most diverse and welcoming you’ll find in technology, and that’s no accident. Achieving that diversity has required outreach, intention, and – yes – policing. I know that the language of “safe spaces” is tiresomely overused and sometimes wrongly employed, but it captures the essence of a conference that plays host to speakers and attendees of myriad backgrounds and orientations.
Yesterday it came to my attention that the organizers of Strange Loop had scheduled a talk by the author of Urbit. Urbit’s author, like many of us, writes online. In particular, he writes about a form of far-right politics that could be described as fascistic. Uncomfortable, to be sure, but as someone who publicly holds political views that stray from the mainstream, who am I to judge?
The reason I joined the call for Urbit’s author’s invitation to be rescinded is not his political views. Had he spoken, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve interacted with someone who espouses a politics divergent from my own at a technology conference, and nor would I hope it would be the last. I value a diversity of viewpoints, as must anyone committed to democratic processes. The fact that the person in question explores far-right viewpoints in his writing in no way led me to call for his rejection. I am unafraid of bad ideas; they are but litter on the street, blowing about the ankles, destined for the darkness of the storm drain by their own pathetic motion. Let them roll. Let them drown.
Strewn throughout the Urbit author’s writings are statements in support of racism and slavery. To my mind, this is where the line is crossed from the abstract debate of politics into something more visceral and emotional: hate. Hate is a necessary component of any defense of racism, slavery, and other dehumanizing practices. Hate is necessary to reduce a person to a commodity or strip them of rights based on innate traits. Couch it all you want in the trappings of academic writing: hate is always laid bare for what it is.
Hate has no place in the Strange Loop community, nor in any community with a future. Some have found it convenient and exciting to assume that Urbit’s author was uninvited – nay, censored! – due to his political views. Trust me: those views could not be less frightening or less interesting. What does concern me is the idea that Strange Loop attendees would no longer feel welcome because an avowed racist and proponent of slavery has been given a tacit endorsement by virtue of his speaking slot.
Well, Alex, thanks. Seriously. You have given the best discussion of argument ad hominem, and why it is logical error I have seen in the last few weeks. Great blog fuel.
#HoneyBadgerBrigade #CalgaryExpo #GoHomeGamerGirl #gohomegamergategirl #censorship #feminism #SJW #GamerGate #SVU pic.twitter.com/dgBwDfjZAj
— Yul Tolbert (@timelike01) April 18, 2015
For the guys in Strange Fruit: look not necessarily at the Psychiatry conference I am guilty of organizing (and no, I don’t want to organize another one) but to science fiction. The SJW entryists have ruined multiple cons… and those who want to talk books and go boldly where no man has gone before. They have left: they go to places where gun geeks can discuss things and safe spaces do not exist.
Bring down the social censorship http://t.co/kO9GxbuPQs #GamerGate #NotYourShield #SJW #jazzhands #PillarsofEternity pic.twitter.com/QqYZ9QpjXY
— Kukuruyo (@kukuruyo) March 31, 2015
Let us not censor. Let us mock the petunias who need such protection. Perhaps they will discover shame, and then change. Or at least be silent.
“Whenever someone says it’s not about the Money, they mean it’s about the Money”. Something of a modern truism, but highlights the point. You can say it’s not about rejecting someone because of their speech, but they’re still rejecting someone because of their speech.
Also, given how much of shrinking violets most of these types now are, you never know what they’re responding to. Most basic points about genetics would probably send them into apoplexy, but I haven’t read Moldbug to know where he was coming from on the topics.