"Saidit will die like Voat" - an incel vouching for jailbait

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[–]AirSeddit88 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I suppose what I'm getting at is, by what principle(s) may we distinguish between legitimate free speech and illegitimate abuse of that right?

You have grappled with this issue in depth I think, because you built this platform.

Defining and articulating principles for the practice of free speech will minimize frictions and forestall conflicts, IMO.

I believe the principle must be a corollary of "all men are created equal". (Not equal in circumstance certainly, but equal in the soul's standing in the cosmos - before God, if you will. Muslims say "standing before God we are all as even as the teeth on a comb."

We are born fools. Some die marginally wiser. Engaging in contentious free speech with one's peers is essential to the growth of wisdom.

Can you lay out clear ground rules based on clearly articulated principles (or direct me to those already in place)? The Constitution did that for the USA. It's not perfect but it is perfectible. Likewise Saidit.

Thank you for Saidit, magnora7. I find hope here.

PS: I've reviewed the rules. They are good of course. Principles offer greater clarity, precision, and flexibility.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Defining and articulating principles for the practice of free speech will minimize frictions and forestall conflicts, IMO.

Or it just creates the exact boundaries that the trolls then know to exactly avoid, so they can destroy the site without technically breaking the rules.

[–]AirSeddit88 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Maybe. I like principles better than rules precisely because they do not define exact boundaries but standards, not a fence on the landscape that trolls can straddle but a flag, relative to which those who stray into abuse become conspicuous.
Please be assured I'm not trying to give you a hard time. I'm sure you have quite enough of that on your capable hands. I am inclined to trust your hard won experience, in any case. Thank you for Saidit.
Censorship is an obscenity, or should be, to any American. It seems there have always been those who abuse free speech, and those who count on them as an excuse to abuse freedom. It appears to me the problem is that we've all been taught we have rights without the duties necessary to secure them. One of those duties is civility, which is respect for the possibility, the inevitability, that one yet has things to learn from others. Humility is essential. But Americans have been taught entitlement. This fundamental imbalance, between rights and responsibilities, has undermined the foundations of the republic and left us open to the present attack, IMO. We must relearn respect, humility, civility, virtue, if we are to survive to rebuild civilization after the present crisis. Free speech, the unfettered exchange of ideas, is essential. We must find a practical way to protect it. Authority must refrain from censorship, but that's only possible if people learn to refrain from abuse, and to police one another. There is no system so good the people in it don't have to be. The chain breaks at the weakest link. You've chosen a place at the chaotic forefront. What sense will you make of it? What wisdom? I ask only because I am myself buffaloed by the contradictions, but eager for the victory. Freedom, the republic, the Constitution teeters on the brink of free speech.

[–]Node 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

We must relearn respect, humility, civility, virtue, if we are to survive to rebuild civilization after the present crisis. Free speech, the unfettered exchange of ideas, is essential.

This will only be possible if the present crisis is actually solved, which will make it necessary to rebuild civilization. None of that can happen while our society is overrun by our enemies.

[–]AirSeddit88 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yep. I often reflect that our civilization was built broken, on foundations of false premises, false promises, trauma, and fear. Nothing for it really but to reflect and rebuild better.

So easily said...but "whole species [may be] exterminated in the process." -Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity