Interesting times

Via a comment from Chet:

You have wonder if this is what it was like in the middle 1930’s for minorities in Nazi Germany. There was a double standard enforced by both society and government when laws and social norms were violated. And people just kept accepting the increasing levels of injustice. They must have thought, “This is crazy! It has to get better soon, right?”

No. It doesn’t have to get better from here. Mass hysteria can go to lengths that are unimaginable to people that haven’t lived through it.

Currently pointing out reality can get you censored, fired from your job, and banished from social media and by your friends. This bad, but not as bad as it can get. At many times and places insistence on reality has resulted in a death sentence.

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7 thoughts on “Interesting times

  1. It depends on your definition of better.

    I would say things got way better for the Nazis who got into Operation Paperclip.

  2. Hmmm… I’m wondering if being placed on this “Dangerous People or Organizations” list could constitute slander/libel.

    The purpose of slander/libel is to cause other people to view and treat the targetted person in a adverse way. If you say/write, “In my opinion, person X is an ADJECTIVE”, that is not slanderous or libelous. But if you say, “Person X is a ADJECTIVE, and therefore you must ACTION”, you’re framing that opinion as a statement of fact justifying an explicit and overt action. It could be second-order libelous if MSNBCNNABCBSNYT says “This guy is, in our opinion, a damned fascist” and some other guys slanderously says, “MSNBCNNABCBSNYT says he is a damned fascist, and their opinions are never wrong, incomplete or misinterpretable, so punch the damned fascist.”

    If you made this kind of slanderous accusation on TV, it would be an obvious crime, especially if you find your tires slashed soon afterwards.

    I’m wondering if as internal publication of a slanderous/libelous statement is actionable. If Comcast had an internal list of disfavored people, not because of anything they had done to the company or its agents, but because of some unrelated assertion of opinion as fact, especially of that opinion resulted in their employees taking adverse action against a customer, would that still be libelous/slanderous even if that list was not publicly released?

  3. Speaking out against the falsehoods perpetrated by leftist governments or by the Vatican has been called an act of “violence”, or “violence against unity”. So, if anyone on the left decides to feel upset or disturbed by anything you say, that makes you a violent criminal.

    Of course, in reality, it is the one promoting error who is stirring up discord and trouble, but the criminal mind turns its intended victim into the criminal. Thus Cain murdered Able.

    Reality is the ultimate enemy, but anyone who represents reality, or anyone suspected of perceiving reality, is guilty by association.

      • That attitude is learned. Perhaps the student has had that happen to them, but far, far more likely they were taught to have those fears. Which leads us back to their community and education in social justice (the scourge that is inflicting this on us).

        Social justice is a religious movement that seems all but impossible to put down. Back in 1971 when I got my BA in African and Middle East Studies, I got a full accounting of the wrongs done by the western governments, but then the blame was placed on a few individuals, politics, and economics. Learning our technologies was still very important. Even today, there are many who want our way of life, but there is an increasing number who blame us for all their ills.

        To them, it’s personal and racist, and we are the enemy. We are the ones standing in the way of their perfect world. And it is not just social, science too has become a religion. All things are possible – don’t bother me with facts.

        I don’t see how this will end well! As @timcast said about this Facebook policy said: “Civil War when?”

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