Vivarium: Philosophy Discussions On Any Subject

Philosophy Debates => Pan Philosophy Debates => Topic started by: surreptitious57 on February 19, 2017, 03:22:58 am


Title: Free Speech
Post by: surreptitious57 on February 19, 2017, 03:22:58 am
Liberals are nowadays seen as being opposed to free speech unless it is speech which they actually approve of. I am liberal
but I do not think it acceptable to censor anyone. Though this does not mean that anyone can say whatever they wish with
out consequence. The complete opposite in fact. With rights come responsibilities and everyone has to accept responsibility
for what they say both from a legal and a moral perspective. So having the freedom to say whatever you want without also
accepting the consequences for it is just wrong. I accept responsibility for everything I say and so too should everyone else
Title: Re: Free Speech
Post by: Satyr on February 19, 2017, 10:34:36 am
It's easy to speak when you an contradict what you say with your actions, and your actions are protected from the consequences.

Speaking has become about not hurting anyone's feelings, since we are all protected from what we say, and we need not act in accordance with it.
The validity of what we say is measured by how happy it makes us, and those we depend upon to continue speaking without having to do.

It's always musing, to me, to watch imbeciles speak about such high values and principles, like equality, like not judging others by appearance, like how all deserve love and respect, and then try to justify why they act in contradiction to their own stated values.

Nihilists are most guilty.
Their detaches idealism places them in paradoxical circumstances where what they say, think, and then do are never in tune.
They think this makes them complicated, or mysterious, as if they are too complex to be understood, even by themselves.

Imbeciles hide in paradox their hypocrisy and their secrets.
A Nihilist, of any sort, would not survive if he were to be forced to abide by his own principles and convictions.
Their idealism is so detached from reality, so naive and ignorant, that they must contradict their words with their actions, and then come up with clever ways to excuse this contradiction.
Vivtimhood is but a part of the method. A Nihilist is always the victim of someone else failing to abide by their principles.
The theory is always better than how it has been applied.
This is also part of the Jewish Paradox:
How to justify power based on selling victim status.

The paradox results in a splintering:

Orthodox Judaism - true to annihilation and hatred of self and life.
Cultural Judaism - Zionism: the attempt to convert this power based on weakness into a reaffirmation of tribal identity - nationhood.
The meme trying to become genetic - inverted process.
Social Judaism - Humanism: converting the world to a secularized form of Judaism, such as Marxism, liberalism etc, so as to disappear within the uniformity.
Christianity and Islam are part of the last - the universalization of Judaism through conquest, or conversion, giving way to Marxism, which eliminates the divisive component of a God and replaces it with the State, and then Humanism, that uses language to cloud and then assimilate identities  by reducing all to the lowest-common-denominator.
The word 'human' loses its species, genetic, meaning, and becomes a replacement for God and state - an idea. 
It is de-sexualized, and is a pure abstraction that loses all contact with the real - spiritualized, mystified. 

Title: Re: Free Speech
Post by: Arius Didymus on February 19, 2017, 10:53:34 am
I'm obviously for free speech,  but not universally.

I'm aware of Aeneas the Tactician (Aeneas Tacitus)  in his "Defence of a Fortified City", the need to supply speech/information to prevent hysteria.

His work is the oldest work surviving in the west on the subject of defending cities- it survived by virtue of being damn useful,  residing in cities that survived,  whereas others using other schemes perished,  so don't discount him.

What he did was encourage establishing night watches,  who would be able to calm down a scared population in the throws of waking night terrors,  who wake thinking the enemy sieving them is already inside the city.

This could cause a panic,  and "friendly fire", troops clashing with one another. So they established these troops,  they would either be stationary or patrol. The modern name for them in the US Military is "Fire Guard", they stay awake as everyone else sleeps.

You also have the case of the Mohists,  who specialized in ancient China in defensive warfare. They were a largely unique order,  closest we have in the west conceptually would be The Knights of St. John/Malta,  but in the case of the Mohists,  they would defend any city under attack,  right or wrong. They abhorred offensive warfare.

One of Mo Tzu's ideas was to restrict freedom of speech in a siege,  so that the peasants couldn't talk to one another. The Mohists did recognize stifling speech all together was a strategic mistake,  as they had to be aware of any and all Intel they had,  as well as knowing the heart and minds of the inhabitants they guarded. So they had a rule in Mohist philosophy- you can only talk to those in a higher rank above.

Remember this when you hear someone cry about Trump being a war hawk or imperialist,  offending the intelligence community. I have no doubt Kropotkin or UPF are or will say something similar. Trump is quite the opposite,  he accords closer to the defensive emphasis of the Mohists in his strategic outlook as a instinctive isolationalists- he of course wants to finish off ISIS,  but beyond this isn't showing much evidence of wanting new wars. Secondly,  he insists as any president would sanely insist, that the intelligence community only share info with higher ranks,  with no leaks. If anyone leaks,  it will be via Trump's orders.

Where Trump goes amuck with Mohist Philosophy in regards to free speech is that Mo Tzu wanted public display of music abolished. Chinese of that era built massive bells,  for every range,  that required massive expenditure to invest in musicians,  as well as to cast, store,  and maintain. It was a absurdly expensive undertaking. It wasn't the music per say,  but the insanity of the expenditure. Trump doesn't have a orchestra,  but he has some absurd,  ostentatious wealth he drops on similarly. I'm not nearly as strict as Mohism in this area,  but obviously, you shouldn't drag the orchestra to combat zones. US military does anyway for some **** bizarre reason. I shared a helicopter flight in Iraq with the 8th Army band.

You can begin hopefully to grasp why I don't like Julian Assange or Bradley Manning. Millions have died from their stunt,  and millions more have had their life destroyed,  for some liberal stunt. The truth isn't anywhere worth that much,  I would rather a lie that keeps everyone from killing each other over a truth that collapses nation after nation.

I mentioned the concept of "the noble lie" in another post. It is half of a interesting dichotomy I'm investigating in skepticism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie

I'm not saying no forever to the truth, but one needs slow moderation,  introducing information slowly to repressed populations,  so the insanity of a Bastille Day,  and the bloody days of the early French Republic doesn't reoccure. Better for philosophers to deconstruct slowly and piecemeal. I seriously would prefer people in Syria and Libya and Iraq to of lived. That was a absurd genocide.

Free Speech is supposed to involve ever increasing benefits to a responsible society. You don't talk about a society's Achilles Heel unless your planning conquest. If I knew China's deepest weakness,  or Russia's,  I would burn the paper it is written on before letting it get loose. I don't desire their deaths or downfall. So much so my own country.

In a absolute tyranny or despotism,  which isn't default always evil, some dictators like John Smith at James Town wasn't bad,  just generally is....  like a labor camp situation in North Korea, I wouldn't just release suddenly every prisoner and open up the media. Mother fuckers gonna murder each other once they can talk openly. I would do it very slowly,  stop the worst excesses in torture,  increase focus on agriculture and education,  build up social communication platforms,  get more locals into village leadership positions in elections, etc.

You can't just unleash everything at once. China has been taking this course. They don't want a Perestroika situation.

But once a state has healthy discourse,  every effort must be made to preserve it. A democracy is a absurdity without it.
Title: Re: Free Speech
Post by: Arius Didymus on February 19, 2017, 11:45:35 am
Aeneas the Tactician:

Http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Aeneas_Tacticus/home.html

Mo Tzu:

http://ctext.org/mozi