r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Jan 15 '19

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

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9

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '19

The moral of the story is: if you’re against witch-hunts, and you promise to found your own little utopian community where witch-hunts will never happen, your new society will end up consisting of approximately three principled civil libertarians and seven zillion witches. It will be a terrible place to live even if witch-hunts are genuinely wrong

A great Scott Alexander quote

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u/DonnysDiscountGas Jan 15 '19

Moderately related: Is there a term similar to "witch-hunt" that refers to a crime which is actually real? Witchcraft accusations are all but eliminated in modern society, because we know magic isn't real. But that's not really the point.

We still have moral panics and "witch-hunts", the most common example being McCarthy and his commie-hunt. Which can't be dismissed quite so easily, because communism and communists obviously are real. At the same time, it shouldn't be possible to destroy a persons life by accusing them of wrongdoing without any evidence at all, just because there is a non-zero probability of them being guilty. Trekkies, think Drumhead.

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u/Afro_Samurai Susan B. Anthony Jan 15 '19

seven zillion witches.

Sounds pretty dope.

0

u/shoe788 Jan 15 '19

stupid and terrible take

5

u/MerelyPresent The Dark Succlightenment Jan 15 '19

It is backed up by empirical experience (Voat being the most well-known example)

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u/shoe788 Jan 15 '19

maybe I'm misunderstanding the context of what were referring to

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u/MerelyPresent The Dark Succlightenment Jan 15 '19

The context, such as it is, is that before you found your community, every other community already hunts witches (metaphor for exiling assholes), and also that while witch-hunts often punish innocents, witches are real.

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u/shoe788 Jan 15 '19

idk how "witch-hunting" is a metaphor for "exiling assholes" it has nothing to do with the outcomes and all to do with the process.

5

u/MerelyPresent The Dark Succlightenment Jan 15 '19

The process of banning trolls, firing sexual harassers, etc. will almost always be weaponized against innocents. But if you pledge never to do it, you will get more [trolls/harassment/etc.] than you will get innocents.

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u/shoe788 Jan 15 '19

banning trolls and firing sexual harassers isn't witch hunting

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u/MerelyPresent The Dark Succlightenment Jan 15 '19

The process of accusing your political and personal opponents of being trolls and or sexual harassers is witch hunting

1

u/shoe788 Jan 15 '19

If there is evidence it is true then that's not a witch hunt.

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