“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
Words to remember when one hears it's "just locker room talk" or "boys being boys" or "just a joke, lighten up".
pstuart · 2h ago
Seeing clips of primitive tribes being given modern military equipment triggers a response of "that is too powerful for you, you haven't earned the right to use it as you couldn't even make it yourself". Geocentric and elitist, sure.
But that is now how I see what the internet has done to society -- we're collectively unable to wield it properly. My excitement from the early years of the web ("knowledge is free! communities can span ideas rather than locality, etc" has been replaced by fear of "how will this be weaponized against us"?
Words to remember when one hears it's "just locker room talk" or "boys being boys" or "just a joke, lighten up".
But that is now how I see what the internet has done to society -- we're collectively unable to wield it properly. My excitement from the early years of the web ("knowledge is free! communities can span ideas rather than locality, etc" has been replaced by fear of "how will this be weaponized against us"?
But that's just like my opinion, man.