It is notable that, having dicussed things at length, memexy's postition was refined from "coded writing" and "very sinister" to
> Then there are better ways to make those arguments.
which, yes, there quite possibly are. There are always better ways to make any given argument.
But memexy's claim that Scott's work was bad because
> I don't need to argue for freedom of speech and equal rights and justice for all because in my world those are givens.
fails, in my opinion, to understand that there are many people for whom, sadly, those things aren't givens and that arguing that they should be is a lot of Scott's thing.
I would love to live in a world where those things are givens.
I appreciate Scott for making principled arguments for why, ideally, we would live in a world where those things are givens, and I appreciate Scott for, however imperfectly, trying to move us towards such a world as best he can.
(note, this is my (opinionated) summary of the thread that ensued from my sibling comment; if unsure whether I've captured things accurately, please read that whole thread and draw your own conclusions)
> Then there are better ways to make those arguments.
which, yes, there quite possibly are. There are always better ways to make any given argument.
But memexy's claim that Scott's work was bad because
> I don't need to argue for freedom of speech and equal rights and justice for all because in my world those are givens.
fails, in my opinion, to understand that there are many people for whom, sadly, those things aren't givens and that arguing that they should be is a lot of Scott's thing.
I would love to live in a world where those things are givens.
I appreciate Scott for making principled arguments for why, ideally, we would live in a world where those things are givens, and I appreciate Scott for, however imperfectly, trying to move us towards such a world as best he can.
(note, this is my (opinionated) summary of the thread that ensued from my sibling comment; if unsure whether I've captured things accurately, please read that whole thread and draw your own conclusions)