Re: twitter/x
By: Mindsurfer to MRO on Tue Aug 19 2025 11:05 am
I'm not going along with that. I am grateful that Elon has liberated Twitter, and I don't need dozens of other 'alternatives' that aren't really alternatives, but just places where offended people can enjoy their echo chambers all by themselves.
Why not have an equal debate? Why not allow both opinions and worldviews? I thought that's what makes democracies so wonderful and leads to the better arguments winning?
Mindsurfer
I like that, and something I thought all along. Do high schools still teach debate? To have a dialogue staying on topic, not vering into personally attacking the other person with an opinion different than your own?
Seems now days we have to adjust the to lower common demoninator, avoiding all "land mines" of what things mean to everyone, trying to find the most safe, non-offensive route. That route however I am finding is becoming more narrow each year.
For example, I am play in a LARP (Live Action Role Play) group, which is basically D&D with all outfits and fighting with foam weapons. Sometimes for fun, as it is more sport than role play, some people will wear a fantasy version of a sports jersey with a number. One person had the number "88"
At one point the reeves and others in charge of field combat told this person to remove the number as it meant to some "Hail Hitler" ... HH... 88...
Friend had this number since around 1988, year he joined the fighter group he was in. It was 2017 when he was called on this. So he had used this number for 29 years. He assured them that the number meant something totally different than what others THOUGHT it meant. However, since this was offensive to those people, he removed the number from his jersey.
I believe things like that are wrong.
Something can mean different things to different people. And we need to learn the intent of what people do. If he wore that to make people upset, then possibly remove it. But if the intent is truly innocent, and there is another meaning, introduce that meaning to others.
Does "88" need to eternally be linked to Hitler, or could it take on a new meaning? Or a different meaning? Sure it can.
And I believe this of the swastika now associated with the Nazi party, was the "whirling logs" by the Navajo and other indigenous people throughout time.
Time widen that path of what is acceptable, and to listen to others on what the world means to them.
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