Nationalism, immigration and racism in the EU

vimothy

yurp
The fact is, not that our society believes in freedom of speech and assembly, but rather that it is afraid to announce its disbelief.

Similar things could be said of France, of course, which competes with Britain for the title of fons et origo of these ideas (of liberal freedoms, secularism, etc). It also finds it hard to bring itself to say that it doesn't believe in freedom of speech. So it's no surprise to see an outpouring of narcissistic, social media-fuelled sentiment, coupled with an actual crackdown on "free speech", especially speech linked to terrorism or that which might further upset the more sensitive ethnic minority populations. It's basically a Zizek article writing itself, probably appearing in Comment is Free at some point next week.
 

luka

Well-known member
You making a pithy summary of those 20,000 words and pretending you thought it up yourself
 

luka

Well-known member
That's what I would recommend. Understand and respect the medium you're working in
 

vimothy

yurp
The discourse around highly idealised and abstracted notions of freedom is a relic of the Cold War and prior struggles against totalitarianism. Take, for e.g., freedom of speech. Traditionally, and in practice, both liberals and conservatives reject the notion of absolute freedom of speech. The liberal accepts constraints arising negatively from the potential for harm done to others. The conservative understands constraints as arising naturally from the law's embodiment of society's values. (The former is the dominant force in society today, although what constitutes harming others has expanded considerably, to the extent that it is thought necessary to preface works by Kant with "trigger warnings", lest today's fragile undergraduates be given vertigo by exposure to his dangerously subversive ideas. The latter is an almost occult tradition, which holds that such freedoms that exist are produced by our institutions rather than Platonic forms whose existence is limited by them where necessary.)
 

luka

Well-known member
That's better but to really grab people's attention maybe try rhetorical judo. Say something that sounds indefensible to lure the unwary into an over hasty attack, then when they are off balance, SMASH THEM
 

droid

Well-known member
That's better but to really grab people's attention maybe try rhetorical judo. Say something that sounds indefensible to lure the unwary into an over hasty attack, then when they are off balance, SMASH THEM

Hey, thats my entire raison d'etre right there. Works brilliantly with Tea everytime! ;)
 

luka

Well-known member
Lol it always works best with emotion-led people. Reasoning people are harder to entrap.
 

luka

Well-known member
You are so dedicated to arguing with tea you even do it all over Facebook. Multi-platform tea baiting
 

vimothy

yurp
Normally when I tell people I don't believe in freedom of speech and neither do they, they're shocked and appalled.
 

droid

Well-known member
You are so dedicated to arguing with tea you even do it all over Facebook. Multi-platform tea baiting

Youre too hard on him. He tends to take an everyman stance on things, but hes a smart bloke who responds to logic and dishes it out sometimes. Cant blame someone for their reflexes (too much at least).
 
Top