Every so often I get on the subject of free speech. Second Life™ is said to be inhabited by more Liberals and Progressives than Conservatives and Traditionalists. But, no one knows, at least I have yet to see an objective study or assessment. I can see that we have more demonstrations of liberalism in SL. But, Conservatives have historically been the silent majority. Thus, the problem figuring out the actual demographics.
Second Life is not a free speech area. It is a private area owned by Linden Lab(R). Speech is governed by the ToS. We are free to say whatever within those limits. It is up to the Lindens to decide what speech exceeds those limits. Their decision is final, there is no appeal.
In RL free speech is suffering from fake news that is confusing some people and adding extraneous information some mistake for facts. Part of which is that awful thing ‘Hate Speech’, which is an interesting spin on “Hate” and the prime tool for anti-speech proponents.
I think the recent Berkley riot and threat of riot are examples of people not understanding the US Constitution and the principle of Free Speech nor its importance nor how to protect it nor why.
Now we have new technology coming into the mix that will leave us wondering about audio recordings. Just has Photoshop has had us questioning photos since Life Magazine’s 1963 Oswald with Rifle image. (Reference) Now Adobe is coming out with VoCo, a voice/audio editing software. It is to voice recording as Photoshop is to images.
If you need to add a word or words to the audio stream VoCo can do that so well, I am told, it is extraordinarily hard to detect a change. It requires a 20-minute sample of the voice to do its thing.
The advances in artificial intelligence are bringing us new levels of voice synthesis and performance. Lyrebird, a speech synthesis technology company, can, with a 60 second audio clip of someone talking, imitate that voice. (Example) I doubt I would be fooled by these early examples. But, some do sound pretty real. I do expect them to get better.
As it gets more difficult to discern the actual from the synthesized those with a more fascist personality will demand laws to force people to be honest. Many seem to have no clue that ‘honesty’ can’t be legislated (a philosophical-logic debate). Such misguided effort generally results in a loss of freedom.
We are seeing an amazing loss of support for free speech as universities shift from institutions of higher learning, diversity, and questioning the status-quo to North Korean style education camps inculcating a specific ideology.
Universities were the place people got way from parents and examined ideas new to them. Universities provided the diverse range of thought and allowed the debate of ideas to find the best. What one believed was not a factor in their grade. No longer is it a matter of whether one has learned but whether they have accepted a professor’s opinion.
Now universities like Berkley can’t keep a single speaker safe. And this in an educational system run by the former Director of Home Security, once charged with keeping a nation safe. Really!?! Who is kidding who?
There is little diversity of thought in universities. They are becoming centers where racism and segregation are the “new” solutions to social unrest and equality. Forget the 60’s and MLK. United we stand and divided we fall, is forgotten. So, why is divisive identity politics so popular?
When I hear rational liberals and progressives speaking I generally hear people with a well-intentioned heart. But, they often break that illusion by breaking into hateful speech and making fascist demands as soon as one disagrees with them. In a second a conversational subject change seems to cause them to lose all connection to their ideals and reality. Conservative politicians are not much better.
How can the side demanding more bans on Hate Speech voice so much hate? It’s like insane Pro-Lifers killing people. WTF!!?!!
Google now returns 6+ million hits for articles about attacks on free speech. The UN has declared regulating hate speech as standing up for another’s rights… (Reference) Remember. The UN membership is made up of a majority of dictators. Saudi Arabia is now in charge of Women’s Rights… women in Saudi have no rights, at least not as Americans think of rights.
And this: Campus Free Speech Crisis and what is it with Democrat students: Democrat Students Least Tolerant. How can liberals be intolerant? Don’t they see the contradiction?
It seems people seldom think ahead. If one gives up their right to free speech, who is it that will control what is said? Who gets to say what is hate speech? The government? Federal, State, Local? Is that a Republican or Democrat government?
What happens to the idea of what is or isn’t Hate Speech when the opposing party is in office?
More pages… links below.
Wow. Just … wow. I randomly looked at your blog again and was pleasantly surprised you done a good post intro … and then it just went into weird conspiracy rambles ending in a WW2 stand-off between Soviets and Nazis.
First things first – you are right that both were an image of pluralism and just in a huge power scuffle along with USA which just dropped into war in 1942 just to flex muscles. Indeed, am from Poland aka. the country everyone wanted in central Europe (and now, no one would visit as they would get a brick to the head from neo-Nazis). My area helped Nazis murder local Jewish, Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Russian and Ukrainian people in the majority then. Afterwards Soviets invaded. Then radical conservative neo-Nazis but gladly I left for UK before that.
However, this is only my experience and it is not yours or someone elses’ so on one hand you are right – SL does suffer from lack of free speech and Linden Labs having only USA offices nowadays does mean licking Chinese facist butts like Hollywood does.
However, ISIS gives no fucks about Vatican or Pope – they care about fellow Muslims and their intention is to alienate them from anyone else due to biases created by them via fear, terrorism and media. You are actually a person ISIS would send a gift basket too as you eat their propaganda rather well.
Other propaganda you swallow? Yes, millitiant atheist one – nope, Dawkins and the like are just few people who are loud and popular and still – atheism is not same everywhere. I was atheist in Poland due to not fancying Church and state intersecting, fanatic Catholicism ruling and being judged based on norms fundamentalist politicians created while saying Vatican did.
I do fancy science same as any other person liking to know about the world around them and to me it fits most personal spiritual beliefs and … pretty much is same for majority – no one likes militiant atheists or religious fundamentalists just like no one supports Soviets or Nazis – those are movements only benefiting creators so you again tick the citizen part off.
No idea what you mean about cholesterol and heart attacks as the connection never been denied by someone but am very sorry to inform you that ‘global warming’ does not mean ‘warming’ … Okay, not very sorry as you never research anything as it seems. Essentially we did a number on Earth due to industrialisation, coal mining, toxic fumes, freon use, stomping on various micro-environments and not giving a shit. Temperature and climate changes in cycles and we match predictions with those for now. Earth did not prepare for us littering to hell and back, murdering various species, leaking oils, dropping nuclear waste, exploding nuclear energy plants (Chernobyl was fun), causing ice caps to melt due to ozone barrier destruction and all other nice stuff.
However, it is your right to believe otherwise and write otherwise which is absolutely grand and you do make your own conclusions and share them. Unfortunately, you also written a post on how SL should be separate from politics and here you say we are all affected by our beliefs.
You have a really odd take on historical information. I suppose, depending on your age, that would be from growing up in Poland pre-Walesa. The US entering the war to ‘flex’ its muscles? You should probably read up on that.
SL doesn’t lack free speech. It has more than most US college campuses. But, it is not a public forum where the US Constitution applies its First Amendment. It is a private space where the Lab is entitled to control what happens in its house. The point is to clarify a difference between SL and RL ideas of free speech.
To say ISIS doesn’t care about the Pope is ignoring the Muslims’ primary eschatology. A good reference book is Thomas Horn & Cris Putnam’s The Final Roman Emperor, The Islamic Antichrist. The number of citations and references, religious and secular, is amazing. You find a mountain of material to correct your thinking on Catholic-Muslim beliefs about the end times. You could also consider reading the Hadiths that describe Muslim eschatological beliefs, but that is rather tedious. Or an amazingly simple refutation to your thinking on the subject, just listen to what Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS, has and is saying.
Your opinion on Catholic-Muslim beliefs reflects mainstream media’s and little if any relationship to reality.
All belief systems have variations. Nowhere did I write any system is homogenous, without variation.
I find the atheist belief system is striking in its disregard of science and history. To say you chose to be because you didn’t like how you perceive government and religion using people, is like ignoring the reality of the speed of light because you want to go faster. Reality exists without regard to what we personally want.
In free countries, we can have Personal Belief Systems. Are you presupposing all religions are made up stories? Without any basis in fact? Therefore, you can make up your own?
The cholesterol connection to cardiac problems is 1950’s & 60’s thought. You thinking no one disagrees with that thinking shows how effective the mainstream news, a propaganda system, is. Do some actual research to provide a foundation for your opinions.
The Mayo Clinic and numerous others in recent studies point out the statistics showing the lack of causation and correlation in cholesterol-to-cardiac issues. My point was to show a facet of our society where the majority has been misled by the system. You step up and present yourself to illustrate my point. Thanks.
As to my never researching anything, I think you are projecting. You seem to have bought into most of the popular propaganda of the day without doing any homework. Gee, everyone says…
A massive propaganda campaign has been waged to support the UN’s Agenda 21. The primary piece started out as global cooling, then warming, and now is climate change. To believe giving trillions in an effort to someone to control climate that has changed for hundreds of millions of years is suddenly going to be altered by humans is absurd. It’s a ‘King ordering the tide to stop’ thing.
At 400+ppm of CO2 we are nowhere near the historic high of 3,000ppm. In Russia and China where scientists are not constrained in direction by the social-political pressure of the West to conform, they are reporting what the minority of Western scientists say: current artic ice levels are at 1940 levels, temperature changes are within the ranges we have seen for 200 years and way less than the historic ice cores recorded. Our most accurate global temperature measure, satellites, show no warming for 20 years. Ocean buoy data, the most accurate, is ignored in favor of way less freighter intake temperatures because the later shows warming and the buoys don’t.
You are a wonderful example of one mislead by propaganda and constrained reporting. Like most you direct your comments at me and never challenge the subjects.
People have to dig for real news. To know who is telling truth and who is faking, they have to verify their information sources and maintain healthy skepticism.
• Summary of climate science: Ice Cap – http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog
• Summary of Renewable Energy Failing: Energy Matters – http://euanmearns.com/
• An unspinning of energy facts: JoNova – http://joannenova.com.au/
• News bits to upset everyone: Not a Lot Of People Know That – https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/
• Energy Rip-Offs: The Deplorable Climate Science Blog – https://realclimatescience.com/
• Energy crimes: The Green Corruption Files – http://greencorruption.blogspot.com/
• Mostly examining science claims: Watts Up with That? – https://wattsupwiththat.com/
• Challenging all popular beliefs: Manhattan Contrarian – http://manhattancontrarian.com/
These sites provide reference material and information the mainstream won’t report. There are plenty of sites attempting to refute these. Deciding which to trust requires examining the foundations and raw data for each side’s claims.