Can’t stop thinking about yesterday’s incident.
Might as well put a list of some people whom I do like and whom I learned from, which would belong in the “accept” category, by no means inclusive and in no particular order. If anyone has a problem with it, they might as well know and act as they see fit.
- Steven Pinker
- Colin Woodard
- Barack Obama
- Andrei Sakharov
- Slavoj Žižek
- Fareed Zakaria
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Malala Yousafzai
- Orhan Pamuk
- Salman Rushdie
- Arthur Clarke
- Cory Doctorow
Almost everyone else, including those I completely or partially disagree with, fall into “tolerate” category – unless at some point they called for violence to further their goals, even if not seriously (so yeah that means radicals, Nazis, Bannonites, Islamists and other revolutionaries). I am generally still curious about those I disagree with, although I would lose patience if their arguments are cherry-picked or have been discredited with evidence, but can change my mind if new contradicting evidence is found. The yesterday’s offensive person in question – I didn’t know much or read much by Jordan Peterson other than some of his quotes that appeared interesting – and didn’t know he was considered controversial, especially if one doesn’t give him the treatment that Fox News or BBC gives to people they don’t like. I know that being a fan of a liberal democracy is not in vogue these days in most of the world, and I know that a liberal democracy is not a natural state of affairs for humans – it is not an old-growth forest, but rather a carefully-tended garden that is imperfect by design, but I have yet to see anything else that humans created that is better, and I still believe the work tending it is worth it.
tinfoilparachute 