
Against Murderism - bshlgrs
http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/06/21/against-murderism/
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kijin
Racist, sexist, anti-Semitist, terrorist, socialist, liberal, etc. are what I
like to call "duct-tape labels". You stick that label onto people's faces to
instantly silence them. Or rather, they'll keep talking but you refuse to
listen. So the tape is actually applied to your own ears.

In the long term, excessive use of duct-tape labels works against you. Because
they keep talking to the public anyway, while you've cut yourself off from the
only thing that can give you a clue about what's going on in their heads.

Iterated prisoner's dilemma games [1] give us a good idea of how "liberals"
(in the author's rather academic usage, not the popular usage) should deal
with people who harbor other kinds of ideas: whoever tries to stop the
discussion first, loses. You keep civil and engage their ideas publicly as
long as they're still talking and not shooting.

Only when they do something other than talking that causes harm, you retaliate
in kind. Violence (arrest and imprisonment) for violence (murder and other
violent crimes), and political action (protest and civil disobedience) for
political action (unjust legislation). But if all they're doing is speaking,
the only way you can retaliate is with more speech.

If they're doing plain ol' demagoguery, well, isn't that despicable? You
counter with better demagoguery. Thinking you have a better product is no
excuse for poor marketing, and this applies to the marketplace of ideas as
well. If you try to silence your competitors first, there goes your moral high
ground -- the only high ground you might ever have had.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#The_itera...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#The_iterated_prisoner.27s_dilemma)

