Should we think this hard about online debates involving esoteric topics, especially when they are started by white nationalist / propagandist Christopher Rufo?

[–] thrawn@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why not? Thought is free, I don’t read internet discussions to think little. Lemmy was heralded as a place for thoughtful discussions, and shouldn’t strive for less substance than Reddit had.

I understand that the agenda against Dr. Gay was started by a piece of shit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong. Broken clock and all. I’m not pleased about it either, but if I discounted literally everything said by pieces of shit, I’d be giving up my own integrity for the sake of owning the cons.

[–] gastationsushi@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How many times does Christopher Rufo have to be proven bad faith actor until we can ignore him?

[–] thrawn@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well, I did ignore him. I don’t keep up with conservative media and did not know who he was. I heard about this initially because I’m alum of a related university and didn’t know until your article who began the agenda against Dr. Gay. Problem is, when the broken clock is correct, it’s correct, and that led to normal people talking about it.

That said, would you really ignore literally everything he or his ilk say even if it was true? I feel like all we’ve done is talk about this one guy that 99% of people probably don’t know, and not the merits of the actual events. I genuinely feel it is bad for one to ignore even truthful things just because it came from a piece of shit. That could easily be weaponized— he could champion a good cause just to throw it under the bus.

[–] gastationsushi@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'm talking about Rufo because he's the source of this allegation.

Imagine if Rufo and his friends lied and called you a pedophile on twitter because you oppose violence against trans people. Would it be fair for the national media to cover this lie as an allegation?

Is this really the society we want to live in? Any "allegation" from famous twitter account gets push to the front page and when it ends up getting debunked the media publishes it under the fold. Don't you see the dangers of this world?