What You Can't Say

dtolton writes "Paul Graham has an excellent article posted on the subject of things you can't say. His article explores what ideas are generally considered heresy, and whether or not those ideas might be true nonetheless. He also presents advice for handling heretical ideas. Considering that many of the ideas in technology in general and Open Source specifically are near heresy, it's well worth a read."

Comments

Re:Here it is

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you mods even read the posts?

In 1989 some clever researchers tracked the eye movements of radiologists as they scanned chest images for signs of lung cancer. [3] They found that even when the radiologists missed a cancerous lesion, their eyes had usually paused at the site of it. Part of their brain knew there was something there; it just didn't percolate all the way up into conscious knowledge. I think many interesting heretical thoughts are already mostly formed in our minds. If we turn off our taco sucks self-censorship temporarily, those will be the first to emerge.

Re:Here it is

[Anonymous Coward]

If your aim in life is to rehabilitate the color yellow, that may be what you want. But if you're mostly interested in other questions, being labelled as a yellowist will just be a distraction. Argue with idiots, and you become an idiot. Post on slashdot, and you become a raving homosexual deviant, intent on sodomizing little boys and sucking off gay men in truck stop restrooms.

Well said.

Criticize Israel and you're an 'anti-semite'

[Anonymous Coward]

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Re:Best examples of heresy I can think of

[mackstann]

Congratulations, you're a zealot. Even your sig mentions "learning the truth," suggesting that you consider your own beliefs to be absolute truth and that people that disagree are wrong. You also obviously paint yourself as a political conservative in your comments. Considering the topic we're on, I find it ironic that you are so angry about these subjects; it shows that you are afraid of being wrong. I would call you a troll, but it seems that you are being completely sincere. Perhaps you should spend less time being angry and more time trying to examine what is the truth vs. what is predictable banter from zealots (the former is pretty hard to find, while the latter is everywhere).

Re:Yeah

[zulux]

so long as this absurdity called "government" is restrained from causing yet more harm.

All of histories attorictices could not have been commpted without big goverment.

Hitler's Germany
Stallin's Russia
Napolian's France
The Queen's Empire

Letft to their own devices, individials kill a neighbor now and then, but group them together and call them an army and they can kill millions.

Big Government is very dangerous - in addition to being expensive.

Re:Please mod this flamebait...

[corebreech]

Why would the Israelis participate in terrorism against the U.S.? It doesn't add up.

Under Rabin, probably not. But under Sharon? Absolutely it makes sense. Sharon has set a course for Israel that necessarily requires many if not most (or all) Arabs in the region to die. With its 200+ nukes, Israel could of course effect this unilaterally, but the retribution would probably destroy the nation. However, roping the U.S. in to do the bulk of the fighting for them, and using conventional arms, achieves their aims without spilling Israeli blood and without bearing the brunt of international criticism.

It makes perfect sense, if you're a madman, and that's what Sharon is.

As for it being hate speech, I hate to tell you, but that strawman hasn't scored for a long time now, particularly when used to defend Israel, which, after all, actually carries out hate by killing and torturing innocent Palestinians and stealing their homes and land. That's hate. Speaking out against such action is not.

Re:My peers...

[nysus]

Hi, I don't live in S.F. but the way you describe yourself, I would definitely consider you to be an idiot (no offense). That's the truth. Yup, I think everyone who voted for Bush should be shot (everyone on who is not well-off, that is. Rich folk have the excuse that they were looking out for their own interest.) But anyone who is not rich and voted for Bush is a flaming idiot, in my book. And anyone who is a libertarian and reads the Bible is most likely an idiot. I can almost understand being a libertarian and being agnostic or atheistic, but actually reading the Bible and being a libertarian just smacks of idiocy.

Hey, I'm just telling you how I feel. Like I said, no offense. I do respect your right to be an idiot (even though you should probably be shot). There I got that off my chest. Peace.

Re:Things like...

[Simon Brooke]

Being European and leaning slightly to the left I'd like to see that page drawn up. And please don't be coy with details, I know my German history. Make sure to mark the counterparts of the Holocaust and the Gleichschaltung in bold so I won't miss them.

Jews to Belsen, Muslims to Guantanamo Bay... The Nazi concentration camps weren't death camps to begin with. It took several years between the start of the policy of vilification of Muslims - sorry, I meant Jews - and the start of the policy of extermination. But it's a process, and one which the United States has clearly begun. Like the Jews at Belsen, the Muslims at Guantanamo Bay have been made Untermensch, outside the protection of normal law.

Muslim citizens in the United States are already subject to arbitrary arrest and detention without charge. They're subject to invasive searches and monitoring when they travel. They're already subject to threats and abuse from their neighbours. This is just what the Jews in Germany were experiencing in the late twenties and early thirties. And the first concentration camp has now been operating for over a year.

Remember:

In Germany first they came for the communists and I did not speak out- because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out- because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out- because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics and I did not speak out- because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me- and there was no one left to speak out for me.

They're coming for the muslims now. What are you going to do?