Slashdot Mirror
Nobel Winner Says Internet Might Have Stopped Hitler
There can be little doubt that the internet has changed everyday life for the better, but Nobel literature prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio has upped the ante by saying an earlier introduction of information technology could even have prevented World War II. "Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler's criminal plot would not have succeeded — ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day," he said. I have to agree with him. If England had been able to send a "Stop Hitler Now!" petition to 10 friendly countries, those countries could have each sent it to 10 more friendly countries before the invasion of Poland, and one of history's greatest tragedies might have been averted.
I wonder how you can honestly claim something like that on a forum like slashdot. Let's not pretend that all opinions get equal "respect" on slashdot.
Can we at least agree, for example, that slashdot's moderator's position on copyright enforcement is ... not all that subtle or balanced.
And there are many other standpoints that are basically not allowed like it. I'm not saying slashdot (currently or in the past) breeds antisocial tendencies. But a forum like slashdot could easily do so.
Hell, just check out islamic forums. Or truther forums. One contains loads of kill gays and stone women, the other ... well you know. And yes, that's a tendency.
Forums are no cure for antisocial behavior. In fact they can easily amplify it by isolating groups of similar mindset.
Read the comments here for example : http://www.topix.com/forum/iq/baghdad/TASKRSD7AUN7VBTJE
Of course that raises the question whether it's immoral for muslims to kill gays. If you allow "freedom of religion" which really means freedom to choose for yourself what is immoral and what is not, obviously you cannot condemn the killing of gays or the stoning of women, since they choose killing gays and stoning of women to be very moral acts instead of immoral. If not, you're basically expecting muslims to condemn the paedophile prophet for being a slave-trading kidnapping thieving massacrer. And if you truly believe that (which is an obvious truth) how could you possibly be a muslim (and NOT a sociopath).
Yet this ideology, including the killing gays, stoning and beating women parts, is spreading, especially online, where those people cannot easily be shamed for what they're saying. In the "real world" it's in retreat.
However the question is what will happen if the internet starts taking preference over the "real world".