Pope Vader finds your lack of faith disturbing
And so, with a paraphrase from 1984 and a quote from Star Wars, that concludes our sermon for today.
True believers are wonderful, right up to the point where they subjugate their individual moral responsibility to their loyalty. At that point, it’s time for a revolt. If they are part of a revolutionary, empowering movement and they suddenly start casting aspersions on one another’s loyalty, of all things, then you know something’s rotten in the state of Cyberia. They may or may not be acting on orders from above; in fact, I find fandoms do this spontaneously at a certain point, particularly those which perceive themselves as beleaguered.
It is possible to resist them at the same time as you pity them.
Up with thoughtcrime!
raincoaster 
Interesting, Raincoaster. Very much how I think re the responsibility.
From the point of view of the skeptic, belief is always problematic. Believing in (rather than describing, or explaining or proving) something is always going to be methodologically dubious (a problem of epistemology, philosophers would say). But, at the same time, there is no “privileged” position. A true skeptic realizes that even “science” (often opposed to “belief” or “ideology”) is not value-neutral and completely objective. The human brain (or mind, if you prefer) is hard wired with a confirmation bias. Whatever that may be. In this sense, we all believe something…
Wikileaks pulled a dick move yesterday putting up a paywall and I got attacked for saying “if you don’t tell people how to get around it, it’s a paywall.” I was repeatedly told I wasn’t loyal enough, etc, etc. I went Full Godwin on some people, and they deserved it.
Free thought is never the enemy.
There’s nothing wrong with believing something, advocating it, letting it guide your actions. The problem comes when we denigrate others for being “less pure” in their belief. That is in and of itself evil.
“Free thought is never the enemy.”
Very true, and something many people forget. Of course they’re always in favour of “free thought” that supports their particular world view or cause.
Free is free. I have no difficulty arguing with people who disagree with me. I have a hard time dealing with people who disagree with me but pretend they don’t.
Well this is a new one for me: NOT covering Julian Assange’s response, because Julian Assange’s response makes him look like a complete ass and I don’t want Anonymous to be any angrier at WikiLeaks than they already are.
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