As certain speech is outlawed, certain thoughts follow, and slowly but surely we make our way towards Thought-Crime becoming an accepted social standard or concept. If people aren’t free to explore or to engage certain ideologies directly, especially for the sake of disputing them, we risk allowing their foundational logical premises leaking out into wider society under new names, contexts and covers.
People with divisive beliefs often interpret other people’s emotional reactions to their claims as some kind of proof that they must be right; the other person just couldn’t handle or wasn’t equipped to deal with such powerful truths, or something like that. When simple discussion with this type of person is outlawed and seen as some kind of support or advocacy, what we do in its place can inadvertently strengthen those beliefs within the believer. If nothing else, it only makes it more difficult for the believer to learn their way out of whatever divisive ideology has them in its grip.
It also leaves others ill-equipped to handle confrontations with these people, as they lack the insight necessary to engage them and to dispute them effectively. This is a crucial point. They won’t be ready for the positions and arguments that will be thrown at them, and they definitely won’t know how to protect themselves if they start emulating this logic in their own minds.
Under the self-righteous banner of making sure people don’t have to deal with certain uncomfortable concepts, we are most-likely leaving them more vulnerable to manipulation and indoctrination.
When I held certain beliefs, it was always preferable for my ego to have people frantically and emotionally lashing out against me rather than reasonably disagreeing with me. In fact, it was sometimes even preferable to have them lash out than it was to have them agree with me.
Some things, we have to go through in order to be able to gain the insight necessary to overcome. If we create a world where people aren’t allowed to explore certain trains of thought and will be forever slapped with the one time they were guilty of WrongThink, we take away a great deal of the freedom that enables people to explore, to understand, to grow and to change. With that also comes a huge reduction in the chances of them bridging their personal and cultural differences.
Beyond that, this is yet another classic example of ostracising those who step out of the norm; the metaphorical sheep who now keep each other in line through social shaming and casting people out.
My concern with this is that humanity is, once again, falling into the divisionary traps of those who seek to keep us divided so that they can remain relevant and influential.
If I hadn’t gone so deep down the rabbit holes of the beliefs that I used to hold, I wouldn’t be as effective at communicating with people who hold those beliefs now. If I hadn’t made the mistakes and the errors of my past and acknowledged them as I have fortunately been able to, I might be doomed to repeat them for the rest of my life, as can be seen across humanity and all throughout time.
“It was a mistake” is not an excuse - it’s a reason, but if people are not allowed to go through these things, we don’t know what kind of future wisdom we might be sacrificing, nor what creepy, overbearing human tendencies we might be giving rise to within the institutions.
