Owen Jones basically summing up my views on the essence of this thread.

I can agree with that, but I’m certainly not inclined to agree with Owen Jones about much else. Just go to show that everyone is capable of making a good point every now and again.

Listen, I firmly believe everyone should be given a platform regardless of the content of their beliefs, so this means of course that, in addition to neo-nazis and white supremists, pedophiles, Islamists, eugenicists and people who enjoy Kid Rock also deserve platforms to advocate their views I don't make the rules for this, this is what is demanded for free speech

I just want to point out that @Streetlight was prescient in this thread and everybody should watch A thousand cuts.



The problem isn't free speech, it's the underlying algorithmic network and how profit is pursued where extreme and insane ideas propagate faster than truth and nuance.

Just curious, why would you pick up a six-year old thread about Roger Scruton and urge everybody to watch a documentary about a reporter against the Phillipine autocrat Rodrigo Duterte? What has this to do with a traditional conservative like Scruton, that are now basically silenced? Yes, social media obviously favours disagreement than agreement.

What Scruton wrote about populists (in 2017):

Populists are politicians who appeal directly to the people when they should be consulting the political process, and who are prepared to set aside procedures and legal niceties when the tide of public opinion flows in their favor. Like Donald Trump, populists can win elections. Like Marine Le Pen in France and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, they can disrupt the long-standing consensus of government. Or, like Nigel Farage and the Brexiteers in Britain, they can use the popular vote to overthrow all the expectations and predictions of the political class. But they have one thing in common, which is their preparedness to allow a voice to passions that are neither acknowledged nor mentioned in the course of normal politics. And for this reason, they are not democrats but demagogues—not politicians who guide and govern by appeal to arguments, but agitators who stir the unthinking feelings of the crowd.

I don't think he was a supporter of Trump ...or Duterte.

And for this reason, they are not democrats but demagogues—not politicians who guide and govern by appeal to arguments, but agitators who stir the unthinking feelings of the crowd.

Good thing that Artificial Intelligence will eventually take over the task of guiding and governing by appeal to arguments instead of stirring the unthinking feelings of the crowd.

Good thing that Artificial Intelligence will eventually take over the task of guiding and governing by appeal to arguments instead of stirring the unthinking feelings of the crowd. — Arcane Sandwich

Also, it's just far more easier for those in power to control the debate through AI. Imagine just how many people intelligence services and various secret police have employed to listen and survey people? Now everything can be done by computer!!!

Now everything can be done by computer!!! — ssu

Well, not everything. As a member of the crowd, I'd rather have a populist stir my unthinking feelings, rather than have a computer flatter my mistaken beliefs.

Just as with the help of many computers you are having a discussion with a person from another continent, similarly the populist can reach more people with the help of AI, rather than the costly and difficult campaign staff & volunteers.

Populist using AI rules... over the traditional populist.

Populist using AI rules... over the traditional populist. — ssu

I prefer the traditional populist, because then it's my natural intelligence versus the populist's natural intelligence. If the populist uses artificial intelligence and I don't, then the game of politics is rigged (even more so than it already is).

Islamaphobia is obviously made up. Scruton has obviously done nothing wrong here. It's a social media symptom. That's all. Outrage, outrage, outrage.

And Owen Jones is perhaps the second-worst commenter in recent memory, when it comes to British Media (there's another fellow who is worse - can't recall the name right now though). I can't see i've seen a single reasonable comment in this thread that lands on the side of Scruton having said anything wrong.

@Maw made that remark six years ago, so at least for me the link is saying "not found". Yeah, not everything stays in the net. And Scruton died five years ago. I would assume that Scruton as a traditional conservative wouldn't be so enthusiastic about the state of conservatism today, anyway.

Sad that conservatives like Scruton seem to be a dying breed.

Islamaphobia is obviously made up. Scruton has obviously done nothing wrong here. — AmadeusD

Unsure if this is simply a sarcastic remark or sincere and thus asinine, but regardless, Roger Scruton has been dead for over 5 years

Islamaphobia is obviously made up. — AmadeusD

"Islamophobia" - "Homophobia" - "Transphobia"

Whenever someone tries to attach a term from psychiatric diagnostics ("phobia") to the person they disagree with, you can be sure they are full of crap and have no real argument to offer.

I would assume that Scruton as a traditional conservative wouldn't be so enthusiastic about the state of conservatism today, anyway. — ssu

Perhaps it's already been mentioned in this thread, but apparently he became a conservative after witnessing the student riots in Paris in May 1968 where politically left leaning students from mostly wealthy families were throwing rocks at policemen from mostly working class families. :cool:

This old thread is attracting stupid comments so I'm closing it.