Its a Free Country
Freedom needs structure
When I was first doing discussions in Second Life I didn't do an introduction like this. I'd just set a topic and let the discussion go where it would.
That didn't work very well. The discussion would wander all over the place and it wasn't very satisfying.
What the introductions do is provide a focus, a sort of structure, that enables interesting discussions.
Some people didn't like that idea. We had griefers who wanted to use hurtful speech to drive people out of the discussion. I'm entitled to free speech they'd claim.
The irony of their 'freedom' depriving others of free speech was lost on them. In the end I'd explain that they were my guests at my place. It's not like they were on a soapbox in Hyde Park. Then I could just boot them. It's a free country.
Lately, Republicans have been attacking American democracy by saying whatever they want.
It's not just Trump's lies about the 2020 election.
We got many politicians like Margorie Taylor Greene spouting lies like how a fellow member of congress is a terrorist.
It's destabilizing.
How can America be a free country if it's government is paralyzed and the police are running amok.
I don't think it will work
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.