In my house, I allow a lot of opinions to be expressed. I’m very safe from most of the problems of the world, but I don’t turn a blind eye to them. I agree with Christopher Hitchens who bases his philosophy on the wisdom of the ages, that the few dissenting voices should be amplified, not suppressed.
I don’t agree with every application of that when the Hitch invokes that rule or judges others. We’ve been testing that here at CFI over the last couple of days. There is a benchmark, called the DAU/MAU, and we’ve been higher recently. But it’s not a simple “higher is gooder” metric.
Garrison Keillor, a man who had all the trappings of a quiet conservative but could weave liberal values into a story, once had a character in his imaginary town who spoke out against the US involvement in WWII. He made valid points. The character didn’t make friends. Keillor could distance himself from the comments because it was the words of a fictional character.
I’m doing a little distancing here myself. Here’s the meat:
Making comments on anything topic is allowed, but not all speech is acceptable. When making comments about people dying, no matter where you are, you should be aware of who might hear you. You should be ready to hear them speak from their perspective, like a mother who has buried her children. You should be able to include that in whatever point you are making, whether it’s a broad stroke or a specific incident. You should demonstrate that you have heard others.