Should all voices be heard?

[Elixir]

Even if someone evinces something manifestly crazy? Is the verity of a statement now measured in the numbers of its believers rather than its correspondence to observable reality? Appears to be the case. I made up the most wack conspiracy theory I could think of, typed it into Google, and got almost 2 million hits.
First they try to get you to not search for "purple wombats control the fbi conspiracy
"It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search"
But if you keep going ....

Almost 2 million! Lotsa government stuff. Things that look like code. On the first page (hidden a ways down) I got a hit -
COINCIDENCE?



If I can get enough people to believe it, it's fucking "true".

 

[Patooka]

I won't believe it until someone I've never heard of uploads a one and a half hour video on youtube about it that's short on evidence but has implications you can't afford to ignore if true.

 

[Tigers!]

Even if someone evinces something manifestly crazy?

How do you know if they are manifestly crazy unless you listen to them?

In answer to your OP "Should all voices be heard?" The answer is yes, at least once.

 

[Tigers!]

I won't believe it until someone I've never heard of uploads a one and a half hour video on youtube about it that's short on evidence but has implications you can't afford to ignore if true.

Sounds like every political party in Australia.

 

[Elixir]

How do you know if they are manifestly crazy unless you listen to them?

That's the point - or part of it.
When "purple wombats control the fbi conspiracy" gets 2 million hits how are you supposed to listen to them all in order to make an informed judgment? You can't. Plain and simple. So you're vulnerable to ANY filtering mechanism to which you are exposed.

 

[TomC]

I made up the most wack conspiracy theory I could think of, typed it into Google, and got almost 2 million hits.
First they try to get you to not search for "purple wombats control the fbi conspiracy
"It looks like there aren't many great matches for your search"
But if you keep going ....

Almost 2 million! Lotsa government stuff. Things that look like code. On the first page (hidden a ways down) I got a hit -
COINCIDENCE?

I'm not sure what your point is.
You made up something. You entered it in Google. Google responded "Say what? You can't be serious."

You kept going and Google delivered a ton of idiotic results. Which is what you asked for.
Tom

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Shape shifting alien reptiles.
Scientology's dead alien soul parasites.
Half of everything on Faux Noise.
Flat Earthers.

There is not enough time to listen to all the crackpot moron idiocy out there.

 

[Jarhyn]

All voices deserve to be heard to some extent.

Sometimes the ear that voice deserves to be heard by is someone who will just listen and say "that's nice", that we pay as a society to sit there and hear the voice and disregard everything non-dangerous that it says.

Someone needs to keep an eye on the crazy, and listen to what it says. We should probably take turns at that since putting an ear to it can be corrosive to the sanity.

But we should always be willing to listen and keep an eye out for brewing trouble.

 

[Jarhyn]

Shape shifting alien reptiles.
Scientology's dead alien soul parasites.
Half of everything on Faux Noise.
Flat Earthers.

There is not enough time to listen to all the crackpot moron idiocy out there.

Wow, going big on giving them a whole "half".

 

[Bronzeage]

One of my father's favorite expressions was, "I don't have to eat the entire egg to know it's rotten."

Of course, all voices should be heard, but it's every individual's choice whether to act upon it, or quit listening.

"Prove it, or leave me alone" is a perfectly valid response.

 

[TomC]

One of my father's favorite expressions was, "I don't have to eat the entire egg to know it's rotten."

Of course, all voices should be heard, but it's every individual's choice whether to act upon it, or quit listening.

"Prove it, or leave me alone" is a perfectly valid response.

Heh.

Deserve to be heard doesn't necessarily mean deserve to be listened to.
Tom

 

[Jarhyn]

One of my father's favorite expressions was, "I don't have to eat the entire egg to know it's rotten."

Of course, all voices should be heard, but it's every individual's choice whether to act upon it, or quit listening.

"Prove it, or leave me alone" is a perfectly valid response.

Absolutely. My point is that not every voice deserves to be heard by every person. That would be silly, after all, and impossible.

My other part of my point though is that we as a society, in deciding we don't want to listen directly, have a responsibility to find an appropriate earpiece when we as individuals decide we are not it, so that people don't go unheard and infections are not left to fester and rot.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Deserve to be heard doesn't necessarily mean deserve to be listened to.

This is true. However, sometimes the assholery and dumbfuckery are so insanely wacko that I am seduced by the entertainment value and continue to give attention. MT Greene from Georgia is a perfect example. It's also the main reason I listen to religious claims about gods and ghosts and souls and angels and Jesus in potato chips. It's entertaining as hell.

There are, of course, more productive ways to spend my time and energy, the majority of which is so directed.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

One of my father's favorite expressions was, "I don't have to eat the entire egg to know it's rotten."

Of course, all voices should be heard, but it's every individual's choice whether to act upon it, or quit listening.

"Prove it, or leave me alone" is a perfectly valid response.

The problem with "prove it is" the kooks can talk more crap forever. If they run out of BS to prove it they will start making up even more and stupider BS.


As for the rotten egg, one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes.

 

[Patooka]

I thought I might post a legitimate answer. The reality is voices are heard now more than any other time in history. But you don't have the right to force me to take them all seriously.

 

[Elixir]

I was hoping this thread would go less along the lines of who has the right to be heard, and more about how we decide what we are and are not going to "hear" (listen to). Kudos to @Bronzeage and his dad, for ""I don't have to eat the entire egg to know it's rotten." When you are within earshot of someone spouting off, what makes you decide to listen or not listen? I know that when I hear certain RW politicians' voices, it wouldn't matter if they were delivering a Divine Gospel - I have already conditioned myself to ignore them at best, and vehemently reject what they are saying without knowing what it was, at worst. Sometimes that's a benefit to me, sometimes it may be an impediment to understanding.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

What is the saying "Be quiet, the adults are talking"?

The alt-right and Trump have done a great job of minimizing the traditions and protocols that have made our democracy relatively successful for over 200 years. We have the wackiest people in the House of Reps since before the end of Segregation.

Everyone should be heard. The issue is, we have heard them... they have nothing to offer, no actual plans, just an endless list of insults and complaints. So they need to shut up now and let the Adults get the work done. The right to be heard isn't a carte blanche to be able to make a mess of every discussion. This Congress, not IIDB.

 

[Jarhyn]

I was hoping this thread would go less along the lines of who has the right to be heard, and more about how we decide what we are and are not going to "hear" (listen to). Kudos to @Bronzeage and his dad, for ""I don't have to eat the entire egg to know it's rotten." When you are within earshot of someone spouting off, what makes you decide to listen or not listen? I know that when I hear certain RW politicians' voices, it wouldn't matter if they were delivering a Divine Gospel - I have already conditioned myself to ignore them at best, and vehemently reject what they are saying without knowing what it was, at worst. Sometimes that's a benefit to me, sometimes it may be an impediment to understanding.

I think it's because people broadly recognize the right to speak in the public square these days, so long as someone does not harass, obstruct, or commit violence and that people have a right to be granted permit for organized protest.

The street preachers have the rights to tell people on the street outside the baseball game they are going to hell, but they don't have a right to say it inside the stadium on the loudspeakers. I have no obligation to stop there, and they have no right to reduce the usability of that space by drowning out others, except when they are permitted a turn to do explicitly that!

I don't think an office is an entitlement to a platform, though, either.

 

[Elixir]

The street preachers have the rights to tell people on the street outside the baseball game they are going to hell

When someone is standing on a literal soapbox on a street corner, screaming and waving a Bible in the air, my filters are triggered; I am NOT gonna listen to them. Even if they are giving away tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers or the secret to life, the universe and everything, I am not going to listen. I just don’t have time to listen long enough to know for sure if that’s the case.
I have great confidence in that particular filter. But not in all of them.

 

[thebeave]

Are you sure your search results are relevant to your search phrase? When I do searches, I will get results that just have one or two of the words, and its often irrelevant to what I'm looking for. For your example, the word purple might be on page 2 of a document, and wombat is on page 67, (perhaps its a nature article that talks about purple flowers and mammals, among other things) but there is no "purple wombat". Or if there is a purple wombat, it could be from some 6 year girl posting a story she made up about a "purple wombat".