I am trying to seperate the Aerie and my LJ from one another in terms of content/feeling, and in that spirit and upon reflection I decided that this post was (topically) better suited to the Aerie. As such, a slightly edited version (including the quote I dug up in response to Clay) is now over there.

And I also found an earlier entry I'd made that deals with the same subject, although I was not aware of the idea of the Invisible Knapsack at that point.

So, I happened upon Levi's LJ tonight and started reading. Unfortunately, I'll never do that again. It's not that I think Levi is wrong or an has nothing interesting to say, it's the amount of concentrated "idiot" his LJ attracts.

And that he's willing to go 100 pages of posts with RPGPundit. Seriously.

His intentions might be in the right place, but it really isn't a sign of good diplomacy, manners, or intellectual neutrality when you make a concerted effort to listen to the racist Klansman or the screaming homeless man on the corner, or (worse) invite him to sit on the City Council because you think it is admirable and right of you to allow him to be heard, too.

It's not.

You can disagree with that, and I can only blame the modern media and the "gone mad" interpretation of liberal philosophy for perpetuating the cultural meme that everyone's opinions are as valid as everyone elses' and must be given equal time and respect.

This is also exactly why most moderators on the internet are really completely useless as moderators: the broken idea above that passes for and is praised as/upheld as commendable neutrality.

I support my assertion with the evidence that having the screaming homeless man on the city council does not produce a better city for anyone or more USEFUL or PRODUCTIVE discussions, though it may feed the screaming homeless man's ego and give the seat-givers warm fuzzies for being so neutral and "fair-minded".

Actually, isn't this also one of the geek fallacies?

Hrm, yeah, it looks like the natural outgrowth of GSF1: "You better let me speak as an equal or you're BAD!" or "Don't you judge my stuff as bad! You're bad for doing so!" Which is pretty much the flag being waved all over a number of those discussions on Levi's LJ.

Sorry, kids, sometimes things you like that other people call wrong aren't wrong at all. And sometimes things really are bad and wrong, even if you like them. I'll bet you can even come up with some good examples yourselves.

It isn't as easy as flipping the liberal equality switch to dismiss the notion that something or someone is wrong or bad, or because you might make a mistake in telling the difference between the two, because it's hard to tell which is which, dismissing the idea that anything could be bad or wrong.