I've got the sense that myself and a lot of my friends hold opinions that would hurt them if exposed to public view, which makes me feel like we're some hidden group of 'no limits' curiosity. But this must not be new - throughout history,
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have there always been groups of people underground secretly reasoning themselves into opinions that the wider world viewed as offensive for the time? This makes me feel kind of elitist, and I'm not used to thinking in such binary value'd terms.
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but like, does this mean there were hidden salons in the 1600s where people were like 'yeah man homosexuals should definitely be able to marry' 'shh be quieter edward they'll hear you'
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Yes, philosophers for hundreds of years spoke elliptically for precisely this reason amazon.com/Philosophy-Bet
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"Though ultimately he never published his detailed arguments for sexual liberty for fear of the odium they would bring on his general philosophy, Bentham felt compelled to think them through in detail, to write about them repeatedly and to discuss them with his acquaintances."
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Yes. Philosophical dialogues were often written between two fictional characters to allow the writer an out. "I'm not an atheist, but this character in my story is!" Also look up Leo Strauss who argued there are lots of esoteric meanings in ancient texts.
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yes, but with a tighter orbit of the centrist position.
i.e. "yeah man, homosexuality shouldn't be punishable by death. it might not even be a sin?" "quiet oscar or you'll be excommunicated."
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Make it profitable to identify undervalued ideas and all of this will change.
That’s why we’re doing it.
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My understanding is that the Freemasons were approximately this kind of thing.
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your brain is 😍 - now hold my quill while I desperately seek an historical fiction series about this exact set up