1. in terms of these "should they be fired for their tweets & bad opinions" controversies, the one I remain most conflicted about -- I mean genuinely torn -- is Quinn Norton.
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2. Here Norton makes the case that she was the victim of context collapse. There's a smidgen of truth to that but it's more complicated. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/the-new-york-times-fired-my-doppelganger/554402/ …
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3. With Norton, there are some genuine principles in conflict: a) she's talented b) she would've brought a much needed radical perspective to Times c) she has very crackpot/wrong-headed ideas about Nazis. That last point needs to be unpacked.
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4. Her crackpot idea is that Nazis should be befriended by non-Nazis & also it's possible for Nazi to be otherwise a good person. Also it's okay to throw around racist & homophobic slurs as part of internet engaging with people on internet.
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5. I think the most charitable possible view of Norton's thinking on Nazis is that it is super-naive. It comes from a place of extreme, radical innocence.
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6. Being charitable, we can say that Norton thought it was possible to befriend Nazis & talk with them in their own language without being effected. Her assumption was she could pull them to her, not that they would drag her down. Which is naive & wrong but not vile.
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7. The question then becomes (if we accept the most charitable possible view of Norton) whether being super-naive is firing offense. When you're job includes writing on politics (as she was going to) I think it is.
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A) the tech stuff would inevitably have political overtones (as with Weev) B) we'll have to agree to disagree on this. I think your writing isn't effective anti-racism but (inadvertent) normalization.
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