AlienBot Meets Black Lives Matter

Naive-hyper-literal-alien-bot saw someone holding a Black Lives Matter sign.

He thought, "Oh my gosh! Some people don't think Black Lives Matter!" So he picked up a sign and began protesting alongside them.

Then someone with an "All Lives Matter," sign came along.

"All Lives Matter? Of course all lives matter," naive-hyper-literal-alien-bot thought before he crossed out the "black" of his sign and wrote "all" to replace it.

Saying Free Speech A Little Too Much

The other day, Ricky Gervais said this,

"It's common now to mistake defending someone's right to say things, with agreeing with those things. If you don't support free speech for people who you disagree with, then you don't support free speech. And remember, it's your right not to listen and even say things back."

I get the sentiment, but everyone - even Ricky - agrees that hate speech doesn't count. This is where I have a problem with the people uttering "free speech" all the time. It's obvious that different groups of people have very different ideas about what hate speech means, and therefore what speech shouldn't be free. You can yell "free speech" all you want, it doesn't get at the crux of the dispute.

Callout Bullshit Vs Callout Treachery

I feel like previous generations had a "callout bullshit" culture. They had a sensitivity to being fooled. And when someone tried to fool them, they'd say, "get that bullshit out of here. you can't fool me." It's not so much that there was more of an attitude of skepticism. I'm not sure if people were more or less skeptical than they are today if you control for what kinds of things to expect them not to be skeptical toward. But there was an attitude that conveying skepticism was okay.