Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by exarch 4189 days ago
>Though I don’t consider it legally practicable, as a moral matter I’d be fine if every such man were thrown in prison for life.

I was with the author right up until this. Mr. Aaronson here declares that, were it legally practicable, he believes that THOUGHT POLICE would be a very good thing. He proposes life imprisonment for "wrong" belief, not wrong action.

At that point, I ceased to care much at all about what Scott Aaronson believes.

1 comments

I think you may be interpreting his words too literally, which is funny, as this whole thing is about people misinterpreting him. I believe the quote in question was hyperbole, and the intention was (a) to lighten things up with a little chuckle, and (b) to demonstrate that he strongly disagrees with people who believe women are inferior.

If you give the author the benefit of the doubt, then I think you'll find him to be a painfully nice person, and he really doesn't deserve your (or anyone else's) anger.