Episode 5 - Ad Boycotts, Anime Waifus, & Stasis Theory Part II

Seated in Action

In the first half of the episode, Ryan and Andrew continue and narrow their conversation from the previous episode about hate speech and dangerous speech; they use an article, written by Susan Benesch, about dangerous speech online in Myanmar. Benesch identifies three primary ways to combat dangerous speech online (targeting advertisers, drowning out dangerous speech with positive messages, and humor); in doing so, they evaluate the merits/disadvantages, ethics, and overall practicality of each methodology. Andrew makes a grave mistake and puts in his two-week notice, which Ryan accepts without hesitation.
In the second half of the episode, your hosts finish off the two-part mini-series on Stasis Theory. The two levels discussed in this episode tackle questions of quality, or questions of value, as well as questions of policy. Andrew offers a recap for the previous episode by talking about the recent debate between Jordan Peterson and Matt Dillahunty; they then pivot back into the issue of climate change in order to demonstrate how to talk about issues of quality or value. They finish up the episode by pivoting to a discussion about gun control policy (smart move? probably not…).
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Links:
Susan Benesch’s article Flower Speech: New Responses to Hatred Online: https://medium.com/internet-monitor-2014-public-discourse/flower-speech-new-responses-to-hatred-online-d98bf67735b7
John R. Edlund’s instructional worksheet for Stasis Theory: https://www.cpp.edu/~class/english-foreign-languages/docs/StasisTheoryIntro.pdf
David Pakman’s interview with Destiny (Steven Bonnell): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUyAn4qe0Jk