One of the things that my Mom taught me is that when we disagree on things, we can agree to disagree and not fight each other.
And that is why I am throwing my wholehearted support behind Shadiversity, the Youtube author-director-personality.
Five years ago Shadiversity posted a video opposing censorship.
It is not the opposing of censorship that I disagree with.
Shadiversity opposed Patreon's censoring of another Youtube personality.
Right now, the identity of that other Youtube personality is beside the point.
What is important is that this other Youtube personality is known for posting content that some people find toxic.
I do not wish to watch this other Youtube personality to get enough evidence to judge for myself.
But I will say this: Shadiversity is taking a stand against censorship.
Patreon is a very important service that there is, as far as I know, no viable alternative to, and that gives Patreon a great responsability far beyond what a service like Patreon would normally have.
If you are the only option for content creators to make a living, you have a responsability to make that serice available to everyone.
Which means that before someone is blacklisted, they should be demonstrated in something analogous to a court of law to be causing, and I will quote the law here on free speech, Measurable Harm.
We can, and should, agree to disagree with this wayward other Youtube personality in order to oppose censorship.
Which is why I will certainly continue to support Shadiversity.
Even if I disagreed with Shadiversity, I would agree to disagree, and enjoy his typical content, which is entirely nonpolitical.
The fact is, that I do agree with him.
We can agree to disagree with the views of this other Youtube personality, and still agree to oppose censorship
Certainly this issue deserves more careful thought than, let's simply oppose Shadiversity, whose typical content has nothing to do with this.
And so this is David S. Annderson throwing his support behind Shadiversity.
I disagree with the political views of some of the people you name-checked in the video (Jordan Peterson), but this too is where I can agree to disagree.
I have close friends who voted for Trump. That has not stopped us from being friends. We can agree to disagree. I certainly consider Trump far worse than Jordan Peterson probably is.
I would be the one who suffers if I refused to be a friend or fan of someone who votes different from me.
I support you on censorship, and I am still a huge fan too of your typical content.
I do not hate Patreon, and this is why.
It's one thing to hold Patreon to a high standard of responsability because there is no other alternative.
It is another to expect Patreon to know what to do with that responsability, where there is no good, clear precedent in our society for them to follow.
And that's where people like me and Shadiversity come in.
People like me and Shadiversity can be the ones to figure out what people like Patreon need to do to be responsible.
And I support Shadiversity on censorship.
Let's agree to disagree rather than censor, and agree to oppose censorship, unless it causes measurable harm
And agree that someone whose speech or content causes measurable harm still deserves a fair trial.
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
(In case you are wondering, his typical content is history videos, on the high middle ages, not that different from my own histories. If you love history, look him up!)
(His content is nonpolitical. The video opposing censorship is the only time I have heard even the slightest hint of anything political from him.)