XKCD and the erosion of enlightenment culture

published Jan 10, 2021

Sometimes, cartoonists are the first to let us recognize important realities.

XKCD and the erosion of enlightenment culture

This is the worst comic XKCD has published:

We shouldn't be angry at Randall Munroe for publishing it, however.  We should be thankful.  The comic in question signaled two very important facts about our current times:

  • People no longer understand that the point of free speech is to allow people to communicate ideas others don't want communicated.
  • People confuse a small cadre of powerful people — say, a corporation like Twitter — censoring someone, with the general public disliking that someone, or what that someone has to say.

This state of affairs is a severe degeneration of Western culture and values in action.

Randall merely let us know that had happened already, and he himself had become part of those degenerates.