today is a good day to note: I love America and I love its exceptional free speech norms, enshrined in law and protected by its people and culture. the ability to say true and unpleasant or destabilizing things is not a right most people (even in the Western world!) enjoy this extends beyond merely what the first amendment and related doctrine legally protects to the nurture and support of the entire American culture. this culture allowed for the creation of the free-spirited Internet forums that birthed so much of modern thinking on artificial intelligence. wherever are the sacred cows, the free internet is able to poke and prod them, for better and for worse the actual realized pdoom of our culture is much lower due to our ability to freely discuss things as off-putting and nasty as the chances of human extinction. even when powerful interests find this inconvenient, the discourse does not stop happening -in public, in excruciating detail, without needing anyone's blessing. companies allow or encourage this to a surprising degree, at least in part because they know the cultural immune reaction will be strong if surprising levels of free speech norms are not upheld, as seen in recent history I know many of you are sick of “discourse”, having bathed in its sludge, its many pathologies, its propagandists bigots and sycophants, but the planet would be in much worse shape if all of this technological development was happening in cultures or countries where free discourse was stifled. this norm survives only because all of us keep choosing to encourage it and enforce it even when it's costly