Sacred Principles As Exhaustible Resources

A sharp coordination/political-epistemics essay: respect for free speech is a commons. Every time someone invokes free speech to defend the most-offensive person available (Charles Murray, NAMBLA, KKK, Milo), they draw from the commons and make free speech a little less popular among opponents of that idea; trolls who 'retreat to free speech' burn the commons for no reason. The general principle — associating X with Y won't just make X's supporters like Y more, it will make Y's opponents hate X (the Scientists' March Against Trump risk). The nightmare: 'free speech' goes the way of 'family values.' If partisanship has grown stronger than principles, invoking a principle for your tribe is a booby prize that just makes half the population hate a load-bearing social principle.

Quality 73 · Strong. 73 — high Strong. A memorable, generative essay whose 'sacred principles as an exhaustible commons' framing and the 'associating X with Y makes Y's opponents hate X' principle are genuinely durable and oft-cited. Held at high-Strong (not Excellent) because it's short and topical.

Claude’s paradigm shift 57 · Moderate. 57 — Notable. The commons/exhaustible-resource framing of sacred principles + the X-Y association principle is a fresh, generative combination.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. 2 — minor/within-blog. Memetic within rationalist/political discourse; discourse-level, no material reach.