For me, the important distinction between the salmon thing and the Mohammad thing is that getting zapped when you see a picture of a salmon is a reaction that doesn’t go away through exposure. It can’t be desensitized. Drawing Mohammad, or really any form of trolling, eventually gets savvy people to change the way they react.
That’s not to say that trolling is necessarily good, but it is functionally different than what’s happening with the salmon. See this article by Clay Shirky.
Actually, Yvain didn’t say. Maybe Brits can overcome their salmon reactions through a course of cognitive therapy, or exposure therapy. The scenario is under-described. That’s why Yvain’s first bullet point is wrong about “choice”: it uses a backward-looking notion, where a forward-looking one is wanted.
For me, the important distinction between the salmon thing and the Mohammad thing is that getting zapped when you see a picture of a salmon is a reaction that doesn’t go away through exposure. It can’t be desensitized. Drawing Mohammad, or really any form of trolling, eventually gets savvy people to change the way they react.
That’s not to say that trolling is necessarily good, but it is functionally different than what’s happening with the salmon. See this article by Clay Shirky.
Actually, Yvain didn’t say. Maybe Brits can overcome their salmon reactions through a course of cognitive therapy, or exposure therapy. The scenario is under-described. That’s why Yvain’s first bullet point is wrong about “choice”: it uses a backward-looking notion, where a forward-looking one is wanted.