To be clear, what actually happened here is that the "15th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology" invited Stephen Bannon (yes, that one) to be its keynote speaker. I can't seem to find out why; Bannon has absolutely no professional connection with the computer industry in general or "computer entertainment" in particular, aside from the whole "alt-right fomenting gamergate" thing. At any rate, when participants and paper-contributors in the conference learned that Bannon was invited to keynote, they began withdrawing from the conference en masse, so many of them in fact that the entire conference had to be scrapped because there was hardly anyone left to present.
That's the real-world explanation.
There is a different explanation, though, which is posted on the canceled conference's website. That explanation says the cancellation was the fault of a horrid cadre of vicious, rabidly anti-free-speech villains who threatened and bullied all of the contributors into withdrawing their papers via "black email campaigns" and social media posts in which they called Stephen Bannon all manner of vile things (which are helpfully listed in the statement). This is equivalent to nazi book-burning, says the site, and the cancellation of the conference is indeed "a tragic moment in the history of human civilization".
Worry not, though; although the entire rest of the event won't happen, Stephen Bannon's keynote speech still will, at the scheduled time and place:
That's the real-world explanation.
There is a different explanation, though, which is posted on the canceled conference's website. That explanation says the cancellation was the fault of a horrid cadre of vicious, rabidly anti-free-speech villains who threatened and bullied all of the contributors into withdrawing their papers via "black email campaigns" and social media posts in which they called Stephen Bannon all manner of vile things (which are helpfully listed in the statement). This is equivalent to nazi book-burning, says the site, and the cancellation of the conference is indeed "a tragic moment in the history of human civilization".
Worry not, though; although the entire rest of the event won't happen, Stephen Bannon's keynote speech still will, at the scheduled time and place:
Quote:
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However the ACE Committee will not back down to the angry anti-free speech mobsters. Although almost all papers were withdrawn because the mobsters mentally violently bullied the authors with threats and black-emails and social media posts, we will still carry on with our Keynote Speech by Mr. Stephen K. Bannon. We will carry on in an academic free-speech forum and debate with our Keynote Speaker Mr. Bannon in the true sense of the Athenian Forum. We will never let ourselves become “burned” like the Nazi anti-free speech book burning. Our commitment to free speech is mighty and unbreakable, in the spirit of famous free-speech heroes, such as Socrates, Erasmus, John Milton, Voltaire, John Stuart Mill, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Professor Timothy Garton etc. |
via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2Tf9J6t
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