4 ms·

It hurts my brain when people describe censorship as "liberalism". Especially fellow Brits.

chippy 10y ago
Agreed. It's not Liberalism at all - if anything, from the article, thinking about this on a global scale - it's a cross between a Silicon Valley tech mindset, American puritanism, and the current flavour of rich, white, university educated politically correct behaviour. In short it means an odd mixture of whats allowed and not which the article talks about, but it's nothing to do with liberalism. edits: I think it's cultural privilege. Americans have the privilege as being the most powerful western culture and literally cannot see others that with less power should have some of that influence.
- tehwalrus 10y ago
  Sorry, I can't allow the context to make it seem as if I approve of being deliberately thoughtless. I generally try hard myself not to be incorrect (politically) since it would break one of Bill and Ted's two commandments. I just dislike it when Liberalism, which I believe in whole-heartedly pretty much exactly as I think Mill intended, is dragged into this debate about censorship, when it was about what should be illegal not what was moral or immoral. (Indeed, it is a way for people who disagree with each other about what is immoral to live in the same country under the same law and feel safe.)
rhino369 10y ago
Censorship often comes from different sides of the political spectrum. In the USA, sexual censorship comes from mostly the right, but increasing from the left as well--exploiting women, perpetuating rape culture, etc. Violence censorship often comes from the left. Democrats used to lead the way on banning violent video games, etc. "Hate speech" censorship comes from the left too. Whoever is in power tends to seek to bad seditious speech. And the right usually wants to censor blasphemous speech. It's a mixed bag.
- tehwalrus 10y ago
  See, Liberalism is nothing to do with left and right, which is economics. The "left" (i.e. centre-right) in the USA are not Liberals by British or European standards (which are different), although they are often referred to as such. You may have already seen the political compass[1], which shows a 2D view of political theory (which is still too small a dimensionality, but illustrates the point about considering more than just left/right.) In the UK, Liberal Democrats are often advocates of the political compass approach, as a defence against the stereotype that we "sit on the fence" between the two largest parties. [1] https://www.politicalcompass.org/ https://www.politicalcompass.org/

Agreed. It's not Liberalism at all - if anything, from the article, thinking about this on a global scale - it's a cross between a Silicon Valley tech mindset, American puritanism, and the current flavour of rich, white, university educated politically correct behaviour. In short it means an odd mixture of whats allowed and not which the article talks about, but it's nothing to do with liberalism. edits: I think it's cultural privilege. Americans have the privilege as being the most powerful western culture and literally cannot see others that with less power should have some of that influence.

tehwalrus 10y ago
Sorry, I can't allow the context to make it seem as if I approve of being deliberately thoughtless. I generally try hard myself not to be incorrect (politically) since it would break one of Bill and Ted's two commandments. I just dislike it when Liberalism, which I believe in whole-heartedly pretty much exactly as I think Mill intended, is dragged into this debate about censorship, when it was about what should be illegal not what was moral or immoral. (Indeed, it is a way for people who disagree with each other about what is immoral to live in the same country under the same law and feel safe.)

rhino369 10y ago

Censorship often comes from different sides of the political spectrum. In the USA, sexual censorship comes from mostly the right, but increasing from the left as well--exploiting women, perpetuating rape culture, etc. Violence censorship often comes from the left. Democrats used to lead the way on banning violent video games, etc. "Hate speech" censorship comes from the left too. Whoever is in power tends to seek to bad seditious speech. And the right usually wants to censor blasphemous speech. It's a mixed bag.

tehwalrus 10y ago
See, Liberalism is nothing to do with left and right, which is economics. The "left" (i.e. centre-right) in the USA are not Liberals by British or European standards (which are different), although they are often referred to as such. You may have already seen the political compass[1], which shows a 2D view of political theory (which is still too small a dimensionality, but illustrates the point about considering more than just left/right.) In the UK, Liberal Democrats are often advocates of the political compass approach, as a defence against the stereotype that we "sit on the fence" between the two largest parties. [1] https://www.politicalcompass.org/ https://www.politicalcompass.org/