6 ms·
The promise of the internet was that it would be free and open to all ideas, thoughts and discussions. The hope was that it would raise the rest of the world to
by eighthnate 9y ago
The promise of the internet was that it would be free and open to all ideas, thoughts and discussions. The hope was that it would raise the rest of the world to american ideals of liberty, free speech and right to assembly. Instead, we are dropping ourselves to the lowest common denominator. Rather than the outside world bettering themselves with free speech, we are instead lowering ourselves to the anti-free speech levels of germany, china, saudi arabia and russia.
We are to stifle free speech because of "human dignity"? That's what dictators say. That's what extremists say. Theo Van Gogh was stabbed to death over a short film that insulted the "dignity" of muslims. North koreans kidnap or kill people because their "dignity" is insulted. Following that logic, aren't neo-nazis human? Don't they deserve "dignity"?
It isn't facebook that needs fixing. It is germany. What germans, chinese, saudis, russians, the extreme liberals and those who are anti-free speech don't understand that free speech is a necessary component of human dignity. You can't have human dignity without it. It is an essential characteristic of human dignity.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- b0rsuk 9y agoUnfortunately, it's also open to corporations. It's free exchange of ideas and human communication without borders... but also centralization without borders. A shop can be only in one place at once, so even a very big and optimized supermarket won't reach everywhere. Smaller shops can survive somewhere. I may be ignorant about both networking and logistics, but apparently Internet lets one deliver a whole supermarket to the most remote corners of the world. And once you're the only game in town, you can set your rules.
- camillomiller 9y ago>Following that logic, aren't neo-nazis human? Don't they deserve "dignity"? Banning them from insulting other people’s dignity and threatening their safety is not diminishing of their dignity.
- eighthnate 9y agoSure it does. Depriving people of speech is diminishing their dignity. Even better, depriving people of reading books they want or even wearing clothing they want is diminishing their dignity. > Banning them from insulting other people’s dignity So you support banning anti-nazi speech right? All the speech attacking and insulting nazis should be banned right? Because it's wrong to insult people right?
- camillomiller 9y agoI believe in the German principle of a proactive defense of democracy. There's only one option to be used against neo-nazis, and it is to silence them. No, they won't grow bigger because of that. You would certainly think this is anti-democratic and paradoxical. Well, it's not, because I'm defending democracy from the people that would destroy it, so in the end, I don't fucking care: they deserve no right to spew the kind of hatred they spew. We have a duty to stop them, because they're dangerous to society. And fucking NO, you can't extend this line of reasoning to other forms of contrarian speech, so don't even start. It's true only for neo-nazis. That's it. tl;dr: I'm sick of neo-nazis.
- nostromo123 9y ago>> And fucking NO, you can't extend this line of reasoning to other forms of contrarian speech, so don't even start. It's true only for neo-nazis. That's it. Yes, you can -- antifa is just as dangerous as neo-nazis, and they have to be stopped. Period.
- liberal_098 9y ago> It isn't facebook that needs fixing. It is germany. Definitely, Facebook, Google and other monopolies are the main obstacle to free speech. First of all because of their strong restrictions of the kind of ideas that can be expressed. Of course, it is not about a single post about my dog - it is about activities which can significantly influence what is important for various powers and hence for these corps themselves. But probably Facebook, Google etc. cannot be fixed without fixing the US because there is an opinion that it is one and the same...
- andreaferretti 9y agoApparently, according to all the discussion following James Damore being fired, even USA have problems accepting the ideal of free speech fully. I am not sure that Germany is any more illiberal in this respect