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Your history lesson is a little flawed though. The right wasn’t unable to speak their minds in Germany, in fact they spent a good decade talking their hate, bef

Your history lesson is a little flawed though. The right wasn’t unable to speak their minds in Germany, in fact they spent a good decade talking their hate, before they started using violence. It wasn’t until after the war Germany started to censor things, and today they’re arguable leading the free world in terms of liberal values. The political views on individual rights and freedoms in modern Germany are a lot more similar to the American revolutionaries than those of modern day America after all. I think ISIS makes such a good example because it brings out the flaws of the anti-censorship arguments. Almost no one is opposed to censorship as long as it’s for something they turly disagree with, and it’s really hard to defend ISIS in any level. You’ll find some anarchists who want nothing to be censored, but you’ll find very few advocates of places like GAP that also defend the rights of ISIS, even though the rhetoric against entire religious groups like Jews is actually a lot worse on GAP than they are on ISIS twitter. Don’t get me wrong, im not advocating for censorship, I just think the difference in opinion within the US is weird. I mean, how can you both want censorship for your opponents while simultaneously wanting complete freedom of expression for your own views?

DanielBMarkham 8y ago
It's editorial license. Yes, we must paint with a broad brush in order to get comments under three thousand words. The allies made sure there were restrictions in Germany on what could be said and how political parties could act, just like we did in Japan. In fact our response was quite kind in comparison to the measures the Soviets took. We didn't want to have to come back and fight yet another European war. I believe we succeeded in that goal, perhaps with outcomes we did not anticipate. I do not want censorship based on the content of ideas, and I'd argue -- strongly -- that other folks educated in the American tradition do not as well. We used to have plenty of civil liberties organizations, such as the ACLU, that would also strongly argue these points. You might recall that John Adams (the president) first gained notoriety by defending British soldiers accused of killing Colonists. We take these things seriously. There's a long, long line of historical and literary works that support this view. I think what's happened, if anything, is the private, living-room idle chat of the emotionally-disturbed becomes instantaneously published world-wide for others to consume. And I'm not talking Nazis or ISIS here, I'm talking people who are shocked and angry about the things some of these people do. These folks, who constitute a greater threat to the Republic than a few terrorists ever did, are looking for solutions. Any solution. And they're willing to entertain drastic measures. You read this from overseas and suddenly we want censorship for our opponents. We do not. That's not saying that a lot of people won't say otherwise online, especially after something like this has happened. People say stuff online. With hundreds of millions of people, they say a lot of things. Cherry-picking is a bad habit to get into if you value introspection. Nobody wants censorship. Those who do should not be holding public office, as it is impossible to hold such a belief and simultaneously protect and defend the Constitution. Look, we've tried. Oh boy, we've made this mistake as well. The Sedition Act of both 1798 and 1918, for instance. These are laws we are not proud of. In fact, they almost started a second Revolution. But looking at the pattern overall, we're not those people. Hopefully we're not becoming them again either. Those were dark times.

DanielBMarkham 8y ago

It's editorial license. Yes, we must paint with a broad brush in order to get comments under three thousand words. The allies made sure there were restrictions in Germany on what could be said and how political parties could act, just like we did in Japan. In fact our response was quite kind in comparison to the measures the Soviets took. We didn't want to have to come back and fight yet another European war. I believe we succeeded in that goal, perhaps with outcomes we did not anticipate. I do not want censorship based on the content of ideas, and I'd argue -- strongly -- that other folks educated in the American tradition do not as well. We used to have plenty of civil liberties organizations, such as the ACLU, that would also strongly argue these points. You might recall that John Adams (the president) first gained notoriety by defending British soldiers accused of killing Colonists. We take these things seriously. There's a long, long line of historical and literary works that support this view. I think what's happened, if anything, is the private, living-room idle chat of the emotionally-disturbed becomes instantaneously published world-wide for others to consume. And I'm not talking Nazis or ISIS here, I'm talking people who are shocked and angry about the things some of these people do. These folks, who constitute a greater threat to the Republic than a few terrorists ever did, are looking for solutions. Any solution. And they're willing to entertain drastic measures. You read this from overseas and suddenly we want censorship for our opponents. We do not. That's not saying that a lot of people won't say otherwise online, especially after something like this has happened. People say stuff online. With hundreds of millions of people, they say a lot of things. Cherry-picking is a bad habit to get into if you value introspection. Nobody wants censorship. Those who do should not be holding public office, as it is impossible to hold such a belief and simultaneously protect and defend the Constitution. Look, we've tried. Oh boy, we've made this mistake as well. The Sedition Act of both 1798 and 1918, for instance. These are laws we are not proud of. In fact, they almost started a second Revolution. But looking at the pattern overall, we're not those people. Hopefully we're not becoming them again either. Those were dark times.