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> You can handwave all you like about the (vague, unspecified) horrible cost. There is a place on Earth where opinions deemed to be bad are vigilantly monitore

> You can handwave all you like about the (vague, unspecified) horrible cost. There is a place on Earth where opinions deemed to be bad are vigilantly monitored for and instantly deplatformed: The People's Republic of China. Is that truly the future you wish for? Reading these posts from the modern left is ghastly to those of us who remain old school liberals. To defeat their opponents and prevent them from crushing the human rights of innocents, the modern left has become willing themselves to crush various other human rights that they deem unimportant. Thus we see Nietzsche spake truly: "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

wpietri 7y ago
Sure, and I agree the government shouldn't have that power. Duh. I'm just saying that free citizens should not be obligated to serve Nazis or publish their content. And also that citizens should be able to criticize those who do. My position here is consistently pro-freedom. Specifically, I'm for free speech and free association. Note also that actual Chinese people think your position, that criticism is equivalent to what the PRC does, is hyperbolic pants-wetting: https://twitter.com/jackiehluo/status/1134038887893016577 https://twitter.com/jackiehluo/status/1134038887893016577
- ThrowawayR2 7y ago
  > I'm just saying that free citizens should not be obligated to serve Nazis or publish their content. ... Specifically, I'm for free speech and free association. The analogy with Nietzsche's quote gets even closer. Much the same pious rhetoric about free association was once used by your opponents to defend their denial of service to various racial and religious groups. It took years of activism to get legislation that recognized that freedom of association had to be limited to stop discrimination against protected classes. Consider that California has recently enacted legislation that recognizes political affiliation as a protected class in the workplace; that is the spirit and philosophy of liberalism. And, for the record, no, no one should want to provide service to Nazis or other hate groups. But once denying services to groups becomes normalized as a political weapon, we are pretty much guaranteed that it will eventually be misused. > ...that criticism is equivalent to what the PRC does, is hyperbolic pants-wetting I note that you have deftly slipped in the word "criticism" here when the topic was deplatforming. Criticism is, of course, not equivalent to what the PRC does but deplatforming most assuredly is.

wpietri 7y ago

Sure, and I agree the government shouldn't have that power. Duh. I'm just saying that free citizens should not be obligated to serve Nazis or publish their content. And also that citizens should be able to criticize those who do. My position here is consistently pro-freedom. Specifically, I'm for free speech and free association. Note also that actual Chinese people think your position, that criticism is equivalent to what the PRC does, is hyperbolic pants-wetting: https://twitter.com/jackiehluo/status/1134038887893016577 https://twitter.com/jackiehluo/status/1134038887893016577

ThrowawayR2 7y ago
> I'm just saying that free citizens should not be obligated to serve Nazis or publish their content. ... Specifically, I'm for free speech and free association. The analogy with Nietzsche's quote gets even closer. Much the same pious rhetoric about free association was once used by your opponents to defend their denial of service to various racial and religious groups. It took years of activism to get legislation that recognized that freedom of association had to be limited to stop discrimination against protected classes. Consider that California has recently enacted legislation that recognizes political affiliation as a protected class in the workplace; that is the spirit and philosophy of liberalism. And, for the record, no, no one should want to provide service to Nazis or other hate groups. But once denying services to groups becomes normalized as a political weapon, we are pretty much guaranteed that it will eventually be misused. > ...that criticism is equivalent to what the PRC does, is hyperbolic pants-wetting I note that you have deftly slipped in the word "criticism" here when the topic was deplatforming. Criticism is, of course, not equivalent to what the PRC does but deplatforming most assuredly is.