4 ms·

No, that's just the American answer.

adventured 7y ago
Yes and fortunately we're not relying on eg the European answer, given the miserable condition of free speech across Europe today. Arrested for common insults on Twitter in Britain, and buried under the boot of dictatorship in Belarus or Russia. The US was the last great European product of the enlightenment, so it makes perfect sense that the US would be by far the greatest defender of free speech in human history. No other culture or nation has come even remotely close to defending it better. Hopefully in the coming decades the US becomes even more comparatively extreme in defending all forms of speech, including the most vile.
- renaudg 7y ago
  Of all stories you could have used as an opportunity to argue for that absolutist stance on free speech, you're picking the one where it has almost directly caused dozens of needless infant deaths and immense suffering, and that still doesn't seem to make you flinch. The rebuttal writes itself, really. By that impossibly naive logic, I suppose you also support the unconditional right to bear arms in any circumstances, another absolutist stance that's worked out so well for the US and its 1907 victims in 370 mass shootings in 2019 so far. Or Facebook's decision to let politicians lie to people's faces, naively thinking citizens are all intellectually equipped to fact-check for themselves and should bear that responsibility (we can see how this worked out with Trump and Brexit) The widespread support for absurdly extreme stances like these in a nation shouldn't be a source of pride : they aren't the hallmark of an advanced civilisation, but rather that of an immature one that hasn't yet found the right balance. If this is America, then I'll take European wisdom over this any day.
  - tuesdayrain 7y ago
    > 1907 victims in 370 mass shootings in 2019 so far. I'm curious what this statistic would be if it didn't include gang violence.

Yes and fortunately we're not relying on eg the European answer, given the miserable condition of free speech across Europe today. Arrested for common insults on Twitter in Britain, and buried under the boot of dictatorship in Belarus or Russia. The US was the last great European product of the enlightenment, so it makes perfect sense that the US would be by far the greatest defender of free speech in human history. No other culture or nation has come even remotely close to defending it better. Hopefully in the coming decades the US becomes even more comparatively extreme in defending all forms of speech, including the most vile.

renaudg 7y ago
Of all stories you could have used as an opportunity to argue for that absolutist stance on free speech, you're picking the one where it has almost directly caused dozens of needless infant deaths and immense suffering, and that still doesn't seem to make you flinch. The rebuttal writes itself, really. By that impossibly naive logic, I suppose you also support the unconditional right to bear arms in any circumstances, another absolutist stance that's worked out so well for the US and its 1907 victims in 370 mass shootings in 2019 so far. Or Facebook's decision to let politicians lie to people's faces, naively thinking citizens are all intellectually equipped to fact-check for themselves and should bear that responsibility (we can see how this worked out with Trump and Brexit) The widespread support for absurdly extreme stances like these in a nation shouldn't be a source of pride : they aren't the hallmark of an advanced civilisation, but rather that of an immature one that hasn't yet found the right balance. If this is America, then I'll take European wisdom over this any day.
- tuesdayrain 7y ago
  > 1907 victims in 370 mass shootings in 2019 so far. I'm curious what this statistic would be if it didn't include gang violence.