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People who cheer when "right wing" misinformation is censored, should think very carefully about what just happened here. And why, for 200 years, free speech a
by zpeti 6y ago
People who cheer when "right wing" misinformation is censored, should think very carefully about what just happened here.
And why, for 200 years, free speech and anti-censorship has been extremely important to Americans. There's a reason the ACLU defended nazis being able to protest. Because eventually censorship will ALWAYS be turned on your side. Whichever side you are on.
- bzb6 6y agoThey made their bed and now they are lying on it.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y agoThe availability and ease of distribution of "fringe" content is a 100 times higher today than it ever was in those 200 years you're glorifying.
- jakelazaroff 6y agoYou're phrasing this as though censorship of leftism were a hypothetical, when in fact it's been happening for over a century. Read about the Red Scare (both the well-known one in the 1950s and the lesser-known one after World War I) [1] and COINTELPRO [2] for a start. There's even an example in the thread: the DHS confronted the person about "anti-American sentiment" for posting a video about police brutality. Continuing a proud tradition of censorship and propaganda — of the people, by the people, for the people. You'll forgive me for questioning whether Americans really care about free speech and anti-censorship. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
- Natsu 6y agoYou'd do better with examples that aren't from the 1950s. And #2 was run by Deep Throat (Mike Felt) himself.
- Synaesthesia 6y agoCointelpro ran into the 70's. Also you should read some Chomsky. Lots of examples of thought control.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y agoA mixed-race or same-sex couple on TV? A quarterback mentioning racism? The first has only become commonly accepted in the last decade or so. The latter is even more recent.
- jakelazaroff 6y agoWell, there’s the example from the Twitter thread. But the point is that anti-leftist censorship and propaganda have been happening for a loooooong time.
- Clubber 6y ago>You'll forgive me for questioning whether Americans really care about free speech and anti-censorship. I'd venture to say nobody complaining on this thread will do anything about it other than complain on this thread. No calls to representatives, no nothing. Complaining doesn't get you anywhere. Awareness by itself is useless.
- jedimastert 6y agoOne check-and-balance that people seem to have forgotten about recently is "what happens when your political opposition wields the power you want to create?"
- vxNsr 6y agoWhich is fascinating because for the last four years they haven’t been in power and at the same time that they’ve been calling for more central control they’ve been bemoaning how terrible the current executive is, and how bad it is that he’s doing all these things and someone has to stop him. Without a single hint of irony that they want to hand the office more power and control.
- happytoexplain 6y agoYou're being pretty presumptuous. I support the majority of cases of banning misinformation that become controversial on HN, and agree that they're often "right wing", but I don't feel my ideology or politics attacked here at all. Not everything is a black and white data point in a culture war.