5 ms·
The "private company" argument, while fully and technically correct, is such a ridiculous canard to trot out at a time when we slide rapidly into public-private
by caeril 6y ago
The "private company" argument, while fully and technically correct, is such a ridiculous canard to trot out at a time when we slide rapidly into public-private authoritarianism.
Someone (probably), in 1934 Hacker News: "BASF, Deutsche Bank, Hugo Boss, Bayer, BMW, and Siemens are private merchants. They can choose what to sell, and to whom. Maybe this presents a survival problem for the Jews, we don't know."
I guess it's ok since the public-private authoritarianism and book-burning is left-leaning this time?
- api 6y agoConservatives wouldn't complain if private companies were censoring and cancelling left-leaning content. They'd be out there defending private property rights and corporate freedom to act. It's transparently political. BTW: I don't think canceling left-leaning stuff is far fetched. If you think we have cancel culture now, wait until we have a serious "rebooted" labor movement in this country that starts getting traction. The gloves will come off.
- readflaggedcomm 6y agoBill Maher made this point, that Republicans have lately tried to appropriate "cancel culture" for being correctly rebuked, while what happens to people with his views is insane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmXTUSP9a9M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmXTUSP9a9M Edit: Am I incorrect?
- unityByFreedom 6y agoI always go into Maher from these recommendations thinking maybe I'll like his point here. Then halfway through I realize I've been duped again. In this case he laments republicans appropriating the term cancel culture, which he insists is a big deal for other reasons. Then at 4:15 he laughs while sarcastically saying "it's always okay when Trump's the nazi" and I'm like, oh okay. I remember how you like to draw people farther to the right while appearing as if you're anti-alt-right.
- readflaggedcomm 6y agoI think Maher is what the GP commenter would refer to as "transparently political" if he were on another side.
- unityByFreedom 6y agoYes of course the show is politically biased I just think his supposed thesis does not match the conclusions he draws. It is misleading that he presents himself as a centrist while laughing at those who would criticize the alt right. Perhaps his thing is he just wants to criticize everyone and get away with it and if that's the case then I don't get what he stands for. Might be how I feel about conservatism in general which increasingly seems to be just anti-everything that would impose rules on the wealthy.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tired-dev 6y agoOne might even point out that this is an example of karma, as conservatives fighting for the right to deny service for bigoted reasons (gay wedding cakes, anyone?) have put the law squarely on the side of companies that no longer want to carry even vaguely racist material.
- gwright 6y ago> Conservatives wouldn't complain if private companies were censoring and cancelling left-leaning content. They'd be out there defending private property rights and corporate freedom to act. It's transparently political. I think you are confusing two very different things. Criticizing Ebay for banning particular books, or AWS for dropping Parlor, or Twitter for banning various conservatives is not in contradiction with the libertarian/conservative idea that private entities should have the freedom to manage their business as they see fit. Arguing for limited government oversight/power in these situations is orthogonal to criticizing the decisions on their own merits.
- unityByFreedom 6y agoIt's not in contradiction provided you don't encourage people to storm government buildings on the basis of private entities making their own choices. Which did happen.
- gwright 6y agoWhat are you getting at? This comment seems to be unrelated to anything I'm saying even if I could understand it. And for what it is worth the capitol rioters have been widely condemned by libertarians and conservatives.
- unityByFreedom 6y agoSimply that Don Jr criticizing Dr Seuss or eBay for canning books is contradictory to lib/con views on free speech when his base uses such arguments to violently rebel against the government.
- bjourne 6y agoLeft-leaning stuff has been cancelled for ages. Try organizing a union in your workplace and see how quickly you'll get cancelled.
- unityByFreedom 6y ago> The "private company" argument, while fully and technically correct, is such a ridiculous canard to trot out at a time when we slide rapidly into public-private authoritarianism So make a company yourself that specializes in trading items banned from other shops. It wouldn't be the first and it's completely legal. I bet someone is already capitalizing on the outrage over this news. I don't know how exactly and I don't mean the media. About the companies you list, we study them to look at the rise of Hitler, and we have put anti-discrimination laws in place to hopefully stop someone from abusing their positions like that again. This isn't the state entering your home and burning books. Wrong hill.
- lenkite 6y agoHow will you make your business when your banks are cancelling you ?
- unityByFreedom 6y agoIf you make a website selling used Seuss books and your bank cancels you I'll support you. If you make a social media site that organizes domestic terror and your bank cancels you then that's your problem.
- lenkite 6y ago"If you make a social media site that organises domestic terror" You do realise that most of the organisation of the "domestic terror" was done on Facebook right ?
- zo1 6y agoHow about making a website selling banned, unpopular or borderline racist literature? And then payment providers cancel services to it. Can I then take orders using cash via letters? Seems like it can work. Hopefully the post office, Fedex and UPS and other mail carriers don't notice and cancel it for some obscure money-laundering law/regulation about mailing money! Must I maybe resort to selling that literature on the street corner, back alley maybe?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Aunche 6y agoI don't consider internet company cancellation authoritarian because they're just following the will of the market. It's a symptom, not the cause. If it were solely up to Ebay execs, they would rather people not be overly sensitive because they can make more money that way. The same is true for content platforms like Reddit or Facebook. They were pro-free speech until they started to get bad publicity from it.
- tester34 6y agoBut market doesn't care about this, it's just some tiny group of insanely vocal people
- Aunche 6y agoThe insanely vocal people will twist the narrative to convince the regular people to go on a morale crusade. The Youtube adpocalypse started because a journalist kept watching Isis videos before they got removed, until they found one with a Coca cola ad.