4 ms·

The title of this post and the blog post itself should be "Is hate speech legal in the US?"

by 13415 4y ago

nine_k 4y ago
Because, say, in Germany it's outright illegal. Wikipedia has a helpful summary by country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_by_country
torstenvl 4y ago
This post is on an American website running as a service of an American startup accelerator running out of America's tech hub, running on an American operating system based on a research project at an American university, and links to a post from an American organization concerned with American free speech law and policy. I feel like the applicable context is easily inferred. https://www.thefire.org/about-us/mission https://www.thefire.org/about-us/mission
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- adamredwoods 4y ago
  I call BS on this company: >> Yet, across our nation, this cornerstone of our free society is under serious threat. Far too many of us fear sharing our views or challenging those that seem to dominate. Nearly 6-in-10 Americans believe our nation’s democracy is threatened because people are afraid to voice their opinions. They "fear" voicing opinions because of society's backlash, which IMO, is the true regulator of "free" speech. There is no "free" speech except in one's own head. Anything said, can, and will, have impact with others, as is the nature of communication and society. OTOH, it is government that cannot silence the people, by law. Society can silence others through protest... which itself is protected free speech.
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  Perhaps this is nitpicking around your main point, but ... "running on an American operating system" What operating system? I'd imagine this site is running on Linux, like almost everything else on the Internet, and I struggle to understand how you could define Linux as an American operating system.
  - 0xBDB 4y ago
    Linus Torvalds is a U.S. citizen and Americans (or at least American companies) appear to contribute disproportionately to their population and even national GDP to at least the kernel (I realize the kernel isn't the OS, but I can't think of a better proxy value). https://news.itsfoss.com/huawei-kernel-contribution/ https://news.itsfoss.com/huawei-kernel-contribution/
    - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
      He was certainly not a US citizen when the project started. Not even for the first 20 years of its existence. https://lwn.net/Articles/404729/ https://lwn.net/Articles/404729/
      - 0xBDB 4y ago
        Oh, I know. But we got him now so we get all his prior accomplishments. (I kid, I don't actually think Linux can be reasonably described as American, but I guess that is the argument for it.)
  - torstenvl 4y ago
    It appears to be built on FreeBSD, though I suppose Netcraft could be basing that on a load balancer or something. > The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3), US based, non-profit organization https://freebsdfoundation.org/about-us/about-the-foundation/ https://freebsdfoundation.org/about-us/about-the-foundation/ > It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. https://www.freebsd.org/about/ https://www.freebsd.org/about/

The title of this post and the blog post itself should be "Is hate speech legal in the US?"

by 13415 4y ago

The title of this post and the blog post itself should be "Is hate speech legal in the US?"

Because, say, in Germany it's outright illegal. Wikipedia has a helpful summary by country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_by_country

torstenvl 4y ago

This post is on an American website running as a service of an American startup accelerator running out of America's tech hub, running on an American operating system based on a research project at an American university, and links to a post from an American organization concerned with American free speech law and policy. I feel like the applicable context is easily inferred. https://www.thefire.org/about-us/mission https://www.thefire.org/about-us/mission

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
adamredwoods 4y ago
I call BS on this company: >> Yet, across our nation, this cornerstone of our free society is under serious threat. Far too many of us fear sharing our views or challenging those that seem to dominate. Nearly 6-in-10 Americans believe our nation’s democracy is threatened because people are afraid to voice their opinions. They "fear" voicing opinions because of society's backlash, which IMO, is the true regulator of "free" speech. There is no "free" speech except in one's own head. Anything said, can, and will, have impact with others, as is the nature of communication and society. OTOH, it is government that cannot silence the people, by law. Society can silence others through protest... which itself is protected free speech.
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
Perhaps this is nitpicking around your main point, but ... "running on an American operating system" What operating system? I'd imagine this site is running on Linux, like almost everything else on the Internet, and I struggle to understand how you could define Linux as an American operating system.
- 0xBDB 4y ago
  Linus Torvalds is a U.S. citizen and Americans (or at least American companies) appear to contribute disproportionately to their population and even national GDP to at least the kernel (I realize the kernel isn't the OS, but I can't think of a better proxy value). https://news.itsfoss.com/huawei-kernel-contribution/ https://news.itsfoss.com/huawei-kernel-contribution/
  - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
    He was certainly not a US citizen when the project started. Not even for the first 20 years of its existence. https://lwn.net/Articles/404729/ https://lwn.net/Articles/404729/
    - 0xBDB 4y ago
      Oh, I know. But we got him now so we get all his prior accomplishments. (I kid, I don't actually think Linux can be reasonably described as American, but I guess that is the argument for it.)
- torstenvl 4y ago
  It appears to be built on FreeBSD, though I suppose Netcraft could be basing that on a load balancer or something. > The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3), US based, non-profit organization https://freebsdfoundation.org/about-us/about-the-foundation/ https://freebsdfoundation.org/about-us/about-the-foundation/ > It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley. https://www.freebsd.org/about/ https://www.freebsd.org/about/