4 ms·
It's trivial to find historical examples of censorship in the US that wouldn't happen today. Here is one example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bertrand_Rus
by foldr 3y ago
It's trivial to find historical examples of censorship in the US that wouldn't happen today. Here is one example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bertrand_Russell_Case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bertrand_Russell_Case
Can you imagine a situation now where CUNY was unable to appoint someone to an academic position because the Catholic church canceled them?
As another example one might mention the vast reduction of censorship in movies. Movies can be shown now that would have been unthinkable in at least the first half of the 20th century.
Granted, there may also be instances of present day censorship that wouldn't have happened historically. But it's naive and completely ahistorical to see any past period as some kind of bastion of free speech absolutism. Believe me, lots of people in your grandparents' generation also wanted to restrict free speech (particularly with regard to e.g. sexually explicit content, or anything that might be vaguely connected with Communism).
- hellojesus 3y agoCan we at least agree on the premise that free speech should be absolute? The parent pointed out that the implementation has never been perfect, but the objective was correct? Conditional upon that, why wouldn't we strive to correct the implementation? The opposite seems to be happening.
- foldr 3y agoWhat’s the point in having a debate on HN about whether or not free speech should be absolute? I doubt there’s anything new to say on the topic.
- hellojesus 3y agoMy comment was in response to your initial response that nitpicked the OP's point that free speech was considered absolute in the past, contrary to the current climate which seems to be trying to do away with it and replace it with white listed speech. The OP was discussing the ideology of free speech, not the implementation. My response was an attempt to bring the topic back to the ideology of whether free speech should be allowed in absoluteness, in contrast to your deviation towards implementation.