3 ms·
Yes, the last 10 years have been worse for free speech
- typeofhuman 3y ago[flagged]
- mattzito 3y agoI conceptually agree with some of the grievances discussed here, but I also object to the framing. It’s easy to point out 2x more college professors have been fired in recent years compared to the second red scare - but they neglect to point out that the number of college students has increased more than 7x since the McCarthy hearings. I couldn’t find exact numbers on professors for the same time period, but even if we assume class size per professor had doubled or tripled in that time, it more than explains the difference. Similarly, social media is an incredible force for amplifying views, one that did not exist during the second red scare. It seems odd to index on that comparison when so much is different then vs now.
- MikeOfAu 3y agoSadly, a substantial part of the left has become illiberal. But, thankfully, the purity spirals have recently stopped spinning as aggressively.
- shiroiuma 3y agoLeftists are not liberal; the two are diametrically opposed to each other. (Right-wingers are similarly opposed to liberals, just in a different way.) Liberalism favors democracy, rule of law, freedom of things like speech, free trade, free-market economics to various extents, etc. Leftists oppose much of this. If you want to see what leftists support, just read about the history of the Soviet Union. (And if you want to see what the right-wingers support, read about the history of Nazi Germany.)
- portaouflop 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- port914 3y agoYes, fully agree. Even ycombinator limits free speech, shadow bans people and blocks the, entirely if they don’t agree with them.
- dang 3y agoWe don't ban anyone nor moderate HN based on agreeing or disagreeing with someone. We moderate based on trying, to the extent possible, to preserve the site according to these principles: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. People are welcome to disagree about particular calls, i.e. whether X broke the rules or not, or how badly–but that's a different question than what the rules are.