😁 This is a big topic, so let's start with a few clarifications. Because "free speech" has become a very broad church in recent years.
The likes of Donald Trump being banned from Twitter is not a free speech issue. I fully support his ban and actually wish it had come sooner. Private companie…
😁 This is a big topic, so let's start with a few clarifications. Because "free speech" has become a very broad church in recent years.
The likes of Donald Trump being banned from Twitter is not a free speech issue. I fully support his ban and actually wish it had come sooner. Private companies get to set their own rules on speech. This is a huge and nuanced issue in its own right, but I'll leave it at that.
Hate speech laws have a place, though I'd limit them strictly to incitement to physical harm. No special mean words, no hurt feelings, no liability for misgendering somebody or using the n-word. If you aren't saying something that could lead directly to physical harm, I support your right to say it (if you experience physical harm for saying the n-word, say, that's on you).
I don't support lying, the problem is the very concept of a lie itself. How do we verify what is and isn't a lie? Just as a recent example, for quite a long time, the whole Hunter Biden laptop scandal was deemed a lie. A diversionary tactic cooked up by "the Right." Yet it turns out it was true. How do we square that circle? And what would happen if that "lie" had been suppressed so thoroughly that the truth was never revealed?
Free speech absolutism absolutely means that you will have to deal with bad ideas and bad-faith actors. I truly hate this fact. But it's the price of this very important principle. I simply don't see a good way to do better. Letting people say whatever they want, safe in the knowledge that they won't go to jail, is the baseline for a functioning society.
Every deviation from this principle, however well intentioned, leads to some degree of censorship. And as we're seeing in Russia at the moment (and North Korea and China) the consequences can be catastrophic.
Yeah, the issue for me was the stolen election claims after the votes had been counted. The regular stupidity is one thing, but I think it was clear for a long time that was going to lead to real problems.
"(Slamming on brakes and nearly overturning)"
😁 This is a big topic, so let's start with a few clarifications. Because "free speech" has become a very broad church in recent years.
The likes of Donald Trump being banned from Twitter is not a free speech issue. I fully support his ban and actually wish it had come sooner. Private companies get to set their own rules on speech. This is a huge and nuanced issue in its own right, but I'll leave it at that.
Hate speech laws have a place, though I'd limit them strictly to incitement to physical harm. No special mean words, no hurt feelings, no liability for misgendering somebody or using the n-word. If you aren't saying something that could lead directly to physical harm, I support your right to say it (if you experience physical harm for saying the n-word, say, that's on you).
I don't support lying, the problem is the very concept of a lie itself. How do we verify what is and isn't a lie? Just as a recent example, for quite a long time, the whole Hunter Biden laptop scandal was deemed a lie. A diversionary tactic cooked up by "the Right." Yet it turns out it was true. How do we square that circle? And what would happen if that "lie" had been suppressed so thoroughly that the truth was never revealed?
Free speech absolutism absolutely means that you will have to deal with bad ideas and bad-faith actors. I truly hate this fact. But it's the price of this very important principle. I simply don't see a good way to do better. Letting people say whatever they want, safe in the knowledge that they won't go to jail, is the baseline for a functioning society.
Every deviation from this principle, however well intentioned, leads to some degree of censorship. And as we're seeing in Russia at the moment (and North Korea and China) the consequences can be catastrophic.
"I fully support his ban and actually wish it had come sooner."
Since Trump's tweet storms made him his own worst enemy, shutting him down sooner would have been doing him a favor.
Yeah, the issue for me was the stolen election claims after the votes had been counted. The regular stupidity is one thing, but I think it was clear for a long time that was going to lead to real problems.