• Max_Power@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Free speech is good and must be protected, that’s clear. But it should not be virtually limitless. The US played a major role sorting out the negative consequences of the Weimar republic, which did not contain fascist ideology, which then (edit: among other things ofc) lead to WW2.

    It still baffles my mind how the US cannot see that tolerating the intolerant must inevitably lead to an intolerant and possibly facist society.

    • lasagna@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I have thought about it for a while but the US is basically in a cold civil war, with a significant chance of it becoming hot. And it looks very similar to their previous one. Neither side seem to have a charismatic enough leader.

      It’s easy to look over the pond and think it’s none of our problem. But if the US falls to chaos a lot of other countries will follow suit. We can already see this influence in the UK and I’d argue many other EU countries. Russia probably saw this weakness, bet on it worsening much quicker than it did, but lost that bet (so far).

      With that said, addressing the US as a whole no longer makes sense. I’m sure plenty, plenty of Americans see what is happening.

      It’s unfortunate that one of the wealthiest people on this planet has taken the anti-democratic side, but it’s not the first or the last time in history a powerful man, rich beyond measure has done so.

      • SevFTW@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Very much so, the Bavarian Conservative Party literally has gone to have talks with republicans to use their election strategies, the German-wide AgD has ramped up their Anti-LGBT campaigning and started to use similar messaging to far-right propaganda networks, e.g. “protect our children”, “pedophiles”, photoshopped images of CSAM at pride events, etc.

        • Storksforlegs@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          All the conservative parties in the west seem to be pushing the same thing. It seems pretty co-ordinated which is even scarier. Every country is hearing the same talking points.

          • SevFTW@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            Yep, it’s very clear. Far right parties are growing, conservatives are running after them trying to keep their voters by using more and more populist tactics, often crossing the line to keep up with far-right talking points, since they can’t keep their voters with their status-quo, corporations-first policies that they’ve been pushing for decades.

            • mobyduck648@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              Yeah the Tories in the UK which were once the mainstream right are now sucking deeply on the crack pipe of Republican culture wars because after thirteen years in power it’s all they have left.

              • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                are now sucking deeply on the crack pipe of Republican culture wars

                As are the conservative parties in Canada.

                Until recently the federal conservative party had one of Trump’s co-conspirators listed as someone they had worked with. As so as he was indicted, thwy rapidly and quietly removed any mention of him.

            • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              An international group that advocates for not cooperating across international lines?

              That (hopefully) seems doomed from the outset.

              • liv@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                It does. I think what he really means though is an international group of spin doctors who mobilise nationalist sentiments.

                Probably in service to Disaster Capitalism.

            • Storksforlegs@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              Well its not conspiratorial to say right wing organizations meet and collaborate.

              I think they try and see what works to push their agenda of consolidating power and protection for the rich at any cost.

        • violetsareblue@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Wtf, csam photoshopped in? So gross and evil. How are people not arrested - idk about other places but i thought it is illegal in us to own it at all. So if someone photoshopped it - they should be in jail.

      • Nonameuser678@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        My country (Australia) has tied itself to you guys so if you go down we definitely go down with you. I’m 100% hoping the US doesn’t fall into chaos. We also birthed Rupert Murdoch and he’s played a huge part in heating up this civil war.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Russia probably saw this weakness, bet on it worsening much quicker than it did,

        And helped it along as much as they could get away with.

      • astraeus@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        It’s safe to say Russia and China have actually helped contribute to a lot of the issues in the last decade by holding a lot of soft power online. The US government can’t stop an enemy that blends in with their sovereign users, advertisers, and content creators.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Correction: fake free speech absolutionism of Musk where he gets to decide who gets censored for their opinion is very popular with dumb dumbs.

    • Toribor@corndog.social
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      1 year ago

      Free speech is good and must be protected

      I agree, but Twitter has nothing to do with free speech. Period. It’s not like the government is going around throwing people in prison for being racist fucks on Twitter. Twitter can moderate content if they want to. If they don’t want to moderate content they don’t have to as long as the material isn’t illegal.

      I don’t know why people keep thinking this has anything to do with the first amendment at all. Twitter is not public, not even close.

      • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I agree, but Twitter has nothing to do with free speech.

        Twitter positions itself as the Internet’s public square, and free speech certainly does apply in an old-fashioned offline public square, so yeah, Twitter kinda does have something to do with free speech. Don’t seek power if you don’t want the responsibility it comes with.

        • There’s no such thing as “the internet’s public square”. It is the “X-owned public square”. In an offline public square, the government owns the square, so free speech protections apply. But this “square” is privately owned. There’s an incredibly fundamental difference here.

        • ranandtoldthat@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          That’s not how it works, what you are talking about is often called freeze peach.

          Until Twitter can fine you or lock you up for saying the wrong thing or exercise prior restraint over all your expression, it’s not a free speech issue.

          • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            By positioning itself as the Internet’s public square, Twitter seeks a monopoly over public discourse. If it is successful, then yes, it can exercise prior restraint over virtually all of your expression.

            • TehPers@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              It can succeed in that endeavor the moment I become unemployable. I’m not making an account there, never will, and I will die on this hill.

        • garrett@infosec.pub
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          1 year ago

          I think you’re mostly right but there’s a host of nuance and legalese that muddies this up. Social media is always in a conflicted relationship with speech, wanting to have no culpability over what’s posted while also making decisions over what to feature/restrict/etc. They’re actually really cautious to not position themselves as the “town square” for that reason since it does channel a sort of legal definition of such.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Since it is Musk that manages the “Internet’s public square”, it isn’t a public square at all.

    • wagesj45@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You’re partly right. But it’s the job of the citizenry to stand up to this stuff, not the state. We can’t keep our heads down and hope it goes away on its own. We shouldn’t allow the state, with its monopoly on violence, to fight our social battles for us.

      I dislike the idea of the state getting to start making decisions on what is “hateful”. And I’m disgusted we don’t have more people standing up and loudly declaring how wrong the hateful viewpoints are. It is our responsibility and we are failing.

      It is a tempting proposition to let the state handle hateful speech, but we don’t have to look much further than Florida to see what happens when the shit side is in power and starts redefining what is “hateful”.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        But it’s the job of the citizenry to stand up to this stuff, not the state.

        So what’s the state for?

      • wahming@monyet.cc
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        1 year ago

        ‘Hate’ is vague. ‘Intolerance’ however, is probably legally definable.

      • liv@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        It is a tempting proposition to let the state handle hateful speech, but we don’t have to look much further than Florida to see what happens when the shit side is in power

        You seem to be suggesting that separating hate speech prevention from legislation will protect you from a “tyranny of the majority” situation.

        But if the populace has a bigoted plurality, won’t that also create a tyranny of the majority?

        • wagesj45@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          If the populace has a bigoted plurality, then they get to declare what is officially hateful. So yes, you’re right.

          I put the onus on the collective citizenry, but there is no perfect solution in reality. There is a role for the state to play in protecting people, I just don’t think they should dip much into what speech is or isn’t allowed. The majority should rule in my opinion, but we have the job of maintaining a majority that isn’t regressive bigoted shitheads. It’s an eternal struggle, unfortunately.

          • liv@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            Defamation, intellectual property, stalking/threats, harmful digital communications, false advertising, accurate declarations of food contents, protected names, conspiracy to commit serious crimes: all these forms of speech are regulated by law and the judiciary where I live, so I have no problem with hate speech laws as long as they are clear and reasonable.

            Personally I am in favour of proportionally representative democracy with a lot of checks and balances to enshrine human rights in law, so that if a populace wavers toward the hateful there are still protections for minorities and the non-hateful.

            • wagesj45@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Fair, but the more people you have, with more diverse viewpoints, the harder it will be to get people to agree on what is hateful. And the more nuanced your laws, the harder it will be to agree on what is reasonable or even clear.

              • liv@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                That’s a fair point.

                But we have got people to agree on everything from what is a fair defense against defamation, right through to the percentage of meat a product such as a meat pie has to contain in order for it to be able to be labelled “meat”.

                Democratic consensus is something that gets built up and refined over time. We don’t try to invent it all in a single day.

    • bedrooms@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      AFAIU this is a result of the wording in the US constitution. The freedom of speech in the US has a stronger legal implication than in other countries, even stronger than western democracies like the UK.

      And, then in the civilian level, as you say, US netizens tend to write “you are entitled to your opinion” to basically anybody with any horrible belief as if they were government officials.

      • middlemuddle@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        The US has limits on free speech in the name of public health and safety. There’s no assumption of limitless free speech in the US. People who cry “free speech” typically have no understanding of its actual legal definition in the country and just want an excuse to be a bigoted asshole without consequences.

        Twitter, not being part of the government, gets to decide what content they allow and doesn’t need to worry too much about the legal definition of free speech. But, despite Musk’s claims, Twitter is not actually a space of limitless free speech. They’ve taken plenty of actions since he took over that limit the speech of individuals he disagrees with. Twitter is just interesting in giving a platform to hate. There’s certainly money to be made in monetizing hate (see Trump), but hopefully it doesn’t work out well in the end for Twitter or Musk.

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          People who argue against free speech always do so on legal grounds. Nobody seems to want to attack free speech as an ethical concept.

          • TehPers@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            I think it depends on how you define free speech. There are plenty of people arguing against unrestricted free speech on this particular instance, and it’s a core value of the instance (intolerance of the intolerant).

            On the contrary, people who argue for unrestricted free speech always seem to do so on legal grounds, constantly quoting the first amendment as though it applies to private platforms or to people outside the US.