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Comment by andyl | Hacker News Reader

Think censorship is over? Express opposition to feminists/muslims/blacks/gays/multiculturism/drugs etc. and watch the fireworks. Neo-puritan morals police are stronger than ever.

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What does "fireworks" mean here? Actual literal censorship, or just people loudly complaining and criticising the expressed sentiment? Because that is the opposite of censorship.

A new form of censorship. Neither the reaction of a private party nor the reaction of a government entity, but a death by a thousand cuts. For example, threats to riot or boycott unless someone is fired. Someone 'internet stalking' you and poisoning all sorts of relationships but not by using any illegal means. Entire groups deciding to make an example out of you by means that, had any one person done all of it would have crossed into illegal actions, but which have been split among a group.

There was no censorship on saying a lot of things the puritans didn't like said, but the consequences of saying them could be your life. Nowadays the consequences for saying what you can't say are merely limited to loss of job and any future career in your field and the only media exposure being to solidify how evil you are. See: https://handleshaus.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/bullied-and-bad...

In 20th century America there was also explicit, legal censorship of stuff that would not be a problem today. People were sent to prison for months or years, but this is rarely talked about. See Eugene Debs, Lenny Bruce, William Baird, etc.

A recent example:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-34...

Overheard three college students at the next table in a restaurant two days ago talking about how free speech is outdated and the Constitution should be changed to limit it so that you can't speak in anyway that was offensive to others.

I was flabbergasted.

These are students who are supposed to be going to school to get exposure to ideas different from their own and learn about the value of freedom of expression especially when it comes to expressing views the majority might not agree with.

I feel like an old man wondering what is wrong with kids today and I'm not that old.

I'm only a half decade out of college and I'm wanting all these whippersnappers off my lawn.

Maybe I'm missing something in this story, but it just seem like a disagreement? Two parties disagreeing about something (like if to mark some particular symbolic day or not) is not censorship.

Losing your job and access to employment opportunities is a very common and very effective form of censorship.

OK that is not really what I would call censorship. Censorship is restricting public access to some expression - not punishing the originator. Even if it might be just as bad for the freedom of speech, it is not the same thing.

https://www.aclu.org/what-censorship

If the effect is to stifle the speech then functionally how is it different?

Quite different actually. (Even if two things are both bad it does not mean they are the same thing!) For example you can censor a dead author, but you cannot threaten him. And you can punish someone for saying something without censoring the utterance.

Express support and you'll get the same fireworks, just launched from a different camp.

The point being, ignore the general population. If your opposition is expressed in a civil way and you're talking with reasonable people, there won't be any moral policing.

Not really. I think one side has pretty thoroughly won. Look at the recent Barbie commercial with the boy in it -- that would have unleashed a firestorm a few years ago, but conservative groups remained utterly silent on it and the media is filled with nothing but heaps of praise for it.

I think this is a symptom of freedom of speech, not its absence. Your complaint echoes that of noted filmmaker DW Griffith ("Birth of a Nation"), for what it's worth: https://archive.org/details/riseandfallfree00grifgoog.

Because free-speech opposition to free speech is somehow anti-free-speech? I always love these kinds of complaints about "censorship": "I don't have freedom of speech because people can complain about what I say!"

Leftists are the true Puritans. Got it.

Well, the original Puritans were the Progressives of their time. Comparison across ages is always error prone.

Prohibition was both Progressive and Puritan. They're not disjoint.

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