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Comment by porkloin | Hacker News Reader

This seems like a convenient time to remind folks that it is incredibly important to stand up against this kind of government action not only when it is conducted against your political allies, but especially when it is conducted against your political enemies. Even if this were a pro-Trump website being subpoenaed, this should sicken you nonetheless. Short-sighted political gain might be had by allowing the government to stomp all over political dissidents you don't agree with, but in a few short years you might find yourself on the receiving end of the same treatment you endorsed. My hope is that those in the alt-right will realize that supporting this kind of action may hurt themselves just as much as it hurts the anti-Trump folks.

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For my part, I value the right of black/gay/jewish/whoever people to exist and live their lives without threats of violence more than I value freedom of speech.

Right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, in that order.

Groups calling for their extermination, I'm not going to stand up for any of them, because they're actively working against the first of those three values.

What good is freedom of speech or assembly when you're being run over by a white supremacist in a Charger?

If that's a slippery slope--that ordering of values that prizes life over website hosting--then it's one I'm still content to stand on, because the alternative isn't taking us anywhere good right now.

Let me remind you that who brought up the concept of "acceptable punching targets" to modern politics was antifa, and that staging a counter-protest in the exact same venue and time as a rally / protest is OBVIOUSLY going to cause trouble.

White supremacists are disgusting.

Other race supremacists are disgusting.

Anarchists are disgusting.

Communists are disgusting.

People calling for dead cops are disgusting.

People looting and committing arson during protests are disgusting.

There's a lot of disgusting people out there, and I'm beyond tired of people trying to escalate things even further. If all this political tension in the US escalates to full-blown civil war, it will be to no credit of a single group, but the many who keep getting excused by mainstream politicians, political commentators and journalists.

The fun fact is that most of this could probably have been widely defused by allowing people to speak up in public, and then providing better counter-speech, but I guess that was hurting way too many feelings.

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