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Comment by AnkleInsurance | Hacker News Reader

Are you implying certain viewpoints aren't worthy of their own space to be expressed?

There's a valid concern that Medium would be sending money to those with "alt" viewpoints, or that Medium ends up having to censor those same "alt" viewpoints (de-platforming) to avoid that.

People with good content that you don't agree with don't deserve the same opportunity to be paid for their content? I've never used medium but it's starting to sound like I better not bother.

I'm not implying it, I'm saying it: some points of view don't belong on Medium (or anywhere else that I might see them).

So you want an institutionalized echo chamber rather than just an organic one? Are you really so afraid of these people that you believe they have to be silenced?

I can understand certain behaviors not being allowed but viewpoints?

>So you want an institutionalized echo chamber rather than just an organic one?

Yes.

I would love to support a site that puts its foot down and says extreme, offensive viewpoints are prohibited.

And yes, I am afraid of (some of) "these people." Have you not watched the news for like the last fifty years?

>And yes, I am afraid of (some of) "these people."

I am far, far more afraid of you and those who share your viewpoint.

Really, you are more afraid of someone who would rather not support nazis than actual nazis?

The number of actual nazis around is so incredibly small that it's not just statistically insignificant, but had that car related incident not happened recently it would go almost totally unmentioned.

The number of people such as yourself who want to censor speech and police thought, however, is frighteningly high. You are the same as those who advocated for book bannings and burnings at other points in history and it is depressing that your point of view has the strength it currently does once again.

Maybe not Nazis, but violent bigots are quite abundant. 19 trans women have been murdered just this year, and that's just what gets reported. I hear personal accounts from LGBTQ friends daily about threats and actual violence. Then there's all the other stuff people like me deal with: losing housing, jobs, family because we finally got up the courage to live as who we are rather than what powerful sections of society expect us to be.

I'm a lot more afraid of someone who's decided it's time to "show them queers who's boss" with me as the target than someone who wants to keep that same person off Medium. There are ample publishing opportunities for bigots. Unlike refusing to serve someone at the only grocery store in town, one of a million publishing outlets refusing to take an article has minimal effect.

Relevant aside: the picture of the Nazi book burning often shown when talking about free speech was from a clinic in Germany that researched and supported LGBTQ people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissen...

>Maybe not Nazis, but violent bigots are quite abundant. 19 trans women have been murdered just this year, and that's just what gets reported. I hear personal accounts from LGBTQ friends daily about threats and actual violence

19 people out of a group of 0.3% of the population (self-reported) being murdered is far below the average intentional homicide rate of the general population.

By far I mean it's working out at about 0.2/100,000 compared to the 4.8/100,000 as experienced overall.

Can we not discuss this without leaning on appeals to emotion and hearsay?

>> Can we not discuss this without leaning on appeals to emotion...

No. I'm not a robot. The value and limits of free speech are all about feelings, especially whose feelings matter more and in what contexts. Without feelings, rights wouldn't matter because no one would care how people treat each other.

You seem to be deliberately choosing the least charitable interpretation of your interlocutor's argument or statement.

That's neither becoming nor conducive to discourse.

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