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Comment by oedmarap | Hacker News Reader

Those who support censorship of any kind are unwittingly helping to give birth to the proverbial dystopian overlords that determine how wealth, information, and dopamine are distributed.

Overreaction creates opportunity for actors that seek to tighten social control.

Take from that what you will, but I for one strongly believe that bad ideas can only be fought by better ideas — not by silencing of any ideas, and certainly not by silence itself. Bad ideas fester in darkness, but will wither in the light.

Just my $0.02

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It's very important that we distinguish between private companies that don't allow abhorrent behavior on their platforms versus true government censorship.

Government censorship is extraordinarily bad as the government holds a monopoly on violence and killing. If you can't speak out about the government's use of its monopoly, then abuses multiply as history shows.

I think most people support private forms of censorship. You wouldn't want me coming in your house and screaming at you, right? You wouldn't want a white supremacist coming in to where you were work and screaming hateful things at your coworkers right? You wouldn't want to go into a bar where obnoxious people are starting fights with everyone right? By the same token, there are literally hundreds of thousands of social media sites and if some of them don't want abhorrent behavior on their platform, that should just be their decision.

Even private companies should be held to a standard. Question is not if it prosecutable crime but whether you want to leave in a society which is dominated by entities who don't give two shits about free speech

There is a standard and they are held to it. It is the Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people PEACEABLY to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Correct me if I'm wrong but neither Twitter nor Amazon can pass legislation. Parler can buy it's own servers. No one is using force to deny their ability to spread hate. They are simply inconvenienced. Freedom of Speech does not equal Freedom to Lie.

A police officer was murdered. A mob tried to over turn an election by FORCE. A free and fair election is a form of free speech. Let us be clear who is stifling free speech. It is the Mob.

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