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Comment by whatever10 | Hacker News Reader

Ah the typical authoritative propaganda “they are all the same, at least we have order”. No we don’t have in the US a non elected politburo making nationwide decisions on speech issues.

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You miss the point. The point is the US in a way is worse than a totalitarian regime like China: in a totalitarian regime it is the government the pushes censorship and hatred in the disguise of morality. In the US it is the elites and ordinary people who do that voluntarily for the so-called narratives. The US is building its own highway to tyranny.

> You miss the point. The point is the US in a way is worse than a totalitarian regime like China: in a totalitarian regime it is the government the pushes censorship and hatred in the disguise of morality. In the US it is the elites and ordinary people who do that voluntarily for the so-called narratives. The US is building its own highway to tyranny.

That's utter nonsense, and actually echos one of the propaganda lines that an actual totalitarian regime uses to deflect criticism of its actual oppressive polices. You're also forgetting that lots of people buy into totalitarian government propaganda, and push it voluntarily (from stuff like this https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/business/china-internet-c... to nationalist internet trolls to Red Guards).

Real totalitarian regimes do stuff like this (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/business/china-online-cen...) and worse. Your so-called "worse" regime just occasionally has bosses fire employees for saying something impolitic and business that refuse to carry certain items (with the effect of only making them slightly harder to buy).

Of course for now the US's political system is much better. Of course China's political system is worse. But my focus is on the US: A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. So, yeah, the culture war in the US is worse in a sense that the US is destroying itself from bottom-up, while elites try to ride the wave. A Berlin Wall will be torn down. A nation that believes the necessity of Berlin Wall? Well, they will make wall taller. And if you're against building up the wall? You're a racist.

That is hyperventilating hyperbole that doesn't make the problem you're complaining about look serious, it just makes you look silly.

Why is it better for the government to restrict speech than for elites to restrict speech? The government has a monopoly on force so in countries where the government also controls speech, you can face criminal penalties for not complying. No company can do that.

"democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time"

Here we have unelected eBay management (and earlier this year - Twitter, Google, Facebook, Amazon etc) making nationwide decisions on speech. We are getting there.

You can select a different vendor with a single click. You cannot select a different supreme leader without a bloodbath. That is the difference. Remember 1989?

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