Now what if hackernews gets bundled with Gmail and that ultimately tied to your name and they just ban you from using a whole range of Extremely important services?
If this sounds far-fetched you're probably exhibiting the near sighted "if I have nothing to hide I have nothing to fear" fallacious thinking (or coping mechanism).
given that there are literally streets with it on[1] I doubt its a bannable offense. plus, you'd expect that to be filtered out at the very start. Plus if they adhere to their escalations then it wouldn't result in a ban.
Hopping onto your wider point, Facebook et al are cesspools because they _don't_ enforce the rules well enough. if you look at Facebook's code of conduct, its actually really good. Readable, simple & comprehensive. (go read it, i promise you its good.)
the problem is, its not being enforced evenly. Us mortals only get automoderated. Popular posts (5m+ views, I imagine) will get the overworked human treatment. Politicians will be given free reign, because of reasons that are not immediately obvious.
> If this sounds far-fetched you're probably exhibiting the near sighted "if I have nothing to hide I have nothing to fear" fallacious thinking (or coping mechanism).
I have lots to hide, and a boat load more to fear. Again you are mixing in issues here that should be separate. Yes, I as a singular citizen should be able to hold any opinion I wish. I should be allowed to speak about it. Should that be free from consequences? In all but clearly laid out cases, yes. Should I be able to force that opinion or content onto someone else? no.
In the US, you are more or less allowed to say what you like, but I, crucially don't have to agree, or indeed agree to broadcast your opinion(whether you like it or not, a forum is a broadcast by a third party).
I am crucially aware that _true_ freedom of speech has never existed. I do not like that single corporations are given such power to censor things at will without oversight, but that's just newspapers and TV. That's before we get onto "fighting words" and the like.
I want people to be able to say most things all of the time. The issue we have with online/text discourse is that its really simple to bully people without consequences. Society does not work if there are no consequences for actions that cause harm and injury.
Do I want to curtail freedom of speech? no. do I want china style censorship? no. Do I want a multiplicity of services to cater to the wide range of thought and speech? yes. Should everyone be forced to carry all opinions regardless of impact or outcome? no.
Here in Atlanta, Georgia USA they're already changing street names that are deemed offensive [1]. Sometimes these are family names that were made famous by a historical figure tied to a "bad" thing but sometimes it's an English phrase where the implications are bad. I would be wary of general purpose words like Kaiser that make people think of "bad" things as those are also open to scrutiny.
[1] - https://www.npr.org/2018/10/04/648290022/atlantas-mayor-sign...
And an important clarification. To quote you:
> Sometimes these are family names that were made famous by a historical figure tied to a "bad" thing
These aren't streets that happened to share a name with these men, these were streets named for these men. The former (what you imply) is far less defensible (I'd say indefensible in general), but is not what is being discussed in your article. If you have another source where some non-Robert E. Lee named street is being renamed because it has the name "Lee" that would be a better example of what you're talking about.
Why? Kaiser is a royal title and widely used family name from the German sphere of culture. Who could be legitimated offended by this alone?
"Kaiser" is a reference to the German Reich, and references to Nazism are not welcome in this community.
I mean, if we're going to make up reasons out of whole cloth, any name is fair game.
Another, better example: Normally, where you work is not a secret. It is something that most people would tell strangers if asked about.
Now, say you are testing your "market value" by sending out job applications. Now suddenly you may not want to disclose where you work.
This is actually not a contrived example, a friend of mine was let go because the HR guys handling one of his applications knew somebody from his current company, word got around and his current management deemed the risk of him "stealing work secrets" too high. So they put him on paid leave and he never entered that facility again.
Enraged white Americans had a fit over this because in some (not all!) parts of America this is (or used to be) a racial slur. Many other Americans on the mailing list never even heard it used as a racial slur.
The guy was forced to rename the library.
Do you want to bet that whatever you say, or whatever you call yourself won't be a reason to get you banned? Do you want to tie an email address to the likelihood of this happening?
How would this scenario be any different.
Your name / title / country name could be safe in your own country but seem offensive to someone with an international bias.
Similarly, there are also countries that are "offensive" from a Chinese point of view.
This journalist cannot even mention the name "Taiwan" and "country" in the same sentence without this WHO guy (from Canada!) treating her like pariah.
This isn't the same as the sheer ignorance it takes to assume that countries Nigeria, Montenegro, and Niger are connected to the US's issues with race and are therefore offensive. A US diplomat isn't going to sanction you for recognising Nigeria as a country. I'm also unaware of what such a person would call these countries instead.
https://qz.com/1911573/virtual-youtubers-suspended-after-cal...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/john-cena-very...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/01/17/corpor...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-31/nasa-is-t...
Searching for Kaiser reveals several companies which provide a variety of services (care, raw materials, etc). Also some people call Schumacher the Kaiser of Formula 1 for his achievements. Doesn't sound like a bad username at all.