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Comment by yasp | Hacker News Reader

> Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?

Oh good, let’s encourage an incurious government because it might be misinterpreted.

Simple curiosity would be to request information about general practices in moderating unspecific users.

"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" is not such a form of simple curiosity; it's a tacit request for action against a specific person.

A tacit request for action is not a demand. The government is allowed; nay encouraged! to make recommendations based on perceived threats, which it doesn’t even sound like it went as far as being a recommendation, just a “tough question”. Analogizing this to a monarch putting a hit out on someone is an appeal to the extreme.

This is a centuries-old, well-trod concept that's noted by the phrase. Arguing over it is as tiresome as reading the twisted logic of sovereign citizens.

It sounds like you’re telling me you are biased by this centuries old concept, and you risk applying it in am overly broad way. This post could have been much less click beauty if he’d used a phrase other than “demand”. Encouraged. Influenced. There are lots of great words but he didn’t and now we’re arguing about it.

This guy is wholly incentivized to lie. An untrustworthy government doesn’t magically make this person more credible.

The veracity of his claims hinges on the provenance of this image[0]. This statement doesn't leave much to the imagination:

> they had one very tough question about why Alex Berenson hasn't been kicked off from the platform

0: https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pr...

Tough questions are the basis for accountability not demands. The media asks tough questions of the government all the time, no one things they are being demanded something of. If you can’t ask tough questions you can’t make progress. Twitter is a multi billion dollar compay with an army of lawyers, if there were no threats or no use of the word “must” or “demand” then there is a lot to interpret. I’m just being literal here. If you want to read between the lines ok, but it’s not what’s written in the image. The idea that this extremist blogger is infallible is equally "as tiresome as reading the twisted logic of sovereign citizens". I'm not saying assume best intent when it comes to the government but assuming worst intent is just as likely to take you away from the truth.

The media is not empowered to make demands of the government and expect them to be fulfilled. The government enjoys the imbalance of power.

No one has claimed the blogger is infallible; but even the rights of despicable people are worth defending.

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