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Comment by anonyme-honteux | Hacker News Reader

Freedom of speech exists in dozen of countries but "Free Speech (TM)" is a very US specific thing that seemingly generate an infinite amount of non-sense. People get lost in abstraction and start to think that giving a megaphone to fascists like Twitter did even before Musk is somehow good because the best way to defeat fascism, when you live on planet Mars, is on the "marketplace of ideas". On planet Earth this is not at all how it works, the rise of fascists correlates directly with diminishing freedoms, and to defeat fascists you need the Red Army.

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Political speech, especially unpopular political speech, is among the speech that I think is most deserving of free speech protections.

I specifically want the political speech of the people most ideologically opposed to my point of view to be able to make their speech, free from government intrusion on it. I will almost surely not like it, but I will defend vigorously their right to say it.

What if my political speech is inherently violent? Would I be allowed to support a political group or ideology that directly called for ethnic cleansing?

You can't be stopped from supporting them, only telling me that you support them. That's basically the problem.

Yes. And other people should be allowed hn criticize it.

I think yes, it should be allowed.

> I specifically want the political speech of the people most ideologically opposed to my point of view to be able to make their speech, free from government intrusion on it.

Neat. But I'm under no obligation to carry that shit in my blog's comment section, social media platform, or any other service. If you want to stand up some service you're under no obligation to carry my speech that you don't agree with either.

I completely agree.

This not only begs the question, it sets up a situation where expression is entirely controlled and curtailed by those at the levers of power. It is a recipe for an entirely unfree future, one where right and useful ideas will not be allowed to see the light of day because they will cost someone else money and/or power. That is not a future I would want to force on anyone. This is why so many oppose freedom — they're fearful of Bad Things, not realizing that while there will certainly be some negative consequences to freedom in speech or in living, squelching those will also destroy much more that is good and helpful.

And to defeat the Red Army you need lizards, to defeat the lizards you need Chinese needle snakes, to defeat those you need gorillas, and when winter comes around, those freeze to death!

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