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Comment by wittenbunk | Hacker News Reader

This is imagined nonsense.... The US has the most permissive definition of free speech in the world. Free speech is referring to freedom from government oppression, not freedom from societal consequences.

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Wouldn't you say that a police raid is government oppression, though?

It's not really a question. It is government oppression since police are government employees. Whether their presence is specifically to suppress speech is another question.

Fairly outdated take. The US has elected officials openly using the power of government to punish people and companies for the “wrong” speech.

Name a single example. Politicians using their political power (soapbox) is not the same thing as government oppression

Florida's don't say gay laws. Florida banning books. Florida's reprisals against Disney. Florida's 'anti-woke' laws whitewashing the history of slavery and racism in the US.

Probably not at the level that the commentator was referring to, but in New Orleans in 2019 an elected sheriff, Randy Smith, had a man arrested after he criticized his office's handling of a murder investigation. This was despite the DA explicitly telling them that the criminal defamation law they were trying to use was ruled unconstitutional when applying it to criticism of public officials.

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/crime/us-court-of-appeals...

DeSantis literally said he was using the power of the government to force Disney to change its creative output: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/03/desantis-promises-fl...

No... this is a police raid, that is the government. Secondly, the federal government has been breaking first amendment rights for the last 4 years at least; by pressuring social media companies to remove posts.

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