Hacker News Reader

Comment by afavour | Hacker News Reader

> neutral standpoint

> some of the tech world has put in significant effort to silence conservatives

That doesn’t strike me as a neutral statement! What does “conservatives” mean in this context? Always reminds me of this tweet:

—-

Conservative: I have been censored for my conservative views

Me: Holy shit! You were censored for wanting lower taxes?

Con: LOL no...no not those views

Me: So....deregulation?

Con: Haha no not those views either

Me: Which views, exactly?

Con: Oh, you know the ones

https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/105039166355267174...

View on HN

Why would a conservative complain about their views being censored, and then self-censor those same views? Seems like a strange straw man

the absurdity of “we’re being censored for our conservative views” is that the primary target of banning hasnt been a “conservative viewpoints”.

for example, if someone is banned for saying “death to non-whites”, theres a pretty good chance they’re being banned for advocating genocide, not because they’re conservative.

or if someone was banned for denying that covid was real, they weren’t banned for “conservative views”. whether we agree with the reasoning or not, they were banned for denying covid when the sites had made clear this topic would result in a ban.

i’ll repeat what i’ve said many times before. this idea that banning is somehow new, or is some creepy definition of censorship is nonsense. site owners and moderators have had rules for their online spaces since the beginnings. and just like real world spaces, people get removed constantly. it’s not new. it’s not weird. it’s not shocking.

> for example, if someone is banned for saying “death to non-whites”, theres a pretty good chance they’re being banned for advocating genocide, not because they’re conservative.

I think you will find that people have been getting banned for rather less harsh statements, like "maybe Covid was man-made", "Hunter Biden is corrupt", and "men cannot be women."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com