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Comment by dmishe | Hacker News Reader

and there goes the freedom of speech

"Freedom of speech" is only applicable in the context of a government acting towards its citizens. It has zero bearing whatsoever on interactions between citizens that the government doesn't get involved in.

Ok gotta agree with you both here.

Freedom of speech (in the United States, according to the Constitution and historical rulings of the Supreme Court) is freedom from government intervention in political and artistic speech, not permission to make lewd jokes and be free of private or personal consequences.

One country doesn't define freedom of speech.

Actually, typically it is defined on a country-by-country basis, because it is the government of each country that is tasked with maintaining it (or not violating it). Since we are talking about a US-based employee and a US-based company, the American definition is the most (only?) relevant one.

That's not the author's point. He was giving a definition relevant to the situation. Pycon happened in the US, so if there are complaints about freedom of speech at the event, the complainer is no doubt talking about freedom of speech laws in the US.

The law doesn't define what freedom of speech is, the law only tells what is legal in that particular country. The law in my country has different opinion from my own, and in fact it restricts freedom of speech. You can have a discussion about freedom of speech which is separate from any legislation.

So, uhm, you want freedom of speech to apply to private-private relationships? How would that work?!

Freedom of speech doesn't mean you get say whatever you want whenever you want without any repercussions.

People used to conduct themselves with at least a bit of decorum and that affected 'free speech' very little.

Manners, common sense and general pleasantness seem to have been completely forgotton.

>Manners, common sense and general pleasantness seem to have been completely forgotton.

I would agree with you here. In my idealistic image of the world, she would told them to please shut up because it's not good of a joke, they would say sorry and that'd be all.

Actually I think she advocates this point on her blog, but only in aftermath

It used to be called 'being a grown-up'. Somehow being a man-child became not just acceptable, but celebrated.

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