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Comment by tdkl | Hacker News Reader

This is actually the common thing in tech now, you need to step carefully on eggshells everywhere to avoid someone being butthurt.

I miss the Internet around year 2000.

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Yes, I remember when we could sling racist, misogynistic, and homophobic slurs around without a thought for the feelings of non-whites, minorities, or an entire half of the world's population. Thanks to those slurs, the world was a better place because, uh... because... er, uh, hm...

So, free speech is great as long as you don't strongly disagree with it.

"Free speech" does not mean "free from all consequence," and never has.

What do yo really mean by that?

Personally I worry that mere attaching some empty labels to an argument is reason enough justify censoring it.

I mean that if you choose to use slurs or donate money to hate groups, and are ostracized from a community as a result, then invoking "free speech" is not sufficient defense to be allowed back into that community.

Or, in popular comic form: https://xkcd.com/1357/

So "you are free to say whatever you want, but if I don't like it I will destroy your life".

I'm not sure whose life was destroyed or how we jumped to that point, but yes, if you choose that slurs and hate groups are more important to you than your community's acceptance, then you get to deal with those consequences. At no point is this an infringement on your right to free speech.

Well, that's horrifying. I'll shut up now.

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