Submitted by twovests in just_post

I'm increasingly frustrated that "free speech" has been taken over as some weird fuckin issue. Most of the people who talk about "free speech" are righty weirdos! And like, the ACLU.

I'm frustrated that "free speech" forums are just strictly but inconsistently moderated, often with an explicitly far-right bias. "Free speech forum" is just shorthand for "forum where commies and gays are banned."

Even weirder is that (in the US) it's synonymous with the 1st amendment. Like yes, the old retort is true, "The 1A only means the Fed can't censor you!" But also... They totally can? The first amendment is restrictive in practice. No obscenity?? No titties???

But also, it's no secret that heavily moderated forums are the best. HackerNews has many many issues, but it's still nearly essential for keeping up with tech shit, and it's heavily moderated. StackExchange is great for reading, and it's so heavily moderated that I still have no idea how to ask a question on it.

Imagine how good Google would be if they started censoring search results with prejudice. No more pinterest, no more sites that cheat the indexer, no more of those weird blogspam.

At this point, if someone talks about "free speech" and they're not in the ACLU, it's almost guaranteed they're going to make a wildly bad-faith argument, and that they're completely divorced from the realities of service administration, forum moderation, or even just existing in a gathering of more than 3 people.

Anyways

freeze peach 0/10, freeze grapes instead: it's a sweet treat that can beat back the summer heat. blueberries are good too

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Comments

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Volt wrote

Bigoted rightoids don't care about free speech and only use it as a cudgel to get what they want: a way to spread their bigotry. Just wait until you start talking about something they don't like.

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cute_spider_ni_srsly wrote

At this point, if someone talks about "free speech" and they're not in the ACLU, it's almost guaranteed they're going to make a wildly bad-faith argument, and that they're completely divorced from the realities of service administration, forum moderation, or even just existing in a gathering of more than 3 people.

yeah, dad

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hollyhoppet wrote

i keep hearing about this grape freezing strategy... really need to try it

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hollyhoppet wrote

it's not free speech if you don't have to listen to me

-- a right wing person

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Seirdy wrote

Funny since most of the freeze peach hordes are really US-centric and like to cite the US Constitution's First Amendment. Because that same amendment was used to protect freedom of association.

The freedom to do something does not imply compulsion to do it. I have the freedom to listen to or associate with someone spouting garbage. I have the freedom to stick my cut hand in a pool full of piranhas. That doesn't mean I'll do either thing.

So yes, someone's freedom to spout garbage implies that I have the freedom to block someone from my platform, under a US-centric framework at least.

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