• 10A@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    The entire point of free speech is to support those with whom we disagree. It means absolutely nothing if you only support the speech of those with whom you agree. You need to be willing to say “Those ideas disgust me, yet I will gladly sacrifice my life in battle to defend the right of anyone to speak them.” That’s free speech.

    • Urist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Freedom of speech means the government can’t suppress your speech. We have this in place to protect everyone from anyone who wants to use government to suppress speech.

      The speech you are “supporting” amounts to “Those minorities disgust me, I don’t think they should exist/have rights”. Some TERFers are going to support removing the freedom of speech from Transpeople. You’ll have trouble finding one who will state it directly, I imagine, but transphobes everywhere are working diligently to marginalize trans people, or even incite violence against them.

      No private citizen (read: people who host kbin/lemmy servers) is obligated to host/platform/listen to anything. I certainly wouldn’t host TERF opinions if it was my server. I wouldn’t allow it at my dinner table. We must be intolerant of the intolerant to protect those whom the intolerant seek to attack.

      It doesn’t mean I think the government should start suppressing TERF views, that’s not their place. This is what freedom of speech means.

    • Laticauda@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Uh, no, that’s not the point of free speech. The point of free speech is that people can’t be arrested for saying something the government doesn’t like. That’s it. Free speech does not mean that anyone is entitled to a platform, and it never has. It doesn’t mean people have to tolerate shitty beliefs and treat them as equal to any other. It doesn’t mean that you can just say whatever you want wherever you want without being told to get the fuck out. People like you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what free speech is and what its purpose is, and as a result you roll out the red carpet for fascists and the like so they can walk all over you.

      • 10A@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Like so many other people in this thread, you are conflating the principle of free speech with the US First Amendment. Do they not teach this stuff in Civics Class anymore? The First Amendment is predicated on free speech. Free speech is fundamental to western civilization. The first Amendment is only applicable to government, whereas the principle of free speech is applicable to everyone in western civilization. We must all uphold free speech for all people, lest western civilization collapses.

        In a free society, we have the downvote button for content we personally dislike. You’re free to criticize their beliefs, and you’re free to try to change their minds. But as soon as you try to silence anyone, you become an enemy of free society. We must all work to uphold western civilization, while realizing that it most certainly will always provide a platform for people (including ourselves) to explore all manner of ideas freely.

        • Laticauda@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          That’s a nice flowery and poetic concept of free speech, but it wasn’t the reason the 1st amendment was made, that was made so that people running for office couldn’t silent their opposition and the people could voice their criticisms without fear of retaliation from the government.

          But whatever, fine, I’ll humour you.

          If you want to uphold your version of free speech, then don’t give people like fascists (and terfs, which are just fascists with a fake mustache on at this point) a platform. They will actively work to dismantle that free speech, and thus are antithetical to it. No amount of trying to counter their arguments with facts and logic or appealing to their emotions will do anything in a public forum, history has shown that only private intervention has any chance of success at deradicalizing people on an individual basis. If you let the movement gain more visibility and legitimacy by entertaining their views on your platform, then you are helping them destroy free speech, full-stop. They are the true enemies of free society, and if you actually care about it you have to protect it from bad faith actors taking advantage of and manipulating it to erode the rights of others.

          In a free society nobody is obligated to give anyone a platform or to entertain insanity. I work to uphold all civilization, not just western, by telling nazis to fuck off. You wouldn’t let a guy flinging his own shit around to get up on stage, and that’s the equivalent of what nazis are, except they actively spread propaganda and recruit other shit flingers, which is a lot easier to do up on a stage where everyone can see them flinging shit, and their shit can reach a lot more people. If you let them in, eventually all that will be left is a bunch of people flinging their shit around, and everyone else will have either left to avoid getting hit, or will have already been covered in it and are now suffering because of that. And it will all be because you wanted to defend to the death that guy’s right to throw shit at people.

          And then in the end your “free speech” is nothing but a feces covered nightmare, and the mob of poop tossers moves on to the next stage, their numbers greater than ever. Congratulations.

          • 10A@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            You are authoritarian and you don’t even realize it. All of your details are irrelevant. Get off your high horse, and recognize that this is a marketplace of ideas, where all of our ideas are equally valid. Stop trying to silence people. It will end badly for all of us.