this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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US did that, too.
For fucks sake, that shit was passed and then either expired or was repealed TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
This level of "Whataboutism" shouldn't even be possible.
Objection, relevance.
The Alien and Sedition Acts are widely known as some of the worst legislation ever passed in the US, in large part because of the Sedition Act, which was used to suppress speech critical of the Adams administration.
Yes, but this is a thread about UK trying to criminalize dissent in 2020s. What the US did hundred+ years ago is wholly irrelevant to the discussion of UK policy in modern times imo.
It's relevant because it's another example of criminalizing dissent, and it was a bad idea even then. "We've been over this, the world knows this is a bad idea."
But fuck historical context, right?
Yes it's another example of something similar, but again, with the vastly different times, cultures, technological capabilities, and legal frameworks, I'd argue that relevance is largely nonexistent or the connection between the two attenuated to the point that any similarities are largely useless for comparison and irrelevant when discussing the issue in the current context.
I bet you ignore news from last week, too.
A personal attack. Nice argument. Much value.
So you feel that news from last week is relevant, but not a bit of related history from a couple hundred years ago.
We agree that you ignore some of the past; the only disagreement is in where the line is drawn.
You're being purposefully obtuse and you know it. When taking the totality of the circumstances between the two events into account, I still argue that the US sedition acts are wholly irrelevant to the discussion at hand re: modern UK policy and privacy violation creep.
You're hung up on cherry picking out individual parts of my comment instead.
Your position rests entirely on the US Sedition Act being "too old" to be relevant. If pointing out the short-sightedness of ignoring history - again, your only argument - is "cherry-picking," so be it.
It doesn't. Re-read my last two comments, but this time actually read them instead of just getting hung up on the time factor. I used the time reference as short hand assuming basic reading comprehension initially, but then fleshed it out over the next two comments where I discuss what that time difference implies and boils down to when you look at the totality of circumstances and societal/legal norms and technology between the two eras.
I disagree.
Thankfully it only lasted 2 years. But during that time it sounds like it was a plan to suppress the presidential competition that backfired. It's good to know that humanity has always sucked.