this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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politics

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[–] teft@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What?! The people who ban books are a threat to free speech?

[–] Kerred@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

"I don't think freedom is simply doing what you want. I believe freedom is simply being able to love without fear"

That always stick with me and makes me wonder what heavy conservatives think of that line

[–] justhach@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

See, the thing is that they don't see themselves as living in fear. In their minds, they're fighting a righteous battle in the name of good and decency.

They're not scared, they're just looking for a fight anywhere and everywhere.

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[–] Poob@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago (39 children)
[–] Saneless@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I'm glad this was in politics. Because it's certainly not news

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[–] dx1@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In the U.S., yes, at this moment the major threats to free speech are coming from the so-called "right". Forbidding teaching black history, LGBT issues, etc. A few years ago, lest we forget, it was Obama cracking down on the OWS protests and trying to prosecute Julian Assange and Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning. Before that it was the GOP again pushing the PATRIOT Act and trying to ban Grand Theft Auto. They did it for a long time with the Red Scare. That of course, basically kicked off in response to Stalin, who was doing his own purges of opponents and censorship. Pre-war, it was Hitler, Mussolini and Franco worst of all, but was happening in the U.S. too. That all goes back even further to the Comstock laws, the Alien and Sedition Acts, you name it. There isn't some magical quality about the directions "left" and "right" by which bad people in power in government under that label don't want to silence their opponents. There is a tendency for what we call "the right" - this kind of more-or-less fascist, religious based, emotionally charged, etc. set of ideologies - to respond more eagerly to calls to silence or brutalize opponents, because they are by and large a good bit dumber at the end of the day.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

The Right Wing strategy is to simply claim you are being censored or treated unfairly so that people who don't know what you're doing give you a little more leg room.

Take that leg room and use it to advance your most extreme positions, go back to claiming you're being treated unfairly if anyone calls you on it.

The final step is that you must accuse anyone actually being censored or treated unfairly off pulling this bullshit.

The Right were never free speech advocates, and if you still think they were, try using the word "cisgender" and the word "retard" on Twitter, and tell me which one gets you banned first.

[–] doppelgangmember@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Are the Antifa in the room as we speak?

[–] gelcue69@hoboninjachicken.com 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Right wing hypocrisy is a feature, not a bug. At the end of the day it's just a form of entitlement.

[–] Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 year ago

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

Jean-Paul Sartre

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[–] BuckRowdy@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What they want is freedom to control reality. What Republicans say, every day is not real, they don't live in reality. What they want is not free speech, they have that more than ever. What they want is to dictate reality to the rest of us.

All conservative are bad, acab as it were.

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[–] Landmammals@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] TechnoBabble@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you believe your partisan opponents are the only enemies of freedom, then you're already in chains.

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[–] Numuruzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

What, no way, that's craaazy...

[–] ahriboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

Always have been. The term has been already tainted with bigotry and violence.

[–] woshang@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Free speech might only be able to achieve online, and make sure you remain ANONYMOUS

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[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
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