| ▲ | slibhb 3 days ago | ||||||||||||||||
It is notably weird to react to this article by criticizing "free speech absolutists". Who are the people you're criticizing? Be specific. Free speech absolutists are mostly principled people who want to defend civil liberties while getting flak from the right and left. An example of this is FIRE -- which was massively criticized by progressives for suing colleges over anti-conservative speech codes, DEI statements, etc. But FIRE has behavred in a princicpled manner and has sued conservatives and the Trump administration over civil liberties violations. | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | UncleMeat 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
FIRE is still spending the bulk of their media outreach complaining about the left. Yes, they aren't totally without principle but it is very clear that they treat threats to speech from the left and right very very differently. | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | QuadmasterXLII 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
Scott alexander and Zvi were the saddest cases- had a lot of respect for them a while back. Oh and musk of course but I think that's ketamine poisoning, not long-planned betrayal. | |||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | zeroonetwothree 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
I’m really happy FIRE still exists now that the ACLU has abandoned all semblance of principles. I can’t imagine them litigating the Skokie case today. | |||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | epistasis 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||
> Free speech absolutists are mostly principled people who want to defend civil liberties If this were true, where were they on this clear case of government censorship? Check out this thread, and the single person admitting to be an "absolutist" seems to have no opposition to this law at all, and merely wants to defend limits to speech. Free speech "absolutists" are the least principled defenders of free speech, but they may have extremely right-wing principles they are trying to defend. Others here have given examples of high-profile "absolutists" but I'm talking about those I encounter online mostly, such as in this thread. | |||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | kstrauser 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||
> Free speech absolutists are mostly principled people who want to defend civil liberties I genuinely laughed out loud here. As a Mastodon operator, when I see another new instance describe itself as “free speech absolutists”, it means they’re about to fill up with 2 things: Nazis (as in, literally swastikas and “Jews are oppressing me!” memes) and drawings of Japanese 8 year olds in lingerie. Every. Single. Time. | |||||||||||||||||
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