https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/01/defend-say/
“I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It.” - Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Hitler will be defeated in the marketplace of ideas.
“The Marketplace of Ideas” is such a scam, all that phrase accomplished was getting Bill Nye to debate creationists, who then gained followings because “The TV Box said that the Creationism and Evolution are equal ideas worth debating and considering the merits of!”
Don’t let them make you think that Piss belongs on the shelf with Pepsi.
People that are in favor of legal censorship of political speech make the mistake of assuming that the laws will always be applied to censor the speech that they find objectionable or harmful… As soon as you start allowing the gov’t to determine what speech is and is not acceptable, that power will be used to oppress whatever the currently disfavored group is. The words themselves are not the harm; it’s the actions that can arise from the words.
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You cannot apply the paradox of tolerance without understanding the outcome. If you tolerate everything, the extreme takes over. You are also making it an either:or choice - don’t censor vs lose control of all free speech.
This is false, and stems from the assumption that there is a victory only one way or the other.
There is no victory in any form of governance seeking to hold a middle ground for any aspect of society. You don’t get to set up some rules, dust off your hands, say “That should do it…” and think you’re done.
It is a constant battle that must be fought every single time an issue becomes a problem. No, not all speech is acceptable. But we should also aggressively protect the speech that is acceptable even if we don’t like it. If we can’t do that, then we’ve lost for different reasons.
Okay, so then do you really want the Trump administration deciding on what speech to ban? Freedom of speech isn’t just about defending monsters. It also can save us from them.
This is the fundamental issue with people arguing against free speech: I can never tell if they know they behave fascisticaly or not. Are they ignorant, or do they know?
This past election was very eye-opening in that everyone on the left was so absolutely confident that Trump wouldn’t win. So much so they had already started laying things out for their own fascist takeover.
And yes, the left can act in a fascist manner.
This is the fundamental issue with people arguing against free speech: I can never tell if they know they behave fascisticaly or not. Are they ignorant, or do they know?
People who support censorship always believe the censors will always side with their preferences. They never consider what happens when people they oppose control the censors, and for them merely not having allied censors in place feels like they are being silenced (see conservative Christian types who inevitably get angry any time Christian-focused language isn’t enforced [aka War on Christmas or anyone else requesting a display when there’s a public religious display on government property]).
Remember that bill that would strip non-profit status from any group, based on the whim of the president? With no hope of appeal? That was very popular with Democrats, until Trump won.
Even if you assholes don’t abuse something like that, you know that you aren’t going to be in office forever? There’s an election every 4 years, remember?
Don’t go conflating Democrats with the left, though. There’s some overlap, but they aren’t the same.
It’s hard because there’s so much reshuffling going on. I personally have to clarify now that I’m a constitutionalist liberal, because liberal means too many different things to different people.
