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0 pointseadmund6y ago0 comments

> It is not some authoritarian ploy.

Regardless of whether you think it's a good idea or not, restricting access to guns and free speech is an authoritarian play: it's using the authority of the State to restrict certain liberties in the intent of doing good.

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ionised6y ago

> it's using the authority of the State to restrict certain liberties in the intent of doing good.

That's called civilisation.

And the US doesn't have absolute free speech. It never did.

Just like other democracies, it has restrictions on speech for various reasons, some good and some bad. It's about where an individual country draws their line on the spectrum:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...

Some US states have obscenity laws that other developed democracies don't. Obscenity laws. Just think about how insane that is as a concept.

roca6y ago

All laws "use the authority of the State to restrict certain liberties in the intent of doing good".

tathougies6y ago

Sure, all law is an exercise of authority, and hence authoritarianism. The commenter was merely calling out that... no matter how you dice it... a new law is always authoritarian, whether you acknowledge it or not.

Saying 'this law is not authoritarian' is always a contradiction.

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