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0 pointsyibg6y ago0 comments

Free speech while extremely important cannot be used as a blanket cover to say whatever you want and expect not to suffer consequences. I’m free to call my girlfriend stupid every day, but I should expect the consequence of soon being single.

There are clearly mob reactions to things, but there are also clearly inappropriate speech that should have consequences.

What he said here wasn’t in isolation as some idle musing. context matters. He wasn’t talking about the theoretical of a 19 year old. He was talking about this in context of Minsky being a 74 year old man with a 17 year old girl. Maybe he wasn’t aware of the impact of his words, but that shouldn’t get him a free pass.

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ThrowawayR26y ago

> Free speech while extremely important cannot be used as a blanket cover to say whatever you want and expect not to suffer consequences.

That's what Joe McCarthy and the House Committee for Un-American Activities (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism) said to leftists, union organizers, communists, and others in the 1950s. Is that the kind of company progressives prefer to keep, intellectually speaking?

Apparently the only difference between progressives and conservatives is which sacred cows that they're willing to mob you for for insulting. Fellow liberals, I beg of you, take heed; progressives are not our friends.

widowlark6y ago

The difference in your example is that McCarthy was a government official, attacking political ideas, making what he did an absolute violation of free speech from the perspective of the first amendment. Is this really your best example?

ThrowawayR26y ago

I wonder where progressives get the silly idea that the Enlightenment philosophers that birthed liberalism said "Punishing people for speaking is bad if the government does it but its 100% A-OK if a mob does it." Perhaps you could show us some citations?

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kazagistar6y ago

Or maybe they both value something higher then free speech when push comes to shove. For the far left its equality and protections of the vulnerable. For the far right is race, country, tradition and religion. So that seems like a pretty big difference actually.

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ThrowawayR26y ago

> Free speech while extremely important cannot be used as a blanket cover to say whatever you want and expect not to suffer consequences.

widowlark6y ago

ThrowawayR26y ago

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kazagistar6y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse