Re:Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Re...
by lern_too_spel on Wednesday December 26, 2018 @10:18PM
(#18766978)
> But then, who decides what's bad?
Strange how I never see this argument for allowing people to yell fire in a crowded theater. Perhaps because the people who make these arguments are likely to be harmed in the theater but not by the violent racists. Would they be willing to defend platforming anti-Christian rhetoric in Bangladesh while living there?
Societal rules like "free speech" are not black and white. They are muddy distillations of enlightened self-interest, where each person tries to impose rules on others to reduce their own chances of being harmed. Thus, the European states and the USA all have laws against murder but draw their lines on protected speech differently based on what makes sense in their societies.
The only reason Americans find this so hard to understand is that they are drilled with hero worship for the nation's founders from Kindergarten, much like a North Korean child will be trained to deify the Kim family. The reality is that the documents these men produced were compromises suited to their time, and electoral colleges and 3/5 compromises are not timeless truths for governing.
Strange how I never see this argument for allowing people to yell fire in a crowded theater. Perhaps because the people who make these arguments are likely to be harmed in the theater but not by the violent racists. Would they be willing to defend platforming anti-Christian rhetoric in Bangladesh while living there?
Societal rules like "free speech" are not black and white. They are muddy distillations of enlightened self-interest, where each person tries to impose rules on others to reduce their own chances of being harmed. Thus, the European states and the USA all have laws against murder but draw their lines on protected speech differently based on what makes sense in their societies.
The only reason Americans find this so hard to understand is that they are drilled with hero worship for the nation's founders from Kindergarten, much like a North Korean child will be trained to deify the Kim family. The reality is that the documents these men produced were compromises suited to their time, and electoral colleges and 3/5 compromises are not timeless truths for governing.