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A comment on Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube. Parent comment

Re:Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube by nine_k on Monday May 18, 2020 @12:41PM (#23224753)
Please remember that democracy is a way to control a shared resource by the opinion of the majority, and it makes the minority submit to the decision of the majority. A democracy is more free than a tyranny, but it's not freedom incarnate.

If 1.5B Chinese people totally democratically voted to ban particular words from usage worldwide, and were very serious at enforcing their decision, would you conform?

I'd very much appreciate if no society ever chooses things for me, as long as the choice is not of a conflicted shared resource that needs to be handled uniformly to even work (like property laws or traffic rules).

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Re:Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube by ochoseis on Monday May 18, 2020 @02:15PM (#23226245)
Keep in mind the framers of the constitution in the US realized this type of issue, which led to the Bill of Rights protecting things like free speech and other government encroachments on individual liberty.

I appreciate that corporate platforms are different than public spaces when it comes to free speech, but we've got a long way to go before US society broadly tolerates censorship by foreign entities (at least, I hope).

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Re:Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube by int_19h on Monday May 18, 2020 @05:23PM (#23228536)
US Bill of Rights was originally written more to protect the states against the federal government. It couldn't even be enforced against the states until the 14th Amendment provided some vehicles for incorporation, and the courts acknowledged them. And even then the process of incorporation is still ongoing - e.g. the 7th is still not incorporated.
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Re:Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube by JumpCrisscross on Monday May 18, 2020 @01:03PM (#23225094)
Suffice it to say, the line between majoritarian rule and “true” democracy has been debated since Sophocles. Elections per se do not a democracy make.
[ Parent | on HN ]