At least the government is and will be challenged by the judicial system... eventually. Not fast enough, but it's being challenged as we speak.

Tech oligarchies don't have such restrictions. It's almost scarier.

Isn't the supreme authority of the judicial system directly appointed by that same government? So that challenge will probably end up failing.

Depends on the govt at the time the judge was apppointed. And what level.

The theory on the federal level is "this judge was appointed by president X-1, so they aren't influenced by president X". So for better or worse (depending on which president that filled the vacancy), they may go against what is popular in administration X. The federal supreme court tries to be shielded away from the immediate politics of worrying about re-election and stuff.

On the state level, well... as usual it's a free for all. Just to list the "hot" states of subject:

- Texas: the people vote for them, 6 year term. no different from voting for a senator/representative. - Florida: More complex, but in short: the governor chooses from a list of candidates handed to them, and the chosen judge serves one term (4 years) before the people decide to keep them or not.

So the people on the state level here have some sway. But then again, the people here are... well, Texas/Florida people.

Except that the same political actors who passed these laws have spent decades working to stack the Supreme Court with justices who will let the laws remain in effect…

Right?? People on this thread are blowing up this issue to hyperbolic proportions, while issues of those proportions actually exist.

Makes me sad.

I think you’re blowing your own areas of concern to hyperbolic proportions, but cannot or will not even see why others would find this far more concerning.

There is a war going on between Russia and Ukraine. If you go to Russia's TikTok, you will find no mention of it. Not because someone at TikTok said "let's make a feature that users can opt out of to highlight insensitive things," no, it's because you will go to jail if you upload content that Russia doesn't like.

Let's compare. You say things Google doesn't like, a purple squiggly goes under your words that you have the option to turn off. You say things Russia doesn't like, and armed men barge into your home to take you to jail.

How disconnected from reality do you have to be for me to have to make this comparison explicit???

The existence of the war in Ukraine doesn’t mean we stop caring about anything else. If you got punched in the face, I think you would still care even though there’s a war on.

If anything, the actions Putin is taking to control the information landscape make me much more upset about woke clippy. Liberal society should be about a free exchange of ideas. It’s not just another orthodoxy with soft manipulation instead of hard manipulation for thoughtcrime.

If you don’t understand why this seems manipulative and tone deaf to lots of folks, that means you’re confused. Not right.

Slippery slope fallacy. Woke clippy does not lead to authoritarianism, authoritarian legislation does. Of which there is plenty in my country.

You are truly blessed if the most worrying thing in your nation right now is Google's attempt to compete with Grammarly.

If there was a war going on, I would not compare getting punched in the face to a war crime.

If you truly believe worrying about the war is more important than talking about woke clippy here on HN, I’m confused. Why then are you here taking part in this conversation? You clearly don’t care about the issues I (and others) are raising in this thread. But if you actually don’t care, why take part in the discussion at all?

I do think there is a problem that merits discussion. But to ring such alarms and place it in this context doesn't do that discussion justice. There is more nuance to be had.