Disingenuous much?

There's much more to the "Gab guy" than how he ends each message.

If you're not willing to defend the speech rights of those you personally find reprehensible, then you oppose free speech.

If you're not with me, then you're my enemy.

Sure Anakin, sound argument that one.

I think a more generous interpretation of his comment would be that "speech protections are only relevant for unpopular speech". Nobody needs freedom of expression to discuss how it's kind of rainy today but hopefully sunny this weekend

Alternative flippy way: I fight for your right to say your opinion, and for my right to call it stupid.

You get to call it stupid, you don't get to cut someone's water or electricity off because you think they have a stupid opinion. Same should go for having the ability to pay for stuff and receive money from people who want to give it to you, as long as what you are doing is not illegal.

Thanks, that's correct. I bet most lawyers handling important 1A cases wanted their clients to rot in hell.

_silence is violence_

>If you're not with me, then you're my enemy.

Not quite.

Where free speech is concerned, if we don't fight for each other, we are our own enemy.

Sorry, I support the Captain America approach to nazis. You punch them, not defend their right to call for others loss of rights / abuse.

If one of the golden age characters can be patriotic about limits of free speech, I think you can figure out that middle ground too.

As long as you're fine with people and corporations treating you that same way if your beliefs ever become socially unacceptable.

Wait, do you think people / corporations should be free, or do you think corporations should be forced to carry messages they don't support?

What happens when Captain America goes after Blacks, Jews, etc?

I'd rather have that shit out in the open instead of festering somewhere hidden.

Is it really a HN discussion about race if someone doesn't mention the "Blacks, Jews"? What next, are we going to call someone an "Oriental"? Weird skull-caliper vocabulary.

How controversial is it to say "genocidal calls for violence should be frustrated by any means necessary, including force"? If Captain America decides to suddenly do a 180 and police the one-drop rule you have my permission to deck him in.

Tolerance is something that should be extended to everything but intolerance. We fought an entire global war about this, but took the wrong lessons when all the major players in the Third Reich got promotions to the UN, NASA, etc.

If you don't understand that free speech is like every other right in that it is not absolute, and does not apply to private platforms - then you should have paid more attention in your middle school civics class.

Gab is a cesspool of hate speech up to and including people using it to advocate things like treating Jewish people like livestock, holocaust denialism, and being used to coordinate conspiracy theories and harassment of innocent people and individuals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gab_(social_network)

Trying to point out where it was going was impossible.

“What if your opinions become deemed unacceptable?” “What do you mean? My opinions are acceptable.” “But what if one day they aren’t?” “They are though. Why do you keep saying they aren’t?”

It's like some clamp comes down on the mind and stops critical thinking, where usually they are pretty thoughtful people otherwise. Self preservation instinct I guess.

Those conditional hypotheticals strike again.

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

- Martin Niemöller