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Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by WiSaGaN on Monday April 03, 2023 @03:51AM (#35419965)
I mean, doesn't the concept of a free society apply to private corporations as well? The government is not restricting you; the private company is exercising its right to run its business according to its own free will. The principle of a free society suggests that "if you don't like the company's policy, find another one or create your own." Is that wrong?
Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by pengstrom on Monday April 03, 2023 @04:37AM (#35420350)
Or course, and their decisions are free to be scrutinized.
Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by WiSaGaN on Monday April 03, 2023 @04:45AM (#35420411)
Scrutiny is justified. However, it should be within the scope of whether the product fulfills the need and should have nothing to do with "sovereignty" or "free speech rights," don't you think?
Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by hyperpape on Monday April 03, 2023 @05:50AM (#35420884)
Can't believe how often I see this sentiment, and how nonsensical it is.

We're private citizens, nothing prevents us from criticizing them for a wide variety of reasons. If you want to restrict yourself and ignore everything except the literal function of the product, you're free to do that, but you can't argue everyone else has to do the same.

Or is your argument that we have some kind of social responsibility to judge products based on exclusively on what the product does, but the product has no social responsibility whatsoever? That's a double standard that can't have any justification.

Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by WiSaGaN on Monday April 03, 2023 @06:26AM (#35421135)
No one is preventing you from criticizing them. I am just saying that criticism from the standpoint of free speech or sovereignty is inconsistent with the idea that you can satirize whatever or whoever you want.
Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by krisoft on Monday April 03, 2023 @09:42AM (#35423414)
> I am just saying that criticism from the standpoint of free speech or sovereignty is inconsistent with the idea that you can satirize whatever or whoever you want.

I don't understand what you are saying. Criticising a company on free speech grounds who prevent you from satirising someone is absolutely consistent. What inconsistency are you seeing?

Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by Teever on Monday April 03, 2023 @05:09AM (#35420555)
> the private company is exercising its right to run its business according to its own free will.

Let's run with that.

Should a company be allowed to own slaves?

Should a company be allowed to do business with a company that owns slaves?

Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by 411111111111111 on Monday April 03, 2023 @05:40AM (#35420812)
* * *
Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by iamerroragent on Monday April 03, 2023 @09:20AM (#35423043)
Additionally there is prison labor which is legal in the U.S. to force someone to do.

Prison labor allows companies to purchase labor at a rate the non-incarcerated worker can't afford to sell their labor at.

Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by krapp on Monday April 03, 2023 @05:48AM (#35420867)
>Should a company be allowed to own slaves?

No, because slavery is illegal.

>Should a company be allowed to do business with a company that owns slaves?

They do, all the time. Manufacturing, mining (particularly of the rare earth metals that go into electronics) and agriculture all depend on slave labor.

Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by Teever on Monday April 03, 2023 @01:04PM (#35427402)
Should the second one be illegal as well?

What is the functional difference between the two besides more paperwork and another middle man taking a cut?

Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by krapp on Monday April 03, 2023 @06:57PM (#35432519)
It certainly should be illegal, but a lot of the comforts of first-world civilization would vanish and the velocity of modern capitalism would grind to a halt, so politically speaking apart from token gestures that don't threaten the status quo that isn't likely to happen.
Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by WiSaGaN on Monday April 03, 2023 @06:28AM (#35421163)
I think generally owning slaves goes against the idea of freedom (let's discard the concept one has the freedom to sell themselves for once). Thus company does not have the right to own slaves.
Re:Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping by madeofpalk on Monday April 03, 2023 @05:42AM (#35420822)
No, that is not wrong. Nor is it wrong to dislike what a company does and try to get them to change.