> under arrest for essentially an identical crime

or very far from that

> It's not exactly safe in Ukraine either. American blogger Gonzalo Lira is under arrest for essentially an identical crime, dubbed "infoterrorism".

Gonzalo Lira supports a lot of the same positions as Russian propaganda would like to promote.

I don’t know why anyone would expect him to remain free when he decided to stay in Ukraine after the invasion started when he continued to justify Russias brutal invasion of Ukraine.

He also said that he was fleeing the country too hungry after he got released on bail, so he clearly doesn’t make smart decisions.

Wow so jailing for the “wrong” opinion in the “rightful” country is ok, but jailing for the “right” opinion in the “evil” country is not? So broken argument

Yeah more or less. Just without the quotes..

I mean we don't really blame US or Britain for jailing openly (pro)Nazi propagandists operating inside their territories during WW2?

OTH few people are willing to justify Nazi Germany imprisoning/killing opposition activists in Germany.

Of course Ukraine is deeply flawed country in many ways (just like US/Britain/etc. were back then) that doesn't mean that the war itself is necessarily morally ambiguous or that Russia's action aren't wrong/evil.

We should. Freedom of political speech either exists for everybody or you let the government - good or bad - carve out the chosen exceptions. There's a reason it was embedded in the American constitution.

>Of course Ukraine is deeply flawed country in many ways

The irony being that due to its history many of its flaws and values are very Russian in character. That includes imprisoning Lira for "informational terrorism".

I didn't realize that these Russian characteristics would be quite so popular on Hacker News though. Apparently freedom of speech isn't that important.

Absolutists tend to run into the walls of reality sooner or later.

Equating squelching propagandists of the invaders of your country to limits on freedom of speech shows that you don't actually understand that freedom of speech is a right, but not an absolute one, merely a shorthand for saying that you can criticize the government without ending up in jail. And in that sense spreading propaganda for an active belligerent enemy goes well across the limits set on free speech because it falls under 'aiding and abetting the enemy'. At some point in the not so distant past that got you a cigarette and a bullet, in that order. Freedom of speech is very important, as is a sense of reality and proportionality.

> Wow so jailing for the “wrong” opinion in the “rightful” country is ok, but jailing for the “right” opinion in the “evil” country is not? So broken argument

Jailing a person who spreads the propaganda of the country that has invaded you, and also gives Russian intelligence the position of your military units?.

Absolutely the right thing to do.

You misspelled "sending pictures of Ukrainian military equipment to Russian intelligence"

As a sidenote, that dumbass was stupid enough to live-tweet his attempt to jump bail and illegally cross the border. But I would expect nothing less from someone who unironically went by the name "Coach Red Pill".

Lira hasn't been accused of spying for Russia, just of being a propagandist, which he certainly was - exactly as Glukhovsky was accused of spouting Ukrainian propaganda by Russia.

Personally I'm quite attached to freedom of speech (defined as "I think people who espouse views I despise should be allowed to do so"), but I know that many people aren't and they are extremely happy with both Ukraine and the west aping Russia.

Lira (aka Coach Red Pill) believes that men shouldn’t date women over the age of 30 and that all women really want is family and subservience. When the war broke out, he started parroting Russian propaganda.

The comparison to Glukhovsky really doesn’t work.

> Lira (aka Coach Red Pill) believes that men shouldn’t date women over the age of 30 and that all women really want is family and subservience.

FWIW you can replace “Lira” with “The Amish” in this sentence and it’s still true. Hardly a justification for throwing someone in jail.

Leonardo di Caprio seems to believe at least the first half.

> When the war broke out, he started parroting Russian propaganda

This is more like it.

Yes, the red-pill stuff is abhorrent.

Mao believed in freedom of political speech. For views he liked. Stalin believed in freedom of speech. For views he agreed with. If believe in freedom of speech you either believe in freedom of speech for views that you despise or you don't believe in freedom of speech at all.

It appears you don't believe in freedom of speech at all.

Justifying your current country being invaded and brutalized is actually pretty different from arguing against your current country invading and brutalizing others.