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A comment on Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy. Parent comment

Re:Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy by SimianSci on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @12:14PM (#46123591)
free speech absolutism sounds fair in a vacuum but neglects the power disparity that wealth provides in a connected world. Free Speech is not the concept of anyone can say anything without rules. Its about the ability for those without power to be able to speak on an even playing field as those with power.

The Wealthy and powerful have never had to worry about the freedom of their speech in history. They determined what speech was acceptable.

Take a break from defending those actively destroying our society through their actions, intentional or not, and learn the foundations of why free speech is designed the way it is.

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Re:Peter Thiel's Apocalyptic Worldview Is a Dangerous Fantasy by AlexandrB on Tuesday December 02, 2025 @12:25PM (#46123763)
What's the alternative though? Regulation of speech is often used by those already in power to silence dissent[1]. And there's still plenty a rich person can do to hide themselves as the source of something unsavoury while making it appear "grassroots". Now more than ever, with LLMs and bots.

It's not that free speech absolutism is fair, it's that there's not really an alternative that's any more fair.

[1] https://nypost.com/2025/02/21/world-news/germans-cant-insult...

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