Free Speech Absolutists
Good fucking grief, I cannot take one more absurd take of some asshole being all "If they ban Trump, they're going to have so much more control to ban everyone on the left!"
They've *been* doing that for years. I haven't seen the same outcry for the censorship, harassment, and harm that a lot of marginalised people have endured.
But when some powerful white fascist and his cronies get banned, it's full-scale IF THEM, THEN YOU.
Fuck's sake.
Free Speech Absolutists
And like, that isn't even the *best* example, but in a moment of frustration? It's the first one that jumped into my mind because it's one that's stuck with me for as long as I can remember.
Free Speech Absolutists
Imo, free speech is like a peace treaty, if someone breaks it by being hateful, then they're not covered by its protections anymore.
Also, this XKCD comic strip puts it nicely:
Free Speech Absolutists
@RazyDazzle Agreed! I've always seen it as a kind of social contract or a form of negotiations, too.
Which is something else those dweebs keep missing, too. The people being banned right now are people who have driven mass campaigns of hatred and harassment. They don't even want to address that aspect.
Free Speech Absolutists
It's a small consolation seeing that the Google Play store has suspended the Parler app "until it adds robust content moderation", whatever that's supposed to mean.
Free Speech Absolutists
@whatanerd fr, I've been trying to explain to people that refusing to deplatform fascist doesn't mean they're sending like going to stop targeting leftists.
Free Speech Absolutists
@whatanerd *suddenly
Free Speech Absolutists
@VampiricKitten I kept getting stuck in, like... ridiculous conversations about how:
a) deplatforming Nazis, fascists, white supremacists, white nationalists, etc. is not the same at all (and how "the left" has always had to fight for space);
b) laws developed under the guise of targeting those people have always been meant for and used more against others (anarchists, socialists, civil rights, communists, etc);
Free Speech Absolutists
and finally:
c) trying to explain that you can't and shouldn't "nationalise" Twitter (and the like) because that... doesn't really make sense in any capacity.
Like, for example... TOS are often arbitrarily enforced? Laws are often arbitrarily enforced? These companies learned their behaviour from somewhere.
Free Speech Absolutists
And like, they've been doing this shit since BEFORE social media even existed.
I mean, one of the biggest historical events in a town near where I grew up is the shooting of Elijah P. Lovejoy.
Who was an abolitionist, journalist, and newspaper editor.
And he was protecting the warehouse where his materials were being stored from being *destroyed* by pro-slavery people.
This shit *isn't new*; it just fucking changes.
And yet these assholes keep going IF HIM, THEN YOU.