When we on the left face repression we sometimes judge that the state (whichever one it is) is lashing out ineffectively. But often we fear that the repression will work - not in destroying the left entirely but in weakening it. Is this fear always misplaced?
Very oddly, this was linked from a TechCrunch article (https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/03/substack-doubles-down-on-uncensored-free-speech-with-acquisition-of-letter/), presumably as evidence of the linked language which was "But free speech shouldn’t mean endorsing hate speech." I am actively confused as to how this article could be viewed as supporting the article, though I guess it's certainly true that free speech doesn't mean ENDORSING hate speech, merely recognizing that it cannot/should not be censored? That may be overly generous.
“ You want to defund the police, you think they’re irredeemably racist, you think they’re all fascists at heart, but you also want to give them sweeping new powers to limit what people say? That’s… strange.”
In line with other things you say in the essay, I think that many people imagine that when their favored anti-hate laws are passed, it will also somehow mean that social justice-minded people like them will be training the cops.
A silly, cringe, but understandable mistake from people who often just don’t think these things through and also probably don’t have enough experience to know that punitive rules aren’t guaranteed to get enforced in the ways you’d hope they would.
"The problem is never the expressions you wish to repress themselves but the existence of the people who would express them, and those people are ultimately the product of conditions in the world you can’t control. You cannot eliminate hate from the world, and no one alive will live to see the end of fascism. What you can do is to mitigate the negative effects of hate as best you can ... by trying to present a more compelling and attractive vision than the fascists."
Even short of banning offensive speech, attempts to label it "misinfo" have been shown to make it even more viral -- the "Streisand effect" after Barbara Streisand's effort to halt publication of aerial photos of her mansion wound up making the images go viral. https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/trump-twitter-misinformation
When we on the left face repression we sometimes judge that the state (whichever one it is) is lashing out ineffectively. But often we fear that the repression will work - not in destroying the left entirely but in weakening it. Is this fear always misplaced?
Very oddly, this was linked from a TechCrunch article (https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/03/substack-doubles-down-on-uncensored-free-speech-with-acquisition-of-letter/), presumably as evidence of the linked language which was "But free speech shouldn’t mean endorsing hate speech." I am actively confused as to how this article could be viewed as supporting the article, though I guess it's certainly true that free speech doesn't mean ENDORSING hate speech, merely recognizing that it cannot/should not be censored? That may be overly generous.
“ You want to defund the police, you think they’re irredeemably racist, you think they’re all fascists at heart, but you also want to give them sweeping new powers to limit what people say? That’s… strange.”
In line with other things you say in the essay, I think that many people imagine that when their favored anti-hate laws are passed, it will also somehow mean that social justice-minded people like them will be training the cops.
A silly, cringe, but understandable mistake from people who often just don’t think these things through and also probably don’t have enough experience to know that punitive rules aren’t guaranteed to get enforced in the ways you’d hope they would.
"The problem is never the expressions you wish to repress themselves but the existence of the people who would express them, and those people are ultimately the product of conditions in the world you can’t control. You cannot eliminate hate from the world, and no one alive will live to see the end of fascism. What you can do is to mitigate the negative effects of hate as best you can ... by trying to present a more compelling and attractive vision than the fascists."
Brilliantly expressed and too wise, FdB.
Even short of banning offensive speech, attempts to label it "misinfo" have been shown to make it even more viral -- the "Streisand effect" after Barbara Streisand's effort to halt publication of aerial photos of her mansion wound up making the images go viral. https://thefulcrum.us/big-picture/trump-twitter-misinformation