I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express.
I totally agree, it's like calling your opponent bot, voids a lot of what you have to say
it's like calling your opponent bot, voids a lot of what you have to say
That's not quite the same. When calling someone a bot, or nazi, or any other group, you are more explicitly saying " I see zero value in arguing with you and expect that you will only be arguing in bad faith, so I am not going to humor you", and also serves as an at least attempted black mark.
It's overall just a tactic to end an argument sucinctly, by trying to say "this argument has run its course, I am cutting it off here"
Every group does it. communists call people libs or nazis, leftists call people tankies or nazis or zionists, liberals call people hippies, nazis, commies, anarchists, etc... and conservatives call people by every word in the book.
Exactly. I’ve often said you’re free to speak, but you’re also free to suffer the consequences of doing so. We don’t have to silently suffer the bullshit coming from everyone else’s mouths.
And you're not necessarily free to speak, depending on what you're saying and where you're saying it. As the comic says, "free speech" refers to consequences from the government, not anyone else.
Have you read through the thread? Tons of examples of admin abuse. I fully expect to cop another ban for this comment thread soon.
Also, I would disagree with calling defederation 'censorship'. Nobody was prevented from speaking up. Refusal to engage with somebody you disagree with is not censorship.
It must be cathartic to make cartoons about an argument you want to have where the other person is silenced by your point. Most of the time, the guy on the left in this cartoon would continue to argue and reject everything you say.
As evidence, watch a video of anyone arguing with MTG.
If it were a true conversation then it would have had to have been a 6 square comic strip instead and the last two squares would have been him not shutting up and a thought bubble by the intelligent one thinking he should have just decked the idiot instead of trying to reason with him.
I respect the sentiment, but I recently read "Exiting the Vampire Castle" by Mark Fisher and he makes some good points for why callout culture is, shall we say, "less than productive" in some situations.