Comment by Ray20
9 months ago
>free speech absolutism is a giant "kick me" sign on the back of society
How does this work? What danger represents freedom of speech? With lack of it dangers is understandable: it is a giant "welcome" sign for bloody totalitarian dictatorship.
If megacorporations can lie to you about what they're selling you (which is one of the things that free speech absolutists generally argue for), then you will have no way of knowing if what you buy is going to kill you.
I don't know any "free speech absolutists" who argue that fraud should be legal. Misrepresentation of a product or service you're selling is fraud. We already have laws against that.
Then consider yourself lucky, but I've seen that position argued strenuously right here on HackerNews in the past.
This has actually been a fairly common position among American libertarians. Alan Greenspan, for instance, was strongly against fraud laws until some time after the financial crisis. The idea was that the market would sort it out.
(And no, I don't understand how this is a serious position that serious people can seriously hold, but then that is how I feel about libertarianism in general.)
7 replies →
>If megacorporations can lie to you about what they're selling you
But this has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Freedom of speech does not in any way cancel out responsibility for fraud.
Then you are not a free speech absolutist, and reasonable people will disagree about where the tipping point is.
Fire in a crowded theatre? CP? Threats of violence? Hate speech?