Comment by stinkbeetle
12 days ago
It ended up associated with the far right, by people on the left who are against free speech I suppose, yes.
> And that eventually we realized that "old school free speech groups" just wanted to shut up opposition to far right.
That's untrue.
It ended up associated with the far right, because poster child for "defending speech" was only and exclusively far right. Really.
It was never "I strongly disagree with an annoying progressive, but I will defend their right to say it". It was always "how dare you criticize far right or call someone far right, you are preventing their speech by opposing them".
> people on the left who are against free speech I suppose, yes.
Funny enough, far right and conservatives were openly against free speech again and again and again. Including in very practical ways. And we see that right now with Trump, Thiel, Musk, Vance and the rest.
People "on the right" nor self styled free speech advocates never minded that. There was never any fascist movement for freedom, the openly stated goal was always to remove the freedom. But if you are not one of them say so and mean it as a criticism, you are somehow supposedly preventing their free speech.
> It ended up associated with the far right, because poster child for "defending speech" was only and exclusively far right. Really.
It ended up being associated with the far right by far leftists. Really. Go outside internet bubbles and ask normal people on the street. People don't think free speech is "far right". Really.
> It was never "I strongly disagree with an annoying progressive, but I will defend their right to say it". It was always "how dare you criticize far right or call someone far right, you are preventing their speech by opposing them".
I've heard that a lot, so that's false.
> Funny enough, far right and conservatives were openly against free speech again and again and again. Including in very practical ways. And we see that right now with Trump, Thiel, Musk, Vance and the rest.
I'm not seeing where the humor is.
> People "on the right" nor self styled free speech advocates never minded that.
Also wrong, many free speech advocates have greatly minded conservative efforts to censor speech in the past.
> There was never any fascist movement for freedom,
No, but that appears to be a strawman of your own construction by equating free speech advocates with fascists.