Comment by b3kart
5 days ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
Probably tongue-in-cheek, but UK 18th, US joint 34th with Poland
5 days ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index
Probably tongue-in-cheek, but UK 18th, US joint 34th with Poland
> published by the British media company the Economist Group
Haha, it's literally the first sentence of the Wikipedia page. That's fucking funny. Try again.
Why is it funny? You think British media can’t be critical of the British government? They are famously merciless.
Also, the economist is majority foreign owned, so try doing more than 1 second of research, or be more civil, or ideally both.
The Economist is very much part of the establishment, whoever they are owned by. It is not surprising that they would want to play down any idea that the UK is less “democratic”. Furthermore, The Economist is one of the main mouthpieces of British capitalism, and so their definition of “democracy” is going to be very much of the liberal, capital-friendly kind, which is not completely incompatible with some authoritarian tendencies.
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To be fair, BBC has hardly been that critical in the British governments' complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
And their headlines covering Israeli atrocities (not even their own governments), is super passive.
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Are the sibling comments astroturfed? This seems like such a bizarre thing to be talking about in relation to an Anthropic model release. As someone from the UK, I don't feel like I'm living in an authoritarian country. And yet most of the sibling comments are insinuating that I am. Weird.
I'm sure there are people in Russia, China, ... who don't feel like they're living in an authoritarian country.
It's true (from a perception perspective):
China soars in democratic perception ranking as US, Israel plummet: Poll
https://thecradle.co/articles/china-soars-in-democratic-perc...
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If you think Britain and Russia or China are equivalent in terms of government overreach, you need to find new sources of information.
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HN is extremely pro free speech and the UK has recently decided to engage in censorship. Part of the issue users here reckon with is the recency. Unlike many authoritarian countries that seem hopeless with regards to free speech the UKs censorship is a recent development that many think can still be undone through political action. Similar to takes on why Israel is being protested when places like sudan arent.
Indeed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce83pj1ggmeo
In the uk you can very much be imprisoned for "hate speech", which in my view is a form of censorship.
This has passed me by - can you give me some specific examples?
I personally don't feel limited in my speech, but I'm willing to accept that I may be wrong
Nobody I know in real life is talking about censorship or free speech in the UK
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>HN is extremely pro free speech
It is most definitively not, at least in the 10ish year's I've lurked.
It is "pro free speech" in the sense Elon Musk is a "free speech absolutist": in pretty much the diametrically opposed meaning of the phrase.
> HN is extremely pro free speech
They like to think so. But if someone makes a comment that goes against the groupthink here, they will get downvoted, flagged, and shadow-banned.
The UK has very recently[1] announced a new push for client side scanning by messaging providers which is both very likely to be unpopular and known here, so once one person cracks the joke, others are going to want to comment. Don’t think that requires astroturfing.
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/08/starmer-t...
It's just people who use "For You" algorithm on X.
Neither do people living in China
Really shocked Poland is that low, especially just next to USA.
Why would you be? The fully corrupt, fear-mongering party that idolized Orban's Hungary and tried to copy his tactics, including taking over the courts (resulting in EU sanctions) and turning the state media into a propaganda machine, only recently lost the elections. And not a full term later, the polls favour them again, combined with a meteoric rise of even worse anti-EU fascists who they'll happily join forces with to take over in 2027.
I get you might not hear this stuff if you're not in EU or Poland itself, but seriously, just check the latest polling and history of PiS rule. It would take over a decade to event attempt to undo the damage that has been done to the rule of law in Poland, and the currently ruling "anti-PiS" coalition only had a short while (in which they failed to do anything) before getting neutered by the populace electing their own Trump-like buffoon that proceeds to veto everything the ruling coalition tries to pass. For added damage, the 3rd and 4th leading candidates (with combined 20% support) were the aforementioned fascists. Here's one [0]. Consider the wiki article a fraction of the cesspool he regularly produces.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grzegorz_Braun
Placing Poland so far below the UK is a joke understandable to anyone who has spent at least a few weeks in both countries.
> The Democracy Index published by the British media company
We decided that we aren't one of those authoritarian countries.
Ah, yes, the Economist, a famously government-controlled media outlet.
I have absolutely no clue what the US nor Poland's rank has to do with anything.
It shows the irony of trolling the UK's "authoritarianism" in a thread on a release of a model by a US company, given the US is arguably _more_ authoritarian. (Poland is more of a fun tidbit, as they are indeed tied in the Economist's index.)
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> In the UK you get thrown in prison for making a slightly unfriendly tweet.
Do you? The closest thing I can think about is how someone was jailed for encouraging arson attacks on asylum hotels. I'd be extremely surprised if the US had zero cases of somebody receiving a police visit after threatening to kill the President or bomb a school or something...
(FWIW I do think the UK needs stronger free speech protections, but saying that you'll be immediately jailed for writing unfriendly tweets is a huge stretch)
Yes. And also you are threatened with prison for holding in front of a court a placard with [pretty much] a quote from the plaque displayed on the most important criminal court.
You're threatened with arrest for holding empty placard.
You're jailed for years for holding a zoom meeting planning a peaceful climate-emergency related demonstration. At the same time judge threatens the defendants with contempt of court sanctions if they dare to explain to juries why they planned to protest.
You're jailed for opposing a genocide.
You're jailed and called a terrorist for painting planes helping to bomb civilians - the exact same thing the sitting PM was defending a person in court some years ago (as a human rights lawyer, the irony).
You're arrested for wearing a T-shirt "I support plasticine action" (not a typo, "Plasticine").
We could go for hours.
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/select-communications-off...
Are they really making 12,000 arrests a year over tweets and posts?
>the quality of discussion on HN has gone to shit, i miss when model released used to have actual informed takes from people that used them or substantive discussion about the system card
Your comment earlier.
Edit: also, not much change in the last 10 years in prison population. https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04...
https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/select-communications-off...
12k people a year thrown in prison for spicy tweets
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In the UK you get thrown in prison for making a slightly unfriendly tweet. Freedom of speech simply does not exist.
"These days if you say you're English you'll be arrested and you'll be thrown in jail."
It's just not true. Where are you getting this nonsense from?