Comment by farright | Hacker News Reader

Comment by farright | Hacker News Reader

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The fact that people would face "consequeces" for making these political statements is exactly why Trump has been so popular.

People are afraid to say even innocent or true things because those will result them being branded as "racist". For example even good liberals who believe that black communities are caught in a cycle of crime, have to self-censor because the only acceptable position is that black crime is entirely caused by a biased criminal justice system.

I don't think Trump phased it very well but I do think that illegal immigration is a net negative for the US, and it wouldn't' surprise me if illegal immigrants were disproportionately criminal. What's undeniable is that illegal immigration is connected with new patterns of organized crime, even if the overall crime rate is similar.

> People are afraid to say even innocent or true things because those will result them being branded as "racist". For example even good liberals who believe that black communities are caught in a cycle of crime, have to self-censor because the only acceptable position is that black crime is entirely caused by a biased criminal justice system.

And the result of that is a self perpetuating system. If they really wanted to solve the situation they'd frame it as the socio economic issue it is.

bingo. Just like with the white working class, it's not particularly helpful to tell people "the system will never give you a break" if that isn't actually true.

For every fashionable article on how privilege perpetuates itself (which it does, to some extent) there is an unfashionable article on the financial payoff to college education (spoiler, it's huge).

Free speech does not mean consequence free speech. It's not some gross injustice that saying racist things or supporting racist candidates makes people think you're racist.

You're completely missing my point. Did you read the whole post or just the first sentence? My point was that people shouldn't be punished for saying reasonable things, but currently they are.

Creating consequences for speech just pushes the speech underground where it can't be challenged. Then when someone like Trump pops up people wonder where all the support is coming from.

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