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Comment by tenpies | Hacker News Reader

I had no idea Hacker News was so anti-gab. I guess we know which side of the free speech argument won.

When did freedom of speech turn into freedom to hate and be rude?

The founder on gab has been on here calling other commenters "cucks" and "gullible morons". And telling a mod "Cry about it" when it was objected. Free speech is about ideas, not being a dick.

That has always been freedom of speech.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/06/19/a-...

> Free speech is about ideas, not being a dick.

You want to personally try to have civilized discussions where you resolve thorny issues that people are passionate about, and may hold utterly objectionable views about. Any given person should do that even if only from self-interest; why waste your life trolling?

The entire Gab application promotes an intellectual sewer, and that's because its business model (same as Twitter's) rewards bad behavior.

But "free speech" in the context of a protection is generally about needing to protect the speech of people who aren't polite, who have objectionable views, etc. And that's because they are still human beings and, absent material harm, have an inalienable right to self-expression.

I'm not that worried about protecting the rights of people to abridge the rights of others, since they're demanding a double standard. Specifically I mean people who say groups of people should suffer a loss of rights due to some perceived inherent defect as opposed to behavior.

What rights have been lost or abridged here? We're in a thread about a site that Gab launched in order to express itself, and they seem to be expressing themselves freely.

And people object to their behavior, specifically their political ideology. I don't think anyone has mentioned "inherent defects," whatever those would be.

Read it in context, it's a reply to the last argument int he previous comment which is a general one.

Actually, that's exactly what freedom is speech is supposed to protect.

To play devil's advocate for both sides. I think there is a freedom of speech problem online. I think the idea of an the internet being an open forum for discussion of ideas (even controversial) is a major benefit.

But there is a problem with free speech absolutist sites like 4chan and Gab in that they attract all of the bad actors that are banned from traditional media for their fringe beliefs.

I'm really interested in finding a solution to this. To make a free speech platform that attracts conventional users but allows for fringe discussion as well. The only thing I can really think of is for established platforms like youtube and twitter to do away with any rules limiting speech (with exceptions for material that is illegal). They already have a base of conventional users that wouldn't leave. I don't think this will happen though.

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