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Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

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Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#301
post #245
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no way they'll be able to stop the upcoming revolution. As someone who grew up poor in America, these talks about “revolution” have always perplexed me. We have one of the highest median incomes in the world, and we live in a country that pushes much of the world forward in terms of technological progress. People have always flocked to America for opportunity, and if we cut welfare so we can expand immigra…

Did you know that other countries have grocery stores too? > People have always flocked to America for opportunity, and if we cut welfare so we can expand immigration again, I guarantee there will be another giant influx. And how are welfare and immigration related?

> Did you know that other countries have grocery stores too?

In the countries destroying the rich in revolution, grocery stores are empty.

> how are welfare and immigration related?

Welfare and immigration are related because increasing both are fundamentally incompatible.

If you substantially increase welfare, you must avoid mass immigration that collapses the system.

If you substantially increase immigration, you must avoid welfare that collapses the system.

The United States is rare, as a wealthy country, in generally choosing substantial immigration over substantial welfare.

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#302
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I cared to waste my time doing so, I could find plenty of objectionable comments in just about any Reddit sub. You seem to believe tough conversations about whether Muslim culture is compatible with Western culture, or whether the US should begin mass deportations of illegal aliens should not occur. I’d have to disagree with you there. If we can’t discuss complex topics like this on the internet, then where can we…

What you are describing are not “tough conversations”, they are hardly a conversation at all. Trying to misrepresent the parent comment’s claim that they want to suppress all discussion of these topics and then calling their description an attempt at “gaslighting” is fairly poor-faith.

If you're not interested in having those conversations then don't participate in them. No need to claim those who are are somehow "hateful". You have expressed your opinion, which I totally disagree with. But thanks for writing!

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#303
post #134
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so ? I can't recall any major free speech issues on HN. Being downvoted and having your comment hidden is not exactly something HN can do much about, seeing that it is up to the users.

>"is not exactly something HN can do much about" They actually can do "much" about it. Just turn the feature off. Downvoting in my opinion is very unhealthy habit.

I upvoted you now and I suddenly feel healthier than ever!

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#304
post #303
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"is not exactly something HN can do much about" They actually can do "much" about it. Just turn the feature off. Downvoting in my opinion is very unhealthy habit.

I upvoted you now and I suddenly feel healthier than ever!

Cheers ;)

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right the point about the AfD is a weak one, so I won't argue it further (though I don't cede my ground, either). But you did not respond to the rest of my comment. Free speech in Germany (and, for that matter, most of Europe), does not exist. There is a great article in The Atlantic about this, titled "In Europe, Speech Is an Alienable Right": https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/its-not-fr... .…

But those examples do not hold either? The Muhammad story is about Austria (which I did not discuss and do not know a lot about). I don't know much about the religious issue at hand either, but the possibility of getting fined 500€ for accusing people of paedophilia if your claim does not hold does not strike me as such horrendous. Isn't this slander in the US and illegal as well? How is Germany on par with the count…

Dann haben wir haben ganz verschiedene Weltbilder.

The right to religious criticism should be absolute.

The reason I bring up the Austrian case is because itw was upheld by the ECHR, which Germany also defers to. To defend the woman in that case from the ECHR's deranged ruling: Scholars estimate that Mohammed married Aisha, his youngest wife, when she was only 6. If that is not paedophilia, I don't know what is.

You bring up libel laws in the US. Historically, they have had a very, very high burden of proof. Only oligarchal authoritarians like Trump try to expand their reach. Libel cases are also exceedingly rare, and if they are brought to court, they are brought to court as a civil matter. And, to top it off, criticism or slander of a figure who is:

- Dead

- Partly mythologized

- A religious figure

is completely fair game under the US doctrine of free speech and religious freedom. In the US I would be just as free to say "Jesus was a gay man" or "Mohammed was schizophrenic" as anything else, and in my opinion this is the proper approach. Anyone should also be allowed to print the text of the Quran on toilet paper or burn the Bible or deface the Talmud — why the hell should that be illegal???

Noam Chomsky (who is an extremely prominent Jewish-American scholar and linguist), is one of the staunchest supporters of free speech, from a leftist position. He even made efforts to defend a French Holocaust denier (holocaust denial is also not something I believe should be illegal). I would recommend this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-oV42OMQoE if you would like to see more on that specific case.

If you take a look of the depicted world map, you'll see what I was referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasphemy_law#/media/File:Blas.... What Germany shares in common with the other countries I named is that blasphemy is a potentially imprisonable offence.

I strongly believe that there are many things which are done far better in the German/European system:

- Healthcare

- Data privacy

- Taxation

- Criminal prosecution/the prison system

- etc.

but there are a few things about the American system which I ascribe extreme value to, chiefly the right to freedom of speech.

I say all of this as a dual German-American citizen myself.

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mainstream name recognition isn’t particularly indicative of success. In my experience, Reddit is slowly eliminating anything that doesn’t conform to a west coast American view of the world. Unfortunately for them, the rest of the world is coming online and has a different view of things. We’re starting to see this with India and the EU. Best case scenario for Reddit is a link aggregator for a very narrow group, unle…

I don't think you can run a (successful and mainstream) free speech reddit clone in the EU, it would be a PR and political nightmare.

You couldn't even make a clone of it as it is. It still allows free speech if your sub isn't too popular. The general user base certainly got more intolerant.

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#307

Reddit is very clearly not in favour of free speech: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/reddit-bans-thedonald-and-... . Aaron Swartz was very clearly in favour of free speech: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/becausewecan . I think the reasons for this are self-evident.

If you run a forum and a user is constantly making up lies, harassing other users, and spamming misinformation then I don't think banning them is "free speech" issue. t_D should have been banned long before it eventually was imo. It actively spread misinformation and hate and made the website worse for other users. And a question for you: You say that Reddit is not in favor of free speech because it banned subs like…

They were not as much in favor of free speech as they often proclaim. It is probably mostly due to reactionary behavior. I think the banning was a mistake, they were also discriminated against on political grounds.

If you do that because you think it necessary I would at least expect results.

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#308
post #197
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considered good censorship by me. If you preach hate to minorities in my house you are also going to be asked to leave.

Do you have same rules for the majority

If that majority has been oppressing a minority then I find a little push back to that majority acceptable. Anyone should be able to address and counter oppression/exploitation. Hating the oppressor falls in line with my expectations.

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>as long as we can counter them by rational argument I don't know if y'all are new to the internet, but I've been here since around 1990 and we ration argument hasn't done any good. I feel like a lot of these ideas around speech are ones that came from people who were used to arguing with other intelligent people. When the unwashed masses are involved, rational argument doesn't work at all. Some people understand thi…

I strongly disagree with you on one point: > When the unwashed masses are involved, rational argument doesn't work at all I believe this is an extremely illiberal viewpoint. Someone who can make this argument could well be a monarchist, fascist, or totalitarian at heart. The foundation of a democracy is the belief that the "unwashed masses" can hold informed views on politics, and at the very least should have the ri…

>I think HN is a great example of the principles of (nearly) free speech in action. Look at the discussion we're having now!

Yes, and HN filters out most of the "unwashed masses" I share your view, about my view being kind of horrible, but I think it is largely true

Re: Reddit’s About page doesn't include Aaron Swartz as a founder

#310

Just the one question: alternatives? Not necessarily already established and crowded platform, but also free and open, privacy friendly ones that can be slowly brought to self sustaining levels by enthusiasts, so that they can attract normal users.

Chapo.chat is a popular one for leftists that formed after the chapo subreddits were censored/banned a couple months ago. Fair warning: most HN users aren't going to like it because they advocate for things like food and shelter and healthcare for everyone, no matter what

I don't think anyone associated with y combinator or for that matter, enjoy posting on here would be welcome there.

I would even wager a large chunk would happily wish death on people here for "perpetuating a broken system" or some odd thing.

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