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Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

theguardian.com

41–50 of 94 posts

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#42
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"People hold views that other beings should be enslaved or exterminated, so what?" The kind of sentiment you're expressing often comes from people who are either ignorant of fascism / authoritarianism and how it affects societies, or are apathetic towards those outcomes. You must understand that there are people out there primarily driven by fear and hatred, that, once given positions of power, will use that power to…

> You must understand that there are people out there primarily driven by fear and hatred, that, once given positions of power, will use that power to denigrate or otherwise erode the humanity of people they simply don't like. Sounds like both current-day US political parties, so we're not doing a very good job at preventing this.

No, it doesn't, unless you're feigning stupidity. But in case you're not and actually attempting a point, let's review some current social issues and see if you can notice any trends:

Climate change: the GOP more or less does not acknowledge this reality; former POTUS removed US from the Paris Climate Accords.

Abortion / healthcare: attempts to overturn the Affordable Care Act have almost all come from GOP affiliates; abortion is not allowed even in cases of rape and incest for many GOP-led states. Attempts to reign in pharmaceutical costs have been countered by GOP representatives.

LGBTQ+ rights: again we have GOP-led states that are not only banning gender-affirming care for transgender kids, but proposing statewide registries for these children. Additional efforts and talking points about overturning Obergefell v Hodges, as well as Loving v Virginia have already surfaced.

Immigration: GOP representatives and appointees authored a policy of intentionally separating children from families in a disgusting attempt to deter lawful migration and asylum seekers. Earlier this year, GOP officials lied to legal immigrants and transported them across the country for a political stunt.

Drug policy: no evidence supports the notion that increasing incarceration decreases drug use or recidivism. Democratic-led states were the first to make moves toward medicinal and recreational use of cannabis, massively offsetting the amount of people being unnecessarily jailed (which costs society in two ways: taxpayer money, and, if the charge is a felony offense, the individual can no longer vote).

The "but BOTH SIDES..." arguments may work on reddit or 4chan, but this is HN! We're better than that!

Hope this helps.

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#43
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My comment would remain the same - there is extremist media on both sides.

> My comment would remain the same - there is extremist media on both sides. But "extremist" and "extremism" aren't really neutral terms anymore. They're now also euphemisms coded to mean conservative/right-wing extremists.

Perhaps it's because right wing extremists are significantly more likely to use violence? I think it's understandable that the default image of a terrorist is someone who espouses right wing values in that case. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/08/post-911-dom...

I might be in a bubble but I very, very rarely learn about left wing attacks, while right wing ones pop up here and there.

Edit: Also, about that link GP posted above about the Congressional baseball shooting: The perpetrator attacked Republican lawmakers, who have the most power to implement right-wing policies. In contrast, the attacks mentioned in my link mostly affected random people who probably did not have much political power, and were just members of groups that are often disliked by right wing extremists.

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#44
post #18
post #14

The far left extremists on Twitter are still there, spreading hate, and never got banned. Why so much attention to the far-right?

Left and right are useless categories, trying to compare them is moot.

In general, yes. In this case - no, they're quite clearly defined.

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#45
post #14

The far left extremists on Twitter are still there, spreading hate, and never got banned. Why so much attention to the far-right?

Because it is more frequent and more aggressive. And also because it has many pretend-to-be-moderate types working hard to maintainstream them.

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#46
post #14

The far left extremists on Twitter are still there, spreading hate, and never got banned. Why so much attention to the far-right?

> Why so much attention to the far-right? Because elite media is left-ish, and has great power to focus attention on some things but not on others.

> Because elite media is left-ish, and has great power to focus attention on some things but not on others.

I wouldn't say "elite", just mainstream. And they're not leftish, just left - for a variety of reasons, many of them being valid. Such as respecting minorities, promoting equality, etc. I think the problem happens when some people go to the extreme - and this immediately causes uproar on the opposite side. Unfortunately, social media amplify this conflict between the extremes. But most people are in the middle.

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#47
post #14

The far left extremists on Twitter are still there, spreading hate, and never got banned. Why so much attention to the far-right?

The far-left fights ideas it does not like with censorship and cancellation. The far-right is more aggressive at defending their beliefs. One says you must be silenced, the other says come at me bro.

BS. Far right is both openly pro censorship and also works hard at silencing opposition.

They also complained about being treated unfairly even when they are given much more leeway then their opposition

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#49

FWIW, Elon tweeted this today: > To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586149451348910081 So it's not clear why these supposedly banned groups are now supposedly able to rejoin without consequence? I suppose "not changing the policies" isn't synonymous with "continuing to enforce the stated policies".

If it's true - and I hope it is - then it could be a way from someone inside Twitter to send out a message. We'll see what's behind it soon.

Re: Banned British far-right figures return to Twitter within hours of takeover

#50
post #14

The far left extremists on Twitter are still there, spreading hate, and never got banned. Why so much attention to the far-right?

The far-left fights ideas it does not like with censorship and cancellation. The far-right is more aggressive at defending their beliefs. One says you must be silenced, the other says come at me bro.

Drag story hour is speech. Far right activists have been showing up and physically assaulting people to silence them, moderate right politicians are trying to pass laws against them or simply defund libraries to silence the speech they find repugnant. So called bastions of free speech: Gab, Parler, Truth: they all silence anything to the left of their worldview.
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