The Poison Stops Here · 3:37am Jul 20th, 2020
I'm going to make this stupid-simple: if there are among my followers any Nazis or Nazi sympathizers or dystopia-fearing advocates of so-called "absolute free speech", then you're not welcome anywhere near me.
If that's you, then unfollow me right now. I'll instantly block anyone I find doing it anyway. I don't associate with callous bullies and ignorant enablers determined to make the world a shittier place for others.
(Here's a free hint for a starting point: "absolute free speech" is a righteous-sounding myth, nothing more. Do some basic research on American exceptions and hate speech laws in other countries, for God's sake, before you dare peddle yet more delusional fear-mongering.)
Because if I have to explain to you why being passive in favour of pro-discrimination, war-criminal-romanticizing, pro-genocide radicalization (whilst being passive-aggressive about its encroachment to everyone else) is gross stupidity at best, and if I have to explain why making trollfics or "jokes" for no higher purpose than to deliberately offend Nazi victims and decriers is sheltered and callous stupidity at best, then frankly I want nothing to do with you and your brand of self-serving hostility to other people's lives and dignity.
I'm not and I never will be here to coddle criminal apologists. Nazis are not an oppressed minority. They're idiots carrying useless poison. So are their friends and defenders. Drop it or get lost.
Go find a humane, non-human-rights-violating ideology before you even think of talking to me; respectable ideas are really not hard to find. Put a smidgen of damn effort into it.
In the meantime, go. Goodbye. Good riddance.
This is my disinfectant, you medicinally ignorant snake in the grass. I don't buy shit peddled as another flavour of drink, because I'm not a fucking moron. Don't be a stain that needs removal; at least rise up to a basic level of decency. And don't be surprised if people don't tolerate an eighty-year-old stink that was rotten shit when it was new.
This is not a negotiation. I'm not playing stupid games with trolls, sickos, and dehumanizers. At this table, you fucking earn your respect.
You have been warned. You will not get a second warning.
Impossible Numbers, out.
Iām confused. Why is this still a thing?
I agree, it is not ok.
Well said.
Wonderfully said. Thank you.
Say it again louder!
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I'll content myself to say that my intellectual side sees this as a good social science question re: the many factors and causes behind people finding and believing in particular ideologies.
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Well now, I wouldn't call it "poetic" myself. This isn't Shakespeare by a long shot. I am trying to be clear, though, what my position is, and (to put it diplomatically) my patience for this "topic" is thin to negligible at best.
Generally, I don't like being aggressive, either. I prefer to pre-empt or avoid any unpleasantness. Anyway, there's no shortage of people on this site willing and able to argue for as long as they want. But they're not going to do it in my corner.
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I'm honestly strongly hoping to get back to far, far more pleasant (or at least agreeably neutral) blog topics sooner rather than later. I come here to browse or talk shop with fellow pony fans; I don't come here to pick political fights.
However, given how ubiquitous (and, speaking personally, tiresome) this recent "controversy" is, I feel I should have at least one post making it unambiguously clear that I'm neither neutral nor tolerant about it. I reserve the right to use the on-site block option as I see fit.
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I agree
I always want to tell people who peddle this false narrative of absolute free speech, in the context of letting bigots say what they want, that it only serves to help them. The thought process behind it is flimsy at best and enabling at usual. Like, you're arguing for whose free speech? Oh, the people who want to post nazi shit, say nazi shit, do nazi things, or otherwise racist or bigoted things. The 'free-speech' crowd both don't recognize that
A. Sunlight will not cure bad ideologies, as evidenced by nazism and neo-nazism, alongside all forms of intolerance in any stripe, are still around and have had almost a century and in some cases over centuries.
B. They, in the pursuit to vanguard 'free speech,' made an oopsie. Oh, uh oh, now the platform is full of nazis and racists because the entire fandom has been built off of this absolutist principle. Alongside another epithet that makes my blood boil: "You may disagree with xyz, but that doesn't mean xyz." Yes, I do disagree with actual bigots and their sympathizers, and that does mean to get them out of the site. You're not being virtuous when you do this, you're being ignorant and enabling to these sorts of voices.
Now my turn to drop the mic. Ruby Out.
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I do think both sides can and have aired bad arguments, but the only two cards the pro-Nazi side ever seem to play are "free speech" (for, presumably, any subjugating or predatory viewpoint: how about anti-West Jihadists, Apartheid supporters, and rapist "I own my wife" husbands? Why not boast about them and show off our incredible diversity more fully?) and so-called "cancel culture" (I wonder: is any criminalization a "cancel culture" applied against the absolute right of freedom of action?).
The former's a naive invitation for corruption (so long as they don't hurt anyone with anything other than words, it's perfectly OK, apparently because nasty words live in some netherworld safely sequestered away from people's minds and welfare), and the latter is delusional fear-mongering. (And, frankly, I don't think it's a coincidence the most vile trolls and cruelly mocking users tend to be on the pro-Nazi "free speech" side).
There are lots of values in free speech, but granting people an intimidating, leering bully license is not one of them.
I do indeed think it'll drive more decent people away: "Come on in, we platform Nazi sympathizers" is a massive PR disaster. Hell, I've considered burning my bridges myself recently. And all it gains us in return is a bunch of peace-undercutting shitheads who lower the tone of the site even more than it's already been lowered. This is supposed to get us respected by mainstream media?
Of course, some people might not care about the mainstream media either, but if you refuse to clear house, you shouldn't be outraged if people pick up on the stink either.
What I find particularly obnoxious about the whole issue is the complete lack of perspective: to some people, saying, "Nazis, get lost" is a more heinous crime than saying, "Genocide is kewl, lulz!"
As far as I'm concerned, speech is an act with consequences - free speech protects the acts that matter, that are acceptable or necessary (e.g. political criticism, whistleblowing, satire), or that don't need or warrant being persecuted in the first place. This is a principle firstly and most obviously upheld by the fact that there are any exceptions at all: libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, dignity, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury. (From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech). Whether or not any particular one stands up to scrutiny, it's frankly idiotic to claim free speech as an absolute right above those of other human rights, especially as if it had no consequences.
And it's also upheld by the fact that speech isn't itself subject to moral concern: people are. We don't need to protect all speech as if it were some sort of precious child. When you start glorifying abstractions, you start caring less about real people.
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OK, that's as much as I'm going to say on the subject, because I don't want to go on and get annoyingly sucked into this whole mess. I've made it clear I don't want an argument - in this case, I definitely despise it - and I want to drag myself away from this anger-inducing... thing if at all possible.
Now I need to wash the taste out of my mouth and get back to better topics.