Louis Ingenthron @LouisIngenthron@social.cleverlibre.org

@interfluidity We, at least in the US, already have a system for this... it's called impeachment. We don't need any law against certain speech for that.

And you may say that impeachment isn't a plausible or practical solution, but if that's true, it's only because a majority of the public have intentionally elected representatives that don't find that language to be enough of an offense to warrant a punishment.

And all of this... is a reflection of the will of the electorate. So long as the electorate wills cruelty, no law will stop it.

@interfluidity I genuinely think it would make it worse.

Right now, they complain about being "silenced" but since it's just them getting banned on Twitter or whatever, only their most die-hard supporters buy it.

But if they were actually silenced by the law, then their grievances would be legitimate, and that would help legitimize their entire platform.

The point is, if we address the demand, then these people won't ever *get* to a position of power in the first place.

@interfluidity It seems to me, you're trying to address a symptom, rather than the cause.

And you nailed the cause: "rhetoric like this is popular". If you try to muzzle it, you won't eliminate it; you'll just drive it underground, where it's even more dangerous.

We need to address the demand, not the supply. And that starts with education.

@interfluidity I think it is, though, because shifting regulations on industry, for example, is one thing. But shifting lines on permissible speech is far more dangerous.

But let's move on to the second problem... how would you enforce this?

Because I believe that, in essence, the idea is a good one... just not that it should ever be encoded into law. The way we *should* punish leaders who use dehumanizing and inflammatory rhetoric is *by not voting for them*.

@interfluidity How would you define "dehumanizing and inflammatory language"?

A good example would be abortion. Say you have a Mike Pence for governor. How do you write the law so he can't arrest pro-choice protesters for "dehumanizing" unborn children? Hell, most moral protests are "inflammatory" by design.

@thatprivacyguy @havn Right, but you're not being "forced" to watch ads. You're choosing to visit a site that is ad-supported.

I'm opposed to ads as much as (or more than) the next guy, but let's be clear about who has the agency here.

@tripu Just use uBlockOrigin. 🤷‍♂️

@dclr42 Because over here, we don't drink it hot. Lipton is great for iced tea.

@brody Albinism. I've heard of albino squirrels, but never seen one in real life.

There are even a couple towns in America where people specifically bred them in the past and now there's a whole population of albino squirrels.

@PaulWermer @greenpeace In the case of plastics specifically, maybe not. Because the compounds they come from are volatile and flammable (usually gasses). There was a time when we just burned them as waste (in fact, we still do burn some; ever heard of butane?). So, while plastics aren't great for the environment, it's arguably a much better use of the raw materials than the other options, because polymerizing them traps the hydrocarbons in the plastic.