@emmalbriant Yeah and it really did not give a very compelling argument for further restricting speech in America. It basically said that other countries have already started down the path of restricting speech (like Canada and Germany) but fail to mention that those policies are highly controversial in both of those countries. Also the fact that punishing those spreading "hate speech" usually just makes a martyr of them and their following (usually online) just grows stronger and more siloed and more radicalized. It also mentions that there should be punishments can metted out to those who lie about "empirical truths" and if these last 6 years have taught us anything its that people cant agree on what facts are, or what data is valued. Fact checkers already exist and people are skeptical of them, setting up a government sponsored fact checker that has punitive authority is just as 1984 a suggestion as you can get.

@Clementulus no indeed they do not argue all that, clearly that isn’t the point of the article… many others do… it’s presenting a different perspective. One you don’t often see argued well. I think this is quite well argued and interesting for an article taking this particular position.

@emmalbriant The only somewhat good point they make is that people should not be able to lie to the effect that it might obstruct someones rights, like manipulating people so they fail to vote. But that should be easy to deal with under existing laws because it is essentially fraud (or maybe mischief in some cases). But those are very fringe cases, most of what people are actually worried about is populism and demagogues but you would not even be able to come close to touching them with the very mild changes they were suggesting in the article. The article only really hints at going further, like by mentioning the hate speech laws in other countries but like I said before those are not seen as universally good things. Anyway, I was not trying to be contrarian, just didnt find that the article really contribute meaningfully to the discussion around political speech.

@Clementulus well at least you found it interesting and valuable enough to spend ages writing multiple posts about it.

@emmalbriant I enjoy having discussions about ideas, it's how I learn new things. I'm glad you challenged me on my thoughts, it makes me think more deeply on the subject matter.