Being unaware is very different than knowingly accepting their company.
You
The one additional thing I’ll say is, the Nazis on Substack were absolutely undetectable to anyone who didn’t choose to interact with them, but a bunch of people absolutely freaked out about them, to the point that it did a bunch of damage to a platform that was absolutely a positive force for good, just because people would have had to share the platform with literally about 0.05% Nazis somewhere out of sight.
It’s like you can’t read and understand a simple sentence. Or you just like defending nazis, that could be it too.
My point is that the Nazis were not “in my company” on Substack. I didn’t read them, I wouldn’t even have known where to find them or how to interact with them without putting some effort into finding out. The fact that I knew they were there somewhere doesn’t change that.
There’s no call to get insulting with me about that or pretend that I’m saying it because there’s something I can’t understand. It’s simply the truth. You have your viewpoint, which as best I understand it is that even using the same platform as an overt Nazi is unacceptable to you, which, okay, fine. But pretending I just can’t understand something or I like Nazis is why we’re disagreeing is just condescending and wrong.
Like I say, I think we’re just not gonna see eye to eye on that aspect. Just repeating ourselves at each other probably isn’t productive.
I actually agreed with their viewpoint, and the fact that they had to backtrack after a noisy section of the community blew up at them,
You agreed with them that it was cool to have nazis on their website, and disliked the fact that they capitulated to noisy people who didn’t want nazis on their website.
You are defending nazis. That is what you are doing.
You are saying that people have the right to promote an ideology that promotes genocide.
Yes.
Why don’t you see that defending an ideology based on hate is defending that viewpoint?
Defending someone’s right to speak is not the same as defending their ideology or their viewpoint. This is a big part of the foundational principle of the United States. I realize Substack isn’t the government, and the principles of informed self-government are a lot more complex than “just let everyone say whatever,” but to me it’s an important principle. It’s the same reason the ACLU used to defend Nazis and the KKK and their right to have rallies.
It’s a huge conversation honestly, and the Nazis are such an extreme example that people of good faith can disagree. In real-world space, I agree with you and I agree with the Nazi bar analogy. But in actually strictly-speech environment… Honestly? To cut to the chase, I think being exposed to viewpoints that are wrong is good for people. If every time you see speech that’s evil, you freak the fuck out and demand that someone come and take it away because it can’t be allowed, (a) you’ll deprive others of the opportunity to see the wrong stuff and learn unpleasant truths about the evil that exists around them, and exercise their powers of judgement to determine it’s evil for themselves (b) you’ll get in that habit and start demanding that someone e.g. take Dave Chappelle away because you misunderstood a joke of his. That causes a lot more harm than the Nazis on Substack did.
That’s my opinion. I’m actually trying not to get in an argument with you about it, because you clearly don’t agree with me, and honestly you don’t have to. I’m just laying out what I think.
The ACLU is wrong to defend nazi rallies because tolerating intolerance in the pursuit of tolerance is misguided and just leads to more intolerance. We don’t need nazi rallies for people to be exposed to nazi ideology, we have the holocaust museum and other educational settings where people can learn about that without a bunch of hatemongers publicly displaying threats against other people.
Would you support someone’s right to promote child sexual abuse, as long as it is words? What about direct threats to individuals? Are you cool with someone threatening your life as long as they just used words?
We don’t need nazi rallies for people to be exposed to nazi ideology, we have the holocaust museum and other educational settings where people can learn about that without a bunch of hatemongers publicly displaying threats against other people.
My kids aren’t going to be doing any sex or drugs and alcohol, I kept them in a very strict environment and gave them all the information and kept them away from anything threatening. I’m sure once they go to college they’ll be set on a perfectly good road because I was sure to keep them that way and give them all the education they needed.
Oh wait what is happening
Would you support someone’s right to promote child sexual abuse, as long as it is words? What about direct threats to individuals? Are you cool with someone threatening your life as long as they just used words?
Probably not, in all three cases. The Nazi example is already an extreme borderline case, since they are basically advocating for crimes, but there’s a little bit of a political speech aspect to it and sometimes some vagueness to the overtly violent aspects. To me it pushes it just over the line to where I think yes it should be allowed. To me your examples are well over the line into just being crimes. In some cases Nazi speech is explicitly criminal, in which case, sure, prosecute them for threats of violence or seditious conspiracy or whatever criminal speech, but not just for using the wrong symbology.
Let me ask you this: It sounds like your goal in this is to “win.” Like we have to talk, and you have to educate me on how your viewpoint is right, or prove to me or an audience that your way is the right way and mine is wrong. Do I have that right?
Kids already learn about nazis, drugs, and sex in school. Maybe you don’t see that as a middle ground between nazi rallies and the holocaust museum, but it really is.
So you wouldn’t support someone promoting the things that nazis did, but you do support nazis being able to share their ideology that lead to those things.
You know nazi rallies are threats against groups of people, right?
Me
You
It’s like you can’t read and understand a simple sentence. Or you just like defending nazis, that could be it too.
My point is that the Nazis were not “in my company” on Substack. I didn’t read them, I wouldn’t even have known where to find them or how to interact with them without putting some effort into finding out. The fact that I knew they were there somewhere doesn’t change that.
There’s no call to get insulting with me about that or pretend that I’m saying it because there’s something I can’t understand. It’s simply the truth. You have your viewpoint, which as best I understand it is that even using the same platform as an overt Nazi is unacceptable to you, which, okay, fine. But pretending I just can’t understand something or I like Nazis is why we’re disagreeing is just condescending and wrong.
Like I say, I think we’re just not gonna see eye to eye on that aspect. Just repeating ourselves at each other probably isn’t productive.
Make up your mind.
You agreed with them that it was cool to have nazis on their website, and disliked the fact that they capitulated to noisy people who didn’t want nazis on their website.
You are defending nazis. That is what you are doing.
Yep
Yep
Defending Nazis’ right to exist on Substack, yes. Defending their viewpoint, no.
Anything else I can clear up for you?
This isn’t a disagreement about whether a tomato is a fruit. You are saying that people have the right to promote an ideology that promotes genocide.
Why don’t you see that defending an ideology based on hate is defending that viewpoint?
Yes.
Defending someone’s right to speak is not the same as defending their ideology or their viewpoint. This is a big part of the foundational principle of the United States. I realize Substack isn’t the government, and the principles of informed self-government are a lot more complex than “just let everyone say whatever,” but to me it’s an important principle. It’s the same reason the ACLU used to defend Nazis and the KKK and their right to have rallies.
It’s a huge conversation honestly, and the Nazis are such an extreme example that people of good faith can disagree. In real-world space, I agree with you and I agree with the Nazi bar analogy. But in actually strictly-speech environment… Honestly? To cut to the chase, I think being exposed to viewpoints that are wrong is good for people. If every time you see speech that’s evil, you freak the fuck out and demand that someone come and take it away because it can’t be allowed, (a) you’ll deprive others of the opportunity to see the wrong stuff and learn unpleasant truths about the evil that exists around them, and exercise their powers of judgement to determine it’s evil for themselves (b) you’ll get in that habit and start demanding that someone e.g. take Dave Chappelle away because you misunderstood a joke of his. That causes a lot more harm than the Nazis on Substack did.
That’s my opinion. I’m actually trying not to get in an argument with you about it, because you clearly don’t agree with me, and honestly you don’t have to. I’m just laying out what I think.
The ACLU is wrong to defend nazi rallies because tolerating intolerance in the pursuit of tolerance is misguided and just leads to more intolerance. We don’t need nazi rallies for people to be exposed to nazi ideology, we have the holocaust museum and other educational settings where people can learn about that without a bunch of hatemongers publicly displaying threats against other people.
Would you support someone’s right to promote child sexual abuse, as long as it is words? What about direct threats to individuals? Are you cool with someone threatening your life as long as they just used words?
My kids aren’t going to be doing any sex or drugs and alcohol, I kept them in a very strict environment and gave them all the information and kept them away from anything threatening. I’m sure once they go to college they’ll be set on a perfectly good road because I was sure to keep them that way and give them all the education they needed.
Oh wait what is happening
Probably not, in all three cases. The Nazi example is already an extreme borderline case, since they are basically advocating for crimes, but there’s a little bit of a political speech aspect to it and sometimes some vagueness to the overtly violent aspects. To me it pushes it just over the line to where I think yes it should be allowed. To me your examples are well over the line into just being crimes. In some cases Nazi speech is explicitly criminal, in which case, sure, prosecute them for threats of violence or seditious conspiracy or whatever criminal speech, but not just for using the wrong symbology.
Let me ask you this: It sounds like your goal in this is to “win.” Like we have to talk, and you have to educate me on how your viewpoint is right, or prove to me or an audience that your way is the right way and mine is wrong. Do I have that right?
Kids already learn about nazis, drugs, and sex in school. Maybe you don’t see that as a middle ground between nazi rallies and the holocaust museum, but it really is.
So you wouldn’t support someone promoting the things that nazis did, but you do support nazis being able to share their ideology that lead to those things.
You know nazi rallies are threats against groups of people, right?