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cyberphobe | 3 years ago

I’m fine with the government shutting down anti-democratic movements. I’m not fine with anti-democratic governments shutting down legitimate discussion that looks bad on them, or serving a foreign power. These are not the same thing.

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machina_ex_deus|3 years ago

Then all it will take to lose your democracy is for a dictator to proclaim his opponents a danger to democracy. Maybe using a Reichstag fire. You can't fight evil with evil, or fight undemocratic tyrants with undemocratic measures. Introducing vulnerabilities into your democratic system is a double edged sword.

oprah|3 years ago

Exactly. What does anti-democratic mean? A brief reminder that North Korea's full name is Democratic People's Republic of Korea and East Germany was German Democratic Republic.

The reason we would usually go for the fullest amount of protection for speech was precisely because most of those issues are not simply a matter of "these people are democratic and those aren't".

SV_BubbleTime|3 years ago

> proclaim [their] opponents a danger to democracy

Hmm, now where have I heard that recently?

cyberphobe|3 years ago

> all it will take to lose your democracy is for a dictator to proclaim his opponents a danger to democracy.

This is true, but your framing of it as something that could be stopped if… something? is absurd

refurb|3 years ago

This reminds me of when Vietnam puts blog authors or journalists in prison for "abusing their democratic freedoms".

The irony is apparently lost on them.