Literally state controlled = not state controlled

  • RedArmor [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    That Free Press / Speech exists as a policy. Its a thing that you can (and we mostly do) have in a liberal society. The merits of liberal free speech are what are debatable. But the exigency of the policy is indisputable.

    Free speech isn’t a policy. It’s a philosophical idea that does not have the same weight as actual policy laid out in law. We have freedom of speech in the dumb as fuck constitution, but history shows that the government can take it away at any point. Things like free speech have as much power as we the people living under the system of government that drew them up give them. The government cracks down all the time throughout our history on people they think are using it against their interests. COINTELPRO and assassinations are a perfect example of this.

    And I wasn’t saying in my example that Bezos never gets criticism. I literally said that in the paper he owns you will be hard pressed to find any. Which just shows that private censorship is a real thing that exists currently.

    I’m honestly getting major :LIB: vibes the more I read your replies. Most leftists who actually apply a Marxist critique/viewpoint understand the futility of arguing freedom of speech being a real thing. Especially if you bring it up as a “policy” of a government lol

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Free speech isn’t a policy.

      It is absolutely a policy.

      It’s a philosophical idea

      That becomes a policy when the domestic bureaucracy implements it as such.

      We have freedom of speech in the dumb as fuck constitution, but history shows that the government can take it away at any point.

      So long as it doesn't, "Free Speech" is the policy of said government.

      The government cracks down all the time throughout our history on people they think are using it against their interests. COINTELPRO and assassinations are a perfect example of this.

      The historical focus of COINTELPRO has been on activist communities - people actually attempting to realize their rhetoric through deeds rather than just distributing newsletters. The FBI didn't shut down the whole NAACP. It focused on the folks who organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

      Most leftists who actually apply a Marxist critique/viewpoint understand the futility of arguing freedom of speech being a real thing.

      And yet here you fucking are. I guess we're both :LIB:s