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Showing posts from February, 2017

Public Discourse is a Civic Duty: Free Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to Protest

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I wonder if all these no-platforming proponents realize that that's the same thing as censorship.  Not letting someone publish something because you find it *offensive* is censorship. Canceling a television show or radio program because it's *offensive* is censorship. Canceling a speaker from holding a public discourse is *censorship*. Suspending or firing a talking head in the media, because you don't like what she is saying, is *censorship*. Attacking the free press and calling everything they write "alternative news" or "fake news" is obfuscation (usually done to make an excuse to invoke censorship), but barring the press from the room and reporting on important matters (looking at you Sean Spice / Trump Whitehouse) is *censorship*. Now, I'm not saying giving certain folks a platform isn't always a great idea (sometimes it's most definitely not). Broadcasting pernicious, vile, and grotesque ideologies out in