Hacker News: meruru

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 19:52:20 +0000

Millions read it only because of the backlash, but what about all the people who didn't speak up because of the fear of getting abused by angry mobs and fired? You can't pretend a censorship attempt isn't one just because it backfired and failed.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 08:11:33 +0000

Frankly, all those things that people are going "is it deplatforming?" pretty much are deplatforming, but I figured pointing out the distraction tactic was worth more than engaging in the argument over definitions.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 07:53:32 +0000

It's hard to measure, but it does often bring attention to them when we have these discussions. I do feel the left's online attitude is firing back more than it's helping them. More than anything it makes people who had no position to take a side, which benefits those that are banking on the controversies the most.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 07:22:46 +0000

I think we mostly agree. I was just replying to the idea that people are calling for the government to force speech, which felt like a weird notion (though when it comes to the political extremes, I'm sure both sides would love nothing more than total control over what's acceptable speech).

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:55:02 +0000

No, that's ebg13 trying to narrow the scope of the discussion so they don't have to address the issue. The same thing that's happening in this subthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21143570

Your quote is a response to throwawaysea's comment, which is clearly much more general than that:

>Leaving aside culture wars waged by individuals, I see institutional tightening on free speech all over America. I see it in big tech companies, where only a progressive monoculture exists with no psychological safety for other viewpoints. I see it in censorship applied by defacto digital public squares like YouTube. I see it in the left's rampant use of deplatforming to silence opposing views. Increasingly, I also see it in universities (see this incident at the University of Washington today https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-university-of-was...).

New comment by meruru in "Hong Kong protest safety app banned from iOS store"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:39:24 +0000

Don't forget https://lineageos.org

New comment by meruru in "Samsung ends mobile phone production in China"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:37:01 +0000

China is particularly problematic because they are huge and powerful. I agree it would be better to use democratic countries instead, but since that's not gonna happen, I'm glad companies are at least moving to smaller countries.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:16:50 +0000

I think getting caught up in the "but does it fit the definition of deplatforming?" is a pretty obvious distraction from the issue.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 06:12:17 +0000

>they were buried under poorly understood and debunked science and statements that were easily misunderstood.

I didn't read his essay or follow this case at all, but from Wikipedia it seems he was arguing that biological differences between the sexes are a driving factor for the lack of women programmers at Google. That's a position that's solidly backed by the science.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:56:57 +0000

Not just the US. I think this is being driven by the social dynamics of the Internet. Things like filter bubbles and click-driven journalism. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter shape discussions in particular ways that are very different than offline.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:49:59 +0000

I somehow missed that. His proposal sounds much more narrow however, targeting only companies that have become a "sole provider of some functions". I do think breaking up the monopoly is a no-brainer in this scenario.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:33:08 +0000

>The government forcing private entities to disseminate speech they don't want to — that's where this leads, right?

I don't think so. Is anyone proposing this as a solution? The parent certainly doesn't seem to be.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:18:54 +0000

Political groups forcibly silencing opposing views is.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 04:19:04 +0000

Maybe not technically, but that's irrelevant. It's part of the phenomenon being discussed.

New comment by meruru in "The global gag on free speech is tightening"

meruru — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 04:05:24 +0000

Did you miss all the Stallman threads we just had?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21120806

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21103133

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21088690

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20990583

New comment by meruru in "Richard Stallman Has Been Vilified by Those Who Don’t Know Him"

meruru — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 23:31:40 +0000

Wouldn't it better for MIT's reputation if people weren't jumping to the conclusion that one of their professors would willingly rape people? Did anyone actually believe Marvin Minsky of all people would do that? I wonder what he will have to say about this when he gets unfrozen.

New comment by meruru in "Richard Stallman Has Been Vilified by Those Who Don’t Know Him"

meruru — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 23:00:04 +0000

It's unfortunate that the legal definition became broader for the same reason I think the common definition shouldn't.

I imagine however that most legislatures get around the issue by having explicit paragraphs establishing harsher punishments for violent rape vs mutually-accepted statutory rape.

New comment by meruru in "Richard Stallman Has Been Vilified by Those Who Don’t Know Him"

meruru — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 22:50:18 +0000

I agree the expression "Free Software" has the same problem. However the alternatives also have some problems. He discusses that here: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.... (I'm sure you've already read it, but it's always worth a re-read)

I'm partial to the term "Libre" myself, though in this case it doesn't matter much, since it's a concept that people aren't familiar with anyway and you have to explain it no matter what word you use.

New comment by meruru in "Richard Stallman Has Been Vilified by Those Who Don’t Know Him"

meruru — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 22:30:43 +0000

Using the word assault causes people to believe a different thing happened. It says nothing about the gravity of each kind of crime except that they shouldn't be the same.

The only reason "sexual assault" covers what allegedly took place is because the expression was redefined in the first place to cover two separate things, which is exactly the problem. Stallman called not for redefining "sexual assault" as you put it, but for undoing a redefinition that puts it at odds with how those terms are conventionally used and causes unnecessary confusion.

New comment by meruru in "Richard Stallman Has Been Vilified by Those Who Don’t Know Him"

meruru — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 22:09:26 +0000

Stallman's position is pretty clearly that we should use precise language always. It seems a pretty impeccable position to me. The only people I can think of who benefit from conflating coercive and non-coercive crimes under the same term are the ones who profit from the confusion.