True indeed, and that principle seems widely under-appreciated. It’s worth noting, though, that GatGPT is trained to advise in the construction of firearms. So this case is more the 1A backing up the 2A,

773k up & 0.5k down on youtube. Please remind me, why are we on kbin?

That perspective in the third frame is perfectly executed.

I have had no interaction with anyone from Hexbear. Personally do not support Russia or the CCP, But I also stand against defederation, regardless of their stances on any topic. It doesn’t make someone a “inflammatory troll” just because they hold different opinions than you. Even if there really are inflammatory trolls coming from that server, it should be enough to block them if you personally dislike them. In general, it’s healthy to expose ourselves to a wide diversity of opinions, and to respectfully discuss topics with people who disagree with us.

I’d love to see an option made available for magazines saying, “Voters must be members”, and perhaps “Hide content from /all”.

Perhaps — I have no idea about the rest of the world — but Fox serves an American audience, so that’s the context in which it’s appropriate to evaluate it.

As a conservative, when I look at the Fox News website, I typically think all of the following: A) these stories are notably well-balanced compared to the other mass media outlets, B) man, they publish some really stupid articles on this site, C) Why do the articles all have huge videos that are completely unrelated to the articles on top of them?, and D) Yikes, the comment section sure does feature some openly racist remarks sometimes.

But outside of Fox, in the US, there are generally two types of news organizations: large-and-leftist and tiny-and-conservative.

Fox is centrist, but every other mass media outlet is far to the left of them. And Fox publishes whatever gets clicks, including Trump stories.

Trump was a life-long Democrat until he switched parties. He’s not a Christian. His personality could hardly be described as “conservative” by anyone. Trump may win the GOP primary again, just because Democrats control the mass media, but he does not represent the voice of conservative Americans, even if we end up voting for him in the general election. He’s a political anomaly, which is why he has a fanbase, but is also why he shouldn’t be a factor in this conversation.

I’m not saying “no true Scotsman.” I’m saying Mussolini was a legitimate fascist, and his party died a long time ago. Some people today have similar traits, especially on the Left, but nobody is really part of his party anymore.

Free speech is a delicate principle. It requires everyone to firmly agree that everyone is allowed to speak freely, and we’re all prepared to fight to the death, literally, to defend their right to say it. It’s delicate because as soon as people abandon it, the entire project of western civilization can be destabilized. What we are permitted to say on kbin and every other online platform is the essence of free speech.

You’re conflating the principle of free speech with the US 1st Amendment. The 1st Amendment is predicated on the principle of free speech. The 1st Amendment is completely inapplicable here. The principle of free speech is 100% applicable here, as it is foundational to western civilization.

In Bram’s memory, those of us who can afford to ought to consider making a donation to his preferred charity, ICCF Holland.

Thank you for my editor of choice, Bram.

:wq

Yes, well the MAGA crowd isn’t very conservative if you ask me, and personally I support DeSantis. I think Democrats are strongly pushing for a Trump nomination because they know he’s unelectable, and it’s an easy play.

But to your point, I concede that most people do consider MAGA to be right wing, and that Trump has on several occasions said things suggesting he’d like an autocracy. I think we can agree that’d be undesirable. I just don’t think it’s very conservative.

Like Jan 6th.

All that was, was a group of jaded voters who believed (rightly or wrongly) that there was election fraud. Personally I see no evidence of fraud substantial enough to change the election. But at the same time, I recognize that for someone who truly did believe there was election fraud, they were upset and they wanted to protest about it. That’s all it was — a protest that was legitimate based on what they believed.

You are constrained by reality. Nobody is here to delete my posts and ban me for you.

And I’m glad about that, 100%. I wouldn’t want you banned.

But back to the definition, you can’t just pluck a couple of words out of there and say it’s a match. The whole definition fits the left way better than the right, and yet in truth doesn’t fit either completely.

Hmm, let’s break it down:

a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti)

Could be leftists, conservatives, or any other political group.

that exalts nation and often race above the individual

Well that excludes conservatives, because conservatism celebrates rugged individualism.

Leftism, by contrast, embraces groups above individualism. This is what conservatives usually refer to as neo-Marxism. It’s also known as identity politics. It’s this idea that we’re all members of a group, and that group gives us our identity. Then with intersectionality, you have multiple groups defining identity.

Two caveats:

1. Christians are the exception to the rule, where many conservatives do embrace an identity that can be defined as a group.
2. Leftists do exalt groups above the individual, but those groups are not normally the nation (at least not in the US).

and that stands for a centralized autocratic government

Yes, in general, conservatives support small government, while leftists prefer government regulations over private business, government handouts for the poor, government taxation of the wealthy, and government control of every little thing in life — basically big government.

Centralized? In the US, centralized means federal control whereas decentralized means State and local control. Leftists generally prefer the former, whereas conservatives generally prefer the latter.

headed by a dictatorial leader

Not applicable in the US, but I wouldn’t put it past the Left in the near future.

severe economic and social regimentation,

Yep, see this thread for instance. Leftist love regimented control over what we’re allowed to think, and they love silencing the opposition.

and forcible suppression of opposition

Oh, you mean like when Biden has his primary opponent, Trump, tied up in court with accusations and a threat of imprisonment? Or, you mean like this very thread where leftists are trying to silence the TERFs? Yes, leftists absolutely love the forcible suppression of their opposition.

In conclusion, no, it’s not a perfect fit for leftists, but it’s loosely close — and it certainly doesn’t fit conservatives even slightly.

It certainly does sound like typical leftists if you squint. Everyone in this thread opposing free speech is an authoritarian. But if you actually read that definition word for word, it’s a position almost nobody supports. What’s more, the definition has been changed from the original political affiliation. I’m not surprised Miriam-Webster’s open to redefining words, but try as they might, words still mean what they originally meant. Still, their definition is close enough to the original to demonstrate my point that there are no fascists left, unless you squint and look at modern leftists.

I don’t condone murder under any circumstances. But using 56 murders as an excuse to silence anyone online is a disgrace to the principle of free speech.

Fascists haven’t existed since 25 Luglio in 1943. You can find a tiny number of exceptions over the years, but as a broad statement it’s true. I’m not old enough to have argued with fascists, and I bet you’re not either.

What kind of absurd hyperbole is that? Nobody has called for murder. And certainly nobody has committed a murder based on a call for it.

A group of patrons sitting at a table in a bar, quietly discussing their TERF perspective, is entirely different from one of them walking up to a trans table and picking a fight. The former is an exercise of free speech, whereas the latter is cause for ejection.

I was active in r/Conservative, and here I’m the primary contributer to m/Conservative. Hi, nice to meet you. When I’m engaged in arguments involving the word “fascist”, it’s rarely me using that word (unless we’re literally discussing Mussolini), and usually me who’s called that for favoring levelheaded conservative principles. I enjoy mutually respectful debate, but I find most others prefer to fearfully call me a “fascist,” downvote everything I’ve ever written, block me, and walk away feeling sanctimonious.

The “far right” is growing because the left keeps moving further left, and normal people realize they’re now considered conservative.

If you want an echo chamber, go on and kick me out. You reap what you sow.