• Ali
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    20 hours ago

    True, because words have meaning. If I have millions of followers on social media, and I say “Americans have killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs, and all Arabs have a duty to kill Americans”. That is free speech, but i’m inciting people to murder, and that has consequences. Take a look at twitter these days, pure misinformation and blatant racism. This is no longer free speech, this is weaponising words. I know it’s an extremely fine line but have we lost all common sense in the basics of right and wrong?

    • aidan@lemmy.worldOPM
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      20 hours ago

      You’re misunderstanding what I’m saying. I am saying if there is a law establishing legal consequences for speech then you do not have absolute freedom of speech.

      • Anomalocaris@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        i am free to wave my hands, doing so results in you getting smacked, and that’s assault, therefore I’m not free to wave my hands because we have laws against assault…

        I cannot believe the government bans hand waving.

      • Ali
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        20 hours ago

        I actually got that, and that’s why I mentioned common sense. Absolute freedom of speech cannot exisit in a world within most legal frameworks because people cannot be trusted to not act on violent rhetoric. ( January 6’s attack on the US capitol is a prime example of the consequences of that).

        • aidan@lemmy.worldOPM
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          6 hours ago

          But people act violently without it, I don’t think the rhetoric is a necessary precursor. Furthermore, practicality is not what defines freedom of speech.