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by throwaway201103 1991 days ago
"If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech."

-Noam Chomsky

2 comments

i wonder if his views would be the same if tens of thousands of people were chanting "hang chomsky" because they were convinced by "free speech" that he was a pedophile, through cheap and easy dissemination of photoshopped images and ai-generated voice "recordings".

it's difficult to map pre-internet ideals to 2021.

Also, pre-deepfake ideals.
Chomsky is talking about free speech in the context of academic debate.

Death threats and similar do not fit in any shape or form into "free speech".

Downvoted for educating people on free speech - oh the irony!