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by P0l83q4p1Hw3Ul 1384 days ago
Is Freedom of Speech important for a democratic society to survive?

Right wing extremists would say yes. In fact, this is why they believe we shouldn't allow low cognitive ability immigrants into the country or let them vote.
2 comments
User23 1384 days ago
You said it in a tacky way, but the evidence does suggest that the average intelligence of a population is an important limiting factor in civilizational attainment. It’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Likewise, the likelihood of a startup succeeding is gated by the intelligence of its employees. Successful founders know this and hire accordingly.

I’ve yet to see a sound argument for why it’s ok for a company to discriminate on intelligence, but not for a country to. And of course many countries that are seen as having admirable immigration policies, such as Canada, do exactly that through various proxy measures.

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Georgelemental 1384 days ago
> I’ve yet to see a sound argument for why it’s ok for a company to discriminate on intelligence, but not for a country to.

In the US, it's officially illegal for companies to discriminate based on intelligence, thanks to Griggs v. Duke Power.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/overturn-griggs-v-du...

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akomtu 1384 days ago
That's quite a comment. It creates a false dichotomy between freedom of speech and democratic society, and uses the word "survive" to appeal to emotions so we want to save democracy from the evil freedom. Then it attaches "right wing extremists" (the absolute evil) to the freedom of speech, suggesting that anyone who is for freedom must be an extremist. The last sentence is a blunder, though, because it suggests that voting for democrats requires low cognitive ability. One thing I'm sure about is that we don't need low-effort populists on HN.
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P0l83q4p1Hw3Ul 1383 days ago
I appreciate the effort to analysis my comment, but it seems you misinterpreted, so I'll explain my comment.

One could argue that a democracy by definition must have free speech. Otherwise, it's more of a "vote on the options provided by the ruling class". My question was meant as an actual question, is the illusion of democracy better than democracy for survival?

I use the word survival because it's the first law of life.

I use "right wing extremists" to make fun of people who think free speech is a right wing idea, or that opposing low-iq immigration is extreme.

I didn't mention political parties, nor mean to imply anything.

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