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by logicalmonster 1107 days ago
If people on Twitter say incorrect facts about a group of people, or even start egging people towards violence, there's a lot of pushback against that there.

But if that random person is removed from Twitter and starts seeking out like-minded people, they're going to form some underground community with no pushback against the worst ideas.
1 comments
UncleMeat 1107 days ago
This model has never borne out in reality. Having people spread nazi propaganda on twitter does not actually reduce the number of nazis.
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logicalmonster 1106 days ago
1) IMHO, using a phrase like "Nazi propaganda" knowingly poisons the well in these discussions because basically anything just a bit out of the current political zeitgeist can be and has been labeled as Nazi propaganda in CURRENT_YEAR.

2) Since you seem to hate Nazis so much, why are you adopting the digital equivalent of their tactics? The Nazis famously burned lots of very Jewish books, right? Society used to say that this was one of the examples of why they weren't so great, and I grew up hating the idea of burning books because of this. I can't understand how using their playbook suddenly became doubleplusgood.

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UncleMeat 1106 days ago
Feel free to interpret this as "people who have actual swastika flags in their rooms and think that the way to create the best society is to mass murder jewish people."

That's a real population of extremists. Having them hang out on HN does not make their numbers dwindle.

And no, I do not think that banning Nazis from forums is "the same playbook" used by the Nazi Party.

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logicalmonster 1106 days ago
I can't take any claims about "the Nazis" seriously in CURRENT_YEAR because the label is thrown out so casually. I've seen some of the most commonplace and benign beliefs unironically labeled as Nazi to try and get a minor bit of political advantage.
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UncleMeat 1106 days ago
Use a different group then if somehow "has an actual swastika flag in their room" is too non-specific for you. "ISIS Members," if you want.
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logicalmonster 1106 days ago
I'm having a hard time understanding what your point is.

I'm always open to at least talking to anybody, whether or not they're ISIS members, Nazis, Communists, or (may Allah forgive me for even uttering this word) Canadian.

Talking is the road to peace. When words stop, there's only one thing that can possibly come next.

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