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by MichaelZuo 972 days ago
Every possible human action has some cost. By that standard, 'free speech' has never existed and never will.

Which seems a bit silly, most people understand it to mean 'free' above a certain underlying threshold.
2 comments
im3w1l 972 days ago
I dont think it's about threshold. It's about some consequences being ok to apply and some not being ok. But some of the ok ones may actually be bigger than some of the not-ok ones. For instance the love of your life breaking up with you. That's big. But ok. Or a $20 fine. That's small. But not ok.
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MichaelZuo 972 days ago
A $20 fine for speech in a restricted area seems to be fine?

e.g. swear words in a kindergarten

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jlawson 972 days ago
>Every possible human action has some cost.

Every possible human action does not have a punishment or a deterrent applied by those with power.

Freedom to do X means there's no punishment for doing X.

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MichaelZuo 972 days ago
> Every possible human action does not have a punishment or a deterrent applied by those with power.

Since every living member of society has some non-zero amount, it would still be the case that free speech is practically impossible, if you set the bar too low. As the chances of that applying to at least 1 person out of 8 billion is pretty close to 100%.

So then the question is, how high exactly is the bar above zero?

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