[giancarlostoro]

If free speech in America goes away, the rest of the world will suffer for it as well.

People get worked up about "hate speech" a very arbitrary thing, that changes over time, but they don't realize the slippery slope that creates if you try to police speech.

The things I've seen Australians and even British people arrested for posting or commenting on online is absurd. The people who support it are fine with it, until they're the ones being reported and getting into trouble, and handcuffed for making a one off remark that otherwise seemed innocent at the time.

Remember, these governments eventually can and will use AI models to monitor your speech. People around the world should seriously advocate for free speech more now than ever.

Also remember, the key thing in America about free speech is that the government has no say in what speech is allowed. You still have consequences for your speech from others.

[OrvalWintermute]

I had a conversation with a talented UK startup developer about a month ago at a defense industry event.

He mentioned wanting to move to the US. I assumed smugly “must be for our business environment or contractual benefits” and said as much.

He quickly responded with his concerns about being arrested for social media posts, and mentioned how many people were being arrested in the UK.

No discussion of anything about where he was on the political spectrum or anything; he was leading with this issue.

When it becomes an issue like this, we’re going to see talent flight to more favorable climates

[giancarlostoro]

> When it becomes an issue like this, we’re going to see talent flight to more favorable climates

I sincerely hope we see other countries adopt our original intent on free speech as law of their lands.

[zh3]

Ref. the UK ('British people'), there's currently a thing where peacfully protesting a ban will get you arrested (I have a lot of sympathy for the police in this case, whatever they do will be wrong in the eyes of one side or the other).

[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rvly00440o

[giancarlostoro]

One thing that annoys me is when a police officer, even here in the US clearly does not agree with a law. I was under the impression in one of my government classes in college that police officers could in fact choose not to arrest someone, but a lot of the time they opt-out of making that decision for whatever reason. I never looked if in the UK it's similar, but it always bothers me more when a police officer is "just following orders" especially when at least here in the US, they can just not charge someone at their discretion, because sometimes the law is just wild.

We also see it with judges. Our system isn't perfect, but it allows for people who strongly believe a law is unjust to step in.

[JumpCrisscross]

> If free speech in America goes away

What part of the President threatening financial sanctions and jail time for speech makes you think we have this?

To the degree the American experiment has shown anything about free speech, it’s that it may not work uncensored broadly. At the end of the day, we voted against it.

[giancarlostoro]

It should be valued now more than ever. We are the only country that has it to the extent that we do. Unfortunately, that's not the only amendment we blindly violated.

[JumpCrisscross]

> should be valued now more than ever. We are the only country that has it to the extent that we do

And it’s causing lots of problems with questionable benefit. Millions of people with no medical training and the critical thinking skills of a first generation LLM debating vaccines online is not productive.