Please don't post in the flamewar style to HN, but rather make your substantive points thoughtfully. Also, please don't use HN primarily for ideological battle (which you've been doing a lot of lately) – that's the line at which we ban people: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
Oh and while I have you: "Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put asterisks around it and it will get italicized."
Will do, but I'm just deeply bothered by the rhetoric and current events. Censorship and narratives have a powerful effect on humanity and very worried about where this is leading.
Of course you are—it would be a rare person who isn't, and it's completely understandable and legitimate.
From an HN point of view we're all learning together how to manage that while remaining a functioning community. The site guidelines are designed to help that happen, or at least to stave off the decline (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...).
All members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff released a statement today that reads in part:
"The violent riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional Process...
...the rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection."[1]
Additionally the FBI had a national press conference where they revealed the following:
"Federal prosecutors are looking at bringing 'significant' cases involving possible sedition and conspiracy charges in last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol... the Justice Department has created a specialized task force that will look at everything from travel to movement of the individuals."[2]
The message isn't "ban everything" but "ban the things that are a threat to democracy, according to the FBI and the Joint Chiefs." If you find yourself on the other side of the argument, maybe it's time to consider why.
They did not mention Parler as the story implicated. I'm not arguing on behalf of people doing illegal things. I'm arguing against the framing of an app as the problem instead of the people committing illegal acts themselves. People use text messages for comms, people use Telegram, they use phone calls, they use a myriad of apps to communicate. Framing Parler as the problem is just a way of justifying further lockdowns on political speech and selective censorship and banning and a delegation of our sovereignty and liberty to the biased discretion of powerful corporate entities.
Organizing an insurrection to overthrow an elected government is not political speech. It's a conspiracy to commit sedition.
If you have a problem with corporations complying with laws that clearly prohibit violent overthrow of an elected government, are you sure you want to live in a democracy? Or do you just not understand what that word means?
