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420 points rvz | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.85s | source
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throwadobe ◴[] No.41413441[source]
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ikmckenz ◴[] No.41414511[source]
Freedom of speech is a general conception of human rights, not any one particular law. Governments can choose to respect (or not!) those rights, but the idea applies to everyone.
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bad_user ◴[] No.41414724[source]
When it comes to human rights, unfortunately, the notion got perverted by USSR and its allies.

The difference between the US and the rest of the world is that the US has the First Amendment, which it upholds. So, for example, in the US "hate speech" is not banned, and while inciting violence is banned, it must be literal incitement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_in_the_United_Stat...

This is important, because freedom of speech was supposedly allowed behind the Iron Curtain as well, as long as it wasn't "going against the socialist order" or "promoting fascism" (with capitalism or social democracy being just light fascism). Various countries found ways to pay lip service to human rights, while being authoritarian.

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sweeter ◴[] No.41415278[source]
theres no absolute free speech in the US. There are most certainly plenty of things you cannot say and protestors are often violently silenced by police and riot squads. Then the media upholds its end of the bargain by heavily re-enforcing the State Dept. position while besmirching the message of the protestors and misrepresenting them in any and every way imaginable.

You can say a lot of awful shit, but you really can't openly oppose the State with any real threat of power. I mean, I wouldn't really call the US admitting to assassinating Malcom X, MLK, among others, the pinnacle of free speech... all theses people did was speak out against injustices that they observed... and that's just one incident. This happens everyday.

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1. lossolo ◴[] No.41416883[source]
You can't criticize Israel or you will get punished by government in US. Where is your freedom of speech in this case?

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to revive a newspaper's challenge on free speech grounds to an Arkansas law requiring state government contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel, a policy the publication's lawyers called a threat to a constitutionally protected form of collective protest." [1]

1. https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-spurns-challe...

2. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/23/us-states-use-anti-boyco...

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2. aguaviva ◴[] No.41417619[source]
Protestors in the U.S. are frequently beaten, illegally detained and have toxic chemicals deployed against them in the streets (or are otherwise menaced and harassed by police) -- regardless of whether they are doing those things. This has been going on for decades, but should be especially obvious to you if you've been following the news in the past 4.5 years.
3. aguaviva ◴[] No.41417751[source]
You can't criticize Israel or you will get punished by government in US.

This is hyperbolic and obviously false.

Brain-dead and authoritarian though the anti-BDS legislation is -- it is ultimately a corner case with very narrow applicability.

On the whole, you are perfectly free to criticize Israel in the U.S., and of course countless people have been doing just that for multiple decades.

4. krisboyz781 ◴[] No.41418376[source]
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