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> I don't want my politicians deciding what is good or bad on the internet. I'm an adult, and I can decide for myself.

The issue isn't whether politicians are deciding what's good or bad.

The issue is that, in Europe, foreign actors with explicit ill intent are deciding a ton of the content your neighbours are watching/reading, day in day out, on the internet. AI has made this easier and even more scalable than before. This content is being used to influence or outright decide elections. Elections of more politicians that are "deciding what's good or bad", eh. Such as politicians deciding that Russia is good.

What the actual fuck do we do to defend ourselves, pray tell? The whole "let them have critical thinking" doesn't work, we are under active war and citizens who don't know better are specifically targeted. And besides, we are not gonna take lessons from the country that yelled high and mighty for years they're the land of the free, and let itself fall into complete autocracy & dictatorship. In the US, those same citizens are the useful tools repeating state propaganda, two steps removed from "Just Following Orders".

And full context: I agree with Matt and support Cloudflare's stance here. But people can quit it with cheap retorts like "Freedom of speech for me, not for thee". It's not that simple.



into complete autocracy & dictatorship....ummm you mean a democratically elected president & government? Plus these hyperboles don't really resonate anymore as they've been used for every little thing people don't like. It's still a democracy even if you don't like the outcome.


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“ The most famous dictatorship of the previous century was also democratically elected.”

And how did it go from a democracy to a dictatorship? Because he convinced the people to give up their rights in response to a perceived threat.


No, actually, through a campaign of propaganda that wasn't stopped.

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

Goebbels himself remarked how stupid the institutions were for granting them freedom of speech:

> When our enemies say: well, we gave you the freedom of opinion back then- yeah, you gave it to us, that's in no way evidence that we should return the favor! Your stupidity shall not be contagious! That you granted it to us is evidence of how dumb you are!

-- Joseph Goebbels, 1935


> propaganda that wasn't stopped

That's a really misleading way to say it. Because they took charge of the entire structure aimed at stopping propaganda, and used it to amplify theirs.

The more laws and government agencies Germany had to fight propaganda, the easier time the Nazis would have had.


It took many steps, not just a convenient on-topic one. And among those many steps, the US has taken most of them at this stage.


Mussolini introduced women suffrage, I'm not joking.

However, a few months after he deleted elections


> Mussolini introduced women suffrage, I'm not joking.

No single person introduced women suffrage. It emerged through independent movements across different countries.

That said, it is generally accepted that New Zealand (1893) was the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote nationally. Key figure: Kate Sheppard.

Earlier partial or local suffrage: Sweden 1718 - 1772 (limited), US 1869 (Wyoming territory).

Key global leaders of women suffrage: UK - Emmeline Pankhurst, US - Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth C Stanton (results in 19th Amendment)

Global timeline: 1893 New Zealand, 1902 Australia (with racial exceptions), 1913 - 1918 Nordics, 1918 - 1920 UK and US, 1945-1960s Much of Asia, Africa, and Middle East, 1971 Switzerland!


Reminds me of that time I implemented multithreading in an app we shut down a month later.


>USA currently threatening to seize land from a sovereign EU nation with pro-MAGAs justifying it at every step

That EU nation can join NATO to prevent it.


Denmark already is in NATO, smartypants.


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> That's what it was

Fake electors plot, Georgia phone call to "find 11600 votes". You seem convinced that he just talks, we have ample evidence that isn't true.

> Even if they took over Congress, would that need they would be the new Congress? You really believe that?

I was unaware conspiracies are only illegal if they succeed.


>What the actual fuck do we do to defend ourselves, pray tell?

Delete smartphone, logout from abusive SaaS.


So, putting your head in the sand and pretending the world doesn't keep turning?

Deleting X (which I've done) doesn't stop Russia from influencing the voterbase of my neighbouring countries. Now what?




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