Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
Quote Originally Posted by blake View Post

while i sympathize with your position regarding censorship, my suggestion that you censor people like big dick and devidee isn't controversial.

there are virtually no people on the planet aside from yourself that would permit their website to be used in this manner. the only other sites with this kind of content are actual white supremacist sites. that's it. there are no websites that allow blatant hate speech. am i missing any?

Okay?

So what is "hate speech"?

How does one define that? This is exactly the rabbit hole the left is currently dealing with when it comes to college campus free speech, and they are constantly making themselves look stupid and hypocritical.

"Hate speech" is a flawed concept because it is too broad, and there's no clear line which can be drawn between hate speech and expressing unpopular/politically incorrect opinions. This is why college campuses evolved from allowing all speech to now disallowing certain Republican speakers (even ones as innocuous as Ben Shapiro), because "hate speech" now encompasses all right wing politics in many left wingers' minds.

I can't tell you how many times I've been accused of "hate speech" when I've debated SJWs on Facebook, even though all of my speech was well reasoned, respectful, and never involved any kind of stereotyping or epithets.

It's very simple. Either you allow free speech on your site (regarding ideas or opinions), or you don't. There's no middle ground where you allow free speech but only if it's not hate speech. Doesn't exist. Can't be done.

There are some forms of speech where it's easy to draw a line. You can make rules against doxxing, threats, illegal content, and targeted individual harassment. These are all easy to define, and all are reasonable to prohibit. But when you start acting as the thought/opinion police, you no longer have a free speech environment.

These arguments aren't new. They existed before we were born. Many saw problems with unrestricted free speech, as it allowed crazy fringe hate groups to assemble and put their toxic and vile message out into the general public. However, this is what must be allowed if you're going to support free speech.

This is my site. Sure, I COULD ban people known to often post antisemitic or racist content, but then where do I stop? What becomes okay and not okay? I don't allow any kind of controversial speech in the more "serious" parts of this forum, but that's because those are niche topics where I don't want distractions. This portion of the forum is different, because it's for general discussion, and little of it is about poker.
ok, then don't have a "free speech" website, and instead, try to have one that doesn't cause you great personal embarrassment, where people might actually choose to post.