Comic Strips

Is there any other kind?

they haven’t had much experience with inciting hatred that led to genocide

The indigenous peoples of North America might have something to say about that.

I'm an American and I'm here to tell you that Americans who say shit like that are just pretending to care about free speech, if they even understand what "free speech" actually means. They're fascists trying to defend fascism while using the idea of free speech as a way to avoid admitting that's what they're doing.

Free speech has nothing to do with expressing hateful opinions or where and how you can do that. You can't. You will be punished if you do evil idiotic things like that. Free speech is when you use media or news to report on some corruption. Or if you have an opinion that goes against policy and want to discuss it. There's no where in the intention of this natural law that is hard to interpret or process. You may not attack minorities just because of free speech. You may not lie about someone's behaviour just because of free speech. It's not hard to draw the line. Screaming sieg heil in the street is not free speech. Whistle blowing the government is free speech. Opposing war is free speech. Asking to attack and kill people is not free speech. The line is not blurry. Begging to abolish democracy and decency is not free speech. Begging to harry and force others to change sex is not free speech. Allowing others to express and live is free speech. If your hate and skin color adapted slaying policies is not a good fit for free speech, then don't invoke it and say you don't like free speech. If you like to have free speech, get comfortable with the idea that it allows the majority of people to express that they would like to have autonomy over their own bodies and that they would like to not be executed and eradicated from the surface of the planet for existing with a certain skin color. Most people are against hate. Most people want to not be in a dictatorship authoritarian hellscape. Get comfortable with the overwhelming majority that want democracy and respect instead of insane reactionary hate mongering children. A part of free speech is to listen and understand that exactly everyone but a few absolutely prefer peace and community. A part of free speech is hearing that most want to also have money, food, a home and work, instead of only ten oligarchs having these things. It is a paradox to allow the expression of not allowing expressions. Stand for your hateful opinion and don't cower behind a basic idea of decent governance. It's so childish to pretend to represent free speech when all you want is to flay people because you are broken and wounded and need easy targets to blame for your inability to be a human

I don't think it's just a US thing. Even in places with more limited free speech, people can get away with saying ignorant and heinous things as long as it is technically within the letter of the law, or if the law is not strictly enforced.

It's against the law in China to threaten violence or use hate speech, for example, but in practice, I think the law may as well be reworded to clarify that such language is only really illegal when aimed at Han Chinese people.

Not enough countries care about protecting anyone other than their primary in-group.

They just bring up information as fact that they've put no research into demonstrating.

My friend told me once about how people in cults have a sunk-cost fallacy to the cult's beliefs that makes it harder to get them out the longer they've been in.

People are more likely to double down on their beliefs when proven wrong because they'd have to admit that they were wrong and so were all the things that they did following those beliefs. And nobody likes to admit when they're wrong, because nobody wants to believe that they're the bad guy.

This is an interesting parallel, but I feel like I missed some key part of it.

In the US, at least, we historically killed off a lot of deer’s natural predators - mostly wolves - and as a result, the deer population can get out of control, causing serious problems to the ecosystem. Hunters help to remedy that. The relatively small violences that they perform on an individual basis add up to improving the overall ecosystem.

That isn’t the same as being a bigot, or a sexist, or a fascist… and I don’t know why anyone would assume that a person holds those views because they’re mean and petty. They hold those views for a variety of reasons - sometimes because they’re a child or barely an adult and that’s just what they learned, and they either don’t know any better or haven’t cared enough to think it through; sometimes because they’ve been conditioned to think that way; sometimes because they’re sociopaths who recognize that it’s easier to oppress that particular group.

It doesn’t really matter what their reason is. Either way, they’re a worse person because of it, and often they’re overall a bad person, regardless of the rest of their views, actions, and contributions.

Being a hunter, by contrast, is neutral leaning positive.

It makes sense that a rational person who loves being in nature, who loves animals, who wants their local ecosystem to be successful, would as a result want to help out in some small way, even if that means they have to kill an animal to do so. It doesn’t make sense that a rational person who loves all people, who wants their local communities to be successful, would as a result want to oppress and harm the people in already marginalized groups.

I don’t think equating being bigoted with holding unjustifiable opinions does it justice. The way we use the word opinion generally applies to things that are trivial or unimportant, that don’t ultimately matter, e.g., likes and dislikes. Being a bigot is a viewpoint; it shapes you. For many bigots, their entire perspective is warped and wrong. And there’s a common misunderstanding that you can’t argue with someone’s opinions; because it’s just how they “feel.” But being a bigot, whether you’re sexist, racist, transphobic, queerphobic, homophobic, biphobic, etc., is a belief, and it’s one that, in most cases, the bigot chooses (consciously or not) to keep believing.

If an adult with functioning cognitive abilities refuses to question their bigoted beliefs, then they’ve made a choice to be a bigot.

You just dug up an old memory. When I was in high school, there was a girl who came from a hunting family. I remember one day she came up to me and started telling me the same things you said about "loving nature," along with rambling about how her dad makes her kill just "one deer" each year, like it's a token goal she's obligated to fulfill. She kept apologizing to me for it. Okay, random, right?

Nah, not random at all. I've been vegan since I was 14. I never said anything about her hobbies - sure, I don't agree with hunting for sport, but I would've preferred to avoid the topic entirely than to hear anything about it. She felt compelled, of her own accord, to not only initiate the conversation, but to make it basically a confessional - like she felt guilty and was looking toward me for some kind of forgiveness.

It's an aspect of veganism that doesn't get talked about in public much - not only are we made the target of tons of random hate, but we're also made into a sounding board for meat-eaters, hunters, etc. who are experiencing cognitive dissonance. Like we're some kind of liason between humans and other animals, or like winning our approval will make a guilty meat-eater feel better. I don't know.

Could even be nice to the marginalized they know and deem "one of the good ones" but still vote violence against them and be racist pieces of shit.

I know people in this exact scenario, in fact.

I know people like this. They're "nic". But what that means is they put everyone they know into "one of the good ones" box. So they're polite to all people they know, basically... It's interesting and horrifying to see tbh

And that just freaking blows my mind. I'll admit I'm a tall blue eyed WASP male, with some success in my career, so based on their definition of outward appearances dictating good genes, I'd fall into that category of eligible bachelor that Nazi Germany had.

But I fail to see how the wife I would get assigned would be guaranteed to be desirable. For all I know, the state would select a petite 22 year old, blonde hair blue eyed white girl but from bumbfuck middle of nowhere Kentucky who is dumber than rocks and I always have to do everything for her that isn't cooking or baby making. That's a fuckload of stupid, Id have nothing in common with her, we'd probably both be lonely as fuck since we're 12 years apart.

To me, it sounds like their eugenics movement has nothing to do with a master race, and more so with a bunch of men that lack self-awareness and desire an animated sex doll.