I know. I was emphasising that this time is not like before. That there are major differences, and things look similar only on a very superficial level.
>Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.[0]
What do you mean "you wonder where they are"? Do you even use tiktok to be able to see them? Because if you search about that on there you can find videos
"Slow phone with slow animations" is a crazy assessment, I switched from Galaxy S7 to iPhone XR in 2018 because the Galaxy was (like every other Android I had) slow to do everything, applications would crash randomly and my phone would just give up and reboot without warning. Not to mention all of the killer Android features that Google had gotten rid of up to that point (RIP notification ticker, I miss you so much). What's the point of being able to sideload and customize when none of it works on a day to day basis? And when Google/other Android phone manufacturers insist on their phones being more and more similar to iPhone/iOS, the reasons to stay on Android go away too.
A lot of the apps, not just the banking apps, but food delivery etc, restrict using alternative keyboards, leaving you with a default one, which is especially jarring for a multi-lingual countries where you typically need keyboards for English + language 2 and 3.
I had to give ap on a swiftkey iOS for that reason
So what suggestion do you have for people who don't want to deal with hate speech on platforms if the platforms won't do anything because it cuts into their bottom line?
The people of the world seem to underestimate how important free speech is to the typical US citizen. No one else in the world has free speech rights. We view it as very important to have.
What this allows:
- Hate speech (non-violent)
- Holocaust/genocide denial
- Blasphemy and religious mockery
- Insulting leaders, judges, and the state
- Burning flags and national symbols
- Abstract praise of extremist ideologies
- Offensive political misinformation
- Harsh personal insults (non-defamatory)
- Publishing leaked material
- Advocacy of civil disobedience in the abstract
An outsider many view that as going "too far", but you limit one, it's the path to limiting them all.
This is just such a ridiculous joke in 2026 that nobody outside the US and many inside it could continue to take the idea that the US has any actual interest in free speech as a principled argument. We have all just watched for the last decade the people who cried the loudest about it immediately do a 180 the moment they got the political power to practice it. I can’t think of a single prominent “free speech absolutist” who didn’t fail this test miserably and immediately. So no, I don’t actually believe that the US values it above all else, I think that’s some bullshit that people say because they are only interested in the idea that they personally can say and do whatever they feel like and it doesn’t extend beyond that in practice.
The free speech absolutist is such a hilarious caricature these days. "I might not agree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it!" Well, as long as it's hateful and not woke or about (shivers in disgust) labor unions.
please do go ahead and correct me and name your top 3 free speech absolutists so we can all see how I was “being too emotional” and couldn’t see the obvious truth right in front of me about how free speech really is a deeply held belief of the nation.
It's a well understood principle and an abstract value. It's got nothing to do with the US per-se, except it found it's way into your constitution and is protected. The conservative right were never for free speech, that was plainly obvious from the start. That doesn't mean principled free speech absolutists can't exist. And it doesn't mean they need to be pure. You can permit them their flaws while still holding up the value. More free speech, rather than less.
