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On the rise of fascism.

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I have no idea what it means in modern day terms. The word seems to be thrown about willy nilly at anyone who disagrees.

 

George Orwell saw the same problem in 1944 when he wrote, “It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless.”

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Did you think that 'tolerate' meant that you couldn't disagree with or argue against?

Somebody had defined it thusly:

Tolerating it, ie taking no action against it, is ignoring it.

 

I was rejecting that definition.

 

I think Dutch has achieved his goal of being without mind.

 

I am not making sense of Dutch's posts here. He is welcome to try to clarify.

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Mark Hamill, that Star Wars guy, has given his support to a campaign to get Donald Trump off Twitter. The apparent plan is to raise a billion dollars to become a majority shareholder of Twitter so they have the power to remove him.

 

The campaign is more symbolic than realistically practical but I think it displays a fascist mentality.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/28/mark-hamill-donates-to-campaign-to-remove-donald-trump-from-twitter.html,

Edited by Hots on

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Mark Hamill, that Star Wars guy, has given his support to a campaign to get Donald Trump off Twitter. The apparent plan is to raise a billion dollars to become a majority shareholder of Twitter so they have the power to remove him...

 

I was wondering the other day about the accountability of social media: most, if not all of these hosts are accountable only unto themselves and their shareholders where appropriate.

 

The campaign is more symbolic than realistically practical but I think it displays a fascist mentality.

 

It is good that they are doing the campaign: Twitter has become a big enough institution that it ought to be properly accountable to the wider public.

The same is true of any social media platform with a significant following.

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Guest

In many parts of the world, corporate fascism is present, even encouraged. By both left and right. When middle class is no existent, there is small step from slave ships to debt slavery.

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I was wondering the other day about the accountability of social media: most, if not all of these hosts are accountable only unto themselves and their shareholders where appropriate.

 

 

They are of course accountable to the law in any country in which they wish to operate.

 

---------- Post added 31-08-2017 at 18:11 ----------

 

Mark Hamill, that Star Wars guy, has given his support to a campaign to get Donald Trump off Twitter. The apparent plan is to raise a billion dollars to become a majority shareholder of Twitter so they have the power to remove him.

 

The campaign is more symbolic than realistically practical but I think it displays a fascist mentality.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/28/mark-hamill-donates-to-campaign-to-remove-donald-trump-from-twitter.html,

 

You think that a proposal to stop someone posting on a private companies service is fascist?

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Mark Hamill, that Star Wars guy, has given his support to a campaign to get Donald Trump off Twitter. The apparent plan is to raise a billion dollars to become a majority shareholder of Twitter so they have the power to remove him.

 

The campaign is more symbolic than realistically practical but I think it displays a fascist mentality.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/08/28/mark-hamill-donates-to-campaign-to-remove-donald-trump-from-twitter.html,

Half the Republican party want him to stop posting on twitter because his tweets are so often embarrassing and damage the reputations of both the party and the country.

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Posts discussing moderation have been removed. If you have any questions about the removal of threads (or anything else moderation related) you know to ask at the helpdesk.

 

Thank you.

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They are of course accountable to the law in any country in which they wish to operate.

Well of course, but that was not what I meant.

Would Trump have won his election without Twitter? Would Brexit?

Would it be proper for Twitter to interfere in the free passage of the Twitterings from one side of a political debate?

Do we know that they didn't?

 

I think the answer to all of those is no...

Edited by Hairyloon

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Hitler was only popular in Germany for a short number of years, maybe 1935-40 and do not forget out of all of the fascist leaders of that era, he had by far the shortest tenure of power. Mussolini had 20 years, Franco 40. Hitler only got 12.

 

He seriously went down hill.

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Well of course, but that was not what I meant.

Would Trump have won his election without Twitter? Would Brexit?

Would it be proper for Twitter to interfere in the free passage of the Twitterings from one side of a political debate?

Do we know that they didn't?

 

I think the answer to all of those is no...

 

US corporations have a long and glorious history of interfering in elections because they have no restrictions on the donation of money to political parties and persons.

 

Countries are free to pass laws to restrict those webservices from the passing on of false information of course, or if they wish they could ban political discourse entirely (although I doubt that would be popular).

It's certainly an issue that needs looking at, the Russian sponsored fake news and propaganda through those services, facebook, twitter, primarily, in favour of brexit and in favour of the man child president...

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US corporations have a long and glorious history of interfering in elections because they have no restrictions on the donation of money to political parties and persons.

Yeah, pretty much a different thing that though.

 

Countries are free to pass laws to restrict those webservices from the passing on of false information of course, or if they wish they could ban political discourse entirely (although I doubt that would be popular).

 

Only a properly full on authoritarian regime would even consider such a step and the internet would rebel: we cannot allow state regulation of social media any more than for any other media, but social media platforms do need to be accountable and be seen to be accountable.

 

It does not necessarily matter to whom they are accountable as long as everybody concerned knows who that is: if users choose to engage on a platform that is run as a fascist dictatorship, then they ought to be allowed to, but it ought to be clear that that is what it is, in order that they can make that choice...

Edited by Hairyloon

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