Eugine_Nier comments on George Orwell's Prelude on Politics Is The Mind Killer - Less Wrong

10 [deleted] 29 March 2012 04:27PM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 01 April 2012 09:34:31PM *  9 points [-]

Against intellectual censorship and police states, for freedom of expression.

Unless, of course, the people you're censoring are themselves fascist or can be accused of facism or "hate speech" then it's ok.

Comment author: [deleted] 01 April 2012 10:46:31PM *  0 points [-]

Well, it could look like hypocrisy if you fail to understand that the points I oulined aren't principles or goals in and of themsleves. They are simply measures taken to avoid the rebirth of fascism or anything like it, mere means to an end. The top priority remains anti-fascism in and of itself, and the repression of anything that could promote it, looks like it could promote it, or could be made to look like it could promote it. Hence why Mein Kampf is banned, and people in Belgium have gone to prison for reading The Protocols of the Sages of Zion in the subway. Really, it all boils down to Hitler: bad in mainland Europe, and Civil War: bad in Spain (which is probably why they abhor violent methods so much).

Obviously the dilemma anti-fascism faces is the danger of becoming so repressive in its efforts to stop fascism from raising again that it creates a new totalitarianism of its own, but so far they seem to be pulling along fine.