Niiiiiiiiiick is a user on hex.bz. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
@csilverman@mastodon.social Free speech is overrated and the ones always going on about how important and fundamental it is are those most likely to use it against the powerless.
@elronxenu That's been my experience: the people most passionately opposed to controls are the people least likely to be abused.
I ran a forum in college. The previous admins did nothing about abuse, and when I took it over, it was not some grand utopia of ideas and freedom—it was a sewer of trolling and hate speech. All the smart, interesting people had left.
Since then, I've never bought the idea that unfettered freedom means better conversations. I've seen for myself that it doesn't.