Squabbles, another recent reddit alternative, seems to be taking the doomed "free speech" path : reddit

[–] doctortofu@reddthat.com 198 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (17 children)

The phrase "free speech platform" sounds like a giant, enormous dog whistle. Which is a damn shame, because I used to enjoy that place, and now I'm not sure I will anymore... Don't want to jump to conclusions, but is there ANY self-described "bastion of free speech on the internet" that is not a cesspool full of awful people? Just one?

I'm a white, heterosexual cis male in my 40s not living in the US, so this does not affect me in any way, shape or form directly, but it still feels just icky, unnecessary and tone-deaf. Guess I'll post photos of my succulents and my goofy dog just on Lemmy from now on, bummer...

[–] jungekatz@lemm.ee 78 points 2 years ago (6 children)

I think it is a dog whistle , here in India there are people who openly talk of genocide , homophobia and what not and call it their right to speech and expression !

[–] hh93@lemm.ee 45 points 2 years ago

The "funny" thing is that the moment those people have power they don't have a problem going against free speech (see having books banned (in the US) or trying to stop people from voicing their opinion (Meloni in Italy))

It's all just exploiting the tolerance of the system in order to make it less tolerant That's why completely unchecked free speech is a bad idea as it will eventually lead in its complete demise

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[–] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 35 points 2 years ago

is there ANY self-described “bastion of free speech on the internet” that is not a cesspool full of awful people? Just one?

No, because awful people congregate wherever they are tolerated.

[–] livus@kbin.social 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I misread that as you describing your dog as succulent.

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[–] doctortofu@reddthat.com 90 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

This seems to be the reason for the change (jayclees is the creator and admin of the site):

https://ibb.co/48hY8fm

[–] flamingmongoose@lemmy.blahaj.zone 89 points 2 years ago (35 children)

It's always telling when people describe a minority as a "political movement" rather than... people

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[–] Madbrad200@lemmy.world 48 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

honestly reading this, it just sounds to me like he isn't cut out for community management. It is stressful and hard sometimes, so I get it, but he's going to kill his own site doing this. I did wonder about this before - it seemed like to me he regularly made changes based on feedback on a whim, and these changes were often rushed without much thinking. Needs to know when to pass the baton elsewhere and stick to development, but alas...

The last comments also speak to someone who's probably hiding some contrarian views of his own.

Shame.

[–] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 47 points 2 years ago

cOnSeRvaTiVe vOiCeS aRe bEiNg sILeNcED!!

i.e. boohoohoo, I'm facing consequences for my hate speech.

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[–] Neato@kbin.social 37 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Allowing bigots just means you are one. Rip squabbles.

[–] Khotetsu@lib.lgbt 32 points 2 years ago

As a wise bartender once said, "If you allow one Nazi, you no longer have a bar. You have a Nazi bar."

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[–] derin@lemmy.beru.co 25 points 2 years ago

LGBT people: "We have a right to exist."

'Free speech absolutists': "Ugh, take your political bullshit someplace else."

No idea how people think this is a valid way to talk about people literally fighting for their right to simply be present in public spaces without people attacking their very being.

[–] macallik@kbin.social 17 points 2 years ago

Grand opening, Grand closing

[–] TheSpookiestUser@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

If true: Well, that's the end of that platform I guess. Shame, I liked that there were so many alternatives cropping up.

[–] DarkGamer@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago

I guess there wasn't enough Squabbling.

[–] mojo@lemm.ee 60 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

Literally why would you go to this website over Reddit. It has all the same problems and is just more boring.

"Free speech" is just a dog whistle and gas lighting now. Unless it's fully allowing illegal content, then it's not free speech, which is obviously sane to not allow. That's why its a silly term to throw around in the first place.

[–] girthero@lemmy.one 21 points 2 years ago (1 children)

“Free speech” is just a dog whistle and gas lighting now.

You're not wrong, but I remember when free speech was more of a liberal issue. Freedom for artistic expression and all that. Freedom to curse in music, freedom to create and view porn etc.

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[–] Chozo@kbin.social 58 points 2 years ago

They also removed the admins who disagreed with this decision. Jayclees and Daniel are the only "staff" left now. This is a really bad look for them.

[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 39 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I don't understand what I'm looking at here? Some reddit-ish place is declaring free-speech then they immediately backpedal and say racist stuff doesn't count, and also some admins left? So what is the material difference between a "free speech platform*" and lemmy which also doesn't allow racist stuff?

[–] SirElliott@beehaw.org 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It sounds like they’re going to be allowing anti-LGBT hate speech, which was formerly a ban-worthy offense on their platform. Reddit and most Lemmy instances have rules against this, so I imagine Squabblr is going to attract the same sort of people that like using Truth Social.

[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

In my experience forums that allow everything else will basically attract all the trans-, queer- and homophobes, misogynists and sexists.

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[–] OtakuAltair@lemm.ee 35 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Voat any% speedrun WR (glitchless)

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[–] uberkalden@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I left a month ago because it was clear they were going this way. Glad I'm here

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[–] Kushia@lemmy.ml 33 points 2 years ago

Sounds like they are going to speed run what happen with Voat.

[–] jeena@jemmy.jeena.net 32 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wonder why of all bad things they make an exception specifically for racism and not something else like pedophilia for example.

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[–] Madbrad200@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm really confused by this direction? The admin seemed... nice, and all of the users were "let's all be friends and be postivive x!" type people. Not exactly the place for "free speech" dog wistle folks. He's just going to alienate his entire userbase, I don't understand the point.

[–] MinusPi@pawb.social 27 points 2 years ago

And this is why federation is great.

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 26 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Somewhere for the Trumpers to go when Truthsocial falls on its arse.

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[–] imgprojts@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I hope people know that us all having instances would always be better than anything centralized elsewhere. 1) I can delete all my posts if I want. 2) anyone can make a better app to talk to it. 3) we got so many different ways of sharing our free speech here, it's not even funny. 4) you can backup your stuff. I'm not, but you can do that if you serve your own server. 5) you can establish your own rules or land on someone else's server that you trust.

At this point you gotta be a lower form of life to conclude that going centralized is good for anyone.

[–] Whirlybird@aussie.zone 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You deleting your posts from your own instance doesn't magically delete them from every other instance.

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[–] AlmightySnoo@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago

so basically 4chan without the racial slurs

[–] pkulak@beehaw.org 21 points 2 years ago

We’re “free speech” except these first 4 categories we could name off the top of our heads. There will never be any reason to add to this list. Adding to that list wouldn’t be “free speech”!

[–] onlooker@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 years ago

Well, they're being true to their namesake, I'll give them that.

[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Ah, so basically your site wants to see transphobic, homophobic, misogynist and sexist content. I see.