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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   28251 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025

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Technically, maybe, but in common usage "dissident" is usually applied to someone who is persecuted by an oppressive, usually totalitarian, government, for their political views. Not somebody who is out of power because his policies and views disgust 99.9% of the population, but still is free to publicly proclaim and propagandize them.

It's like people claiming that since Arabs are Semitic people, opposing Hamas is "akshually anti-Semitic!" Yeah, no, that's not how it works, "akshually".

but still is free to publicly proclaim and propagandize them.

As I noted, this is not actually how it works in most of the non-US West. Literally, where I live (Victoria, Australia), @SecureSignals' posts on theMotte (not even what he's not said but never denied; what he's explicitly said) would (AIUI; IANAL) constitute a crime and he could be jailed for it.

As a high-profile example, Björn Höcke got fined (twice) for quoting a relatively-inoffensive Nazi slogan ("Everything for Germany"). This is a matter of record.

The simple fact of the matter in a significant chunk of the world is that Nazis are persecuted for their political views. You may think, as I do, that their views are a heap of steaming shit, and you may think, as I do, that that persecution is also a heap of steaming shit, but neither of these changes the fact of the persecution occurring.

Also, obligatory Scott quote:

If you start suggesting maybe it should switch directions and move the direction opposite the one the engine is pointed, then you might have a bad time.

Try it. Mention that you think we should undo something that’s been done over the past century or two. Maybe reverse women’s right to vote. Go back to sterilizing the disabled and feeble-minded. If you really need convincing, suggest re-implementing segregation, or how about slavery? See how far freedom of speech gets you.

In America, it will get you fired from your job and ostracized by nearly everyone. Depending on how loudly you do it, people may picket your house, or throw things at you, or commit violence against you which is then excused by the judiciary because obviously they were provoked. Despite the iconic image of the dissident sent to Siberia, this is how the Soviets dealt with most of their iconoclasts too.

If you absolutely insist on imprisonment, you can always go to Europe, where there are more than enough “hate speech” laws on the book to satisfy your wishes. But a system of repression that doesn’t involve obvious state violence is little different in effect than one that does. It’s simply more efficient and harder to overthrow.

this is not actually how it works in most of the non-US West

Well, yes, I can admit that as Europe is concerned, they are moving quite fast to the oppressive, and sometimes approaching totalitarian, direction, and there a person who is persecuted for disagreeing with the government - which is not at all limited to Nazis now - could be justly called "dissident". I haven't read anything the person in question posted, is he European?

The term antisemitism came into existence from Germans trying to justify that This Time it wasn't just dumb, bigoted Judenhass (literally "Jew-hatred"), and they had good (pseudo)scientific reasons to dislike them. Bringing other semitic peoples into it implicitly validates Nazi race science like talking about related Aryans in India.

Although some seem to be trying the This Time approach again, using "anti-Zionist" as the new label. Maybe in a century someone will claim it applies to Zionist Mormons in Utah.

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