Reach for the Stars @antares@qoto.org

@karanslade Why the CW?

@b2run sorry I missed that you were not from the US. Context:

BLM: Black Lives Matter a loose confederation of groups that protest the killings of innocent black people by the police and in so-called self defense. The Right often blames them for inciting violent riots.

Antifa: short for Anti-fascist. Not an actual organization but a banner for people who hold counter protest of right wing groups. Their slogan, "by any means necessary." Is code for a willingness to uses violence to silence what they see as dangerous hate speech.

I'm assuming vaccines and masks are widespread enough, but here the political right has decided that they are a means of expanding the reach of the federal government.

In the US free speech has the double meaning of a legal prohibition on government to regulate expression, but also a cultural norm (currently being debated esp. On Mastodon) that censorship at any significant scale leads to oppression and is morally unacceptable.

I used to pool this question regularly Over There and the answers were always amusing.

Pop Quiz: What was Charles Schenck saying that Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes thought was so dangerous that it was the equivalent to "Shouting fire in a crowded theater?"

#FreeSpeech #FireInACrowdedTheater

@b2run Someone who can imagine a day when the definitions of slander, intimidate, misinformation and scam will be made by people whose political agenda is not aligned with their own. What happens when BLM or Anitfa are declared "hate groups," posts encouraging vaccinations are labeled "misinformation," and mask are a "scam?"

This is not a hypothetical. you can find very influential people who espouse all of these right now. Donald Trump actually was the president. Do not live in the fantasy that the government will always be on your side, that illusion is far more dangerous than free speech.

@scottagunn I'd like your insights on the present and future of the Church.

@boisterousbard

The most common complaint has been about tone policing. You use words like kind, helpful, not overbearing, not boosting rage. This was very much the cultural norm here before the bird thing. Unfortunately when Black Twitter began to test the waters of Mastodon by sharing their experience in ways that felt natural, there was push back that they were not being kind, or helpful, that they were angry and overbearing -- and generally that they should not be ruining the polite cultural vibe that the existing users had created.

@QueenPhilippa @BlackAzizAnansi

The green stripe indicates engine rich exhaust.

#fail #church #episcopal #candles