• orclev@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      4 months ago

      There is an entire universe of difference between the government telling you you can’t say something and arresting and/or disappearing you if you ignore them, and privately owned museums, exhibit halls, or online platforms refusing to do business with you if you say something stupid in public that harms people’s perceptions of you. You’re absolutely free to spout every hot take and conspiracy theory you want (there’s certainly no shortage of people who do), but nobody is obligated to respect you or do business with you if you do. What’s not going to happen is an FBI agent or cop coming around to “have a chat” and if you refuse to publicly retract your statements then quietly sending you off to some gulag without telling anyone where you’ll be worked to death and then your organs harvested and sold. That’s the difference between “the West” and China.

    • PugJesus@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      4 months ago

      Yeah, a guy comparing getting his art exhibit canceled over a poorly worded tweet to Maoist China, where people were imprisoned, exiled, murdered, and worked to death for having wrong opinions, or wrong parents, or wrong possessions.