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Facebook ignored hate speech by India's BJP politicians (aljazeera.com)
5 points by esalman on Aug 16, 2020 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments



I don't get discussions like these at all.

If I'd be inclined to "hate think" about BJP politicians, I'd be in circles propagating this stuff. I'd probably be quite thick, and I'd probably ignore (or treat as confirmation) actions to suppress this opinion. If i was like this and I learned about someone trying to suppress this opinion, it'd probably gain some more credibility from my limited perspective.

If I'm not inclined to that (and not thick), it'd not affect me at all in the sense of being drawn to that opinion - quite the opposite: I'd even learn about a sub-culture believing $topic, and maybe I'd even start trying to work against that sub-culture.

What's the benefit?


(I don't agree with the "hate speech" theory and am just trying to explain why someone might, in response to your question.)

1. Maybe there is a large population of "marginal" readers who are the intended target of the $topic advocacy, who don't quite believe it but could be convinced to believe it through evidence in favor of it and/or emotional appeals in favor of it. In that case effective advocacy for $topic aimed at them may convince them to adopt it. This doesn't work on you because you are far removed from the situation culturally or intellectually, so these particular appeals hold no particular interest or persuasive power for you.

2. Maybe there are lots of people who already believe $topic, but if they could become convinced that $topic is now socially stigmatized, they would stop believing in it over time or stop expressing their own support for it. Alternatively, maybe people show currently believe $topic are afraid to express their support but if expressions of support for it become common, they will start to believe it is socially normal or safe to express their support, and they will potentially start to do so themselves.

The second theory is closely related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window in the sense that the people trying to suppress the speech either hope to move $topic out of the Overton window in some community, or hope to prevent others from moving $topic into the Overton window.

I'll refrain from trying to argue against this here, but it seems like a very important controversy in the world today.


No sane person will respect Modi if they knew all the ugly/sub-human things he did to grab power; Hope 220 million who voted for Modi are regretting now; https://archive.is/DjiL7


Law makers can ban Facebook in India;




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