@mattskala That's a good point, though there's a lot more to it than that.

The fediverse has been around sine Laconica (10-ish years), and it's only recently that there's a clash between the safe-space culture from the US, meeting the existing global free-speech culture, in the context of a foreign culture now dominating in user size.

Essentially, this is the new Wild West right now.

@wogan @mattskala @yahananxie I'm kind of glad that I'm not the only one who sees the US cultural influence in what's essentially a culture war over speech norms.

Something the Americans fail to realize is that much of the European segment already has hate speech laws that apply where our servers are operating and don't actually need the Americans to come tell us what we're allowed to say.

@frankiesaxx @mattskala @yahananxie Europe is actually quite ahead on a lot of this stuff, but I think you'll find some solid disagreement on the way certain types of speech are handled.

For example, the mass immigration from the middle east. It's becoming political (and social) suicide to say anything bad (even if it's true) about immigrants.

@wogan @mattskala @yahananxie That's not actually true.

It's (sometimes) political/social suicide to indulge in xenophobic scapegoating. (Or should be, in an ideal world. If you look at Hungary & Poland, the UK, etc. clearly it's not.)

Sane conversations about issues with immigration that aren't based in hyperbolic nationalist fear-mongering are pretty common; we just aren't all as hysterically terrified of foreign-talking brown people as the US wants us to be.

@jd @wogan @mattskala @yahananxie

Hungary has a lot of problems right now. :(

@wogan @jd @mattskala @yahananxie

One thing US media saturation has made me aware of is the tendency to treat America's racial issues as universal, but that's not really the case.

The American cultural history of commercialized race-based slavery & segregation and its lasting social impact isn't universal; allowing the US racial narrative to define the problems in our own countries hinders our ability to accurately identify & deal with our real issues.