this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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The common MO amongst right wingers is they claim that dissidents like Mahmoud Khalil is a "guest" and therefore they believe that he should not have the right to criticize the government.

What is your view on this?

Edit: Mr. Khalil has a Green Card btw, just to clarify.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Provides it's legal, yes. I've trashtalkes trump while visiting the US, no problem there. But I keep my mouth shut when visiting Saudi Arabia.

In the case of the US, free speech is universal (de juret, at least. Not de facto, as we've recently seen). As beneficial as it would be to prevent, for example, foreign propaganda agents and their talking points, doing so would mean selective free speech, which isn't really free.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 hours ago

Anyone has the right to criticise any government. Tons of Lemmy thread on [email protected] are basically foreigner giving negative (and sometimes positive) critics about government with sometimes locals giving contexts

If you can criticise dictatorship like Russia, North Korea you can also criticise democracies like US or France. Even better, in these countries, you can legally do it from national soil, while in dictatorship you'd get into trouble

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 hours ago

A government that can't stand up to simple criticism is a weak government.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Everyone can criticize anything. You can't stop people from it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

First Amendment supposedly applies to all who reside in the USA

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 hours ago

Are you asking if humans have the right to free speech? Because yes.

Any “government” that doesn’t recognize that deserves the respect of no human being

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Right wingers don't stop with immigrants. "Love it or leave it" applies to everyone as far as they're concerned.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 hours ago

Unless a Democrat is in office, in which case everything the government does is the most disastrous, evil, horrible thing to ever exist.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Pragmatically: It depends on the country’s laws for free speech and criticism, your location, and a country’s extradition relationship.

Personally: Yes, we should all have the right to criticize our own and others’ governments. But we should also take the responsibility and initiative to get educated while doing so.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

If we’re talking about the USA specifically, then the answer is yes. The Bill of Rights applies to everyone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Well, it was yes.

What we're all seeing now is that the Constitution ultimately depends on our willingness to agree to collectively abide by it.

It was always just a story, but while we all agreed to believe in it, it was a true story.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago

It's just an excuse. They want to get rid of him because they don't like his politics and he's an activist. Whether the state categorizes you as a citizen, resident, tourist, undocumented, etc. should have nothing to do with your right to speak out.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 hours ago

Everybody has a right to criticize anything they want.

I don't have to visit the Sahara to know that it's hot and dry there, and there's no reason I shouldn't be able to say it's too hot and dry for me to want to go there.

Someone else might criticize the Sahara for being too cold and wet. That doesn't make any sense to me, and I can claim that they don't know what they are talking about, but they have the right to believe that.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

If there is something to criticize, everyone should do so. Criticism is a good thing: you don't necessarily have to share it, but you can learn from it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Should doesn't enter. They do have that right, it's a human right, the right of free expression. Doesn't depend on nationality or location, only humanity.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

If freedom of speech is granted to all and there is legal precedent and long standing tradition for that case then all should be able to have freedom of speech regardless of status.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

I would expand on this to declare that the free speech that has been granted to all is a Good Thing™ and should be a point of pride that we strive for and boldly implement.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

My interpretation is that visitors don't have specific rights to criticize a government per-se. However! In most non-authoritarian countries, everyone has the unequivocal rights to criticize a government as long as they are not intending on disobeying other harassment/discrimination laws, regardless of their status. Since visitors are also included in "everyone", they can criticize a government too

Of course this only applies to non-authoritarian countries. Authoritarian countries don't have that right even for their citizens, so visitors are not excluded either

(I hate where this train of thought is going but whatever...)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

There's a whole field of philosophy rooted on the idea that the world is never perfect, there is no end to history, and thus we must always be critical of the status quo.

It's called Critical Theory.