>>dredmo+(OP)
I've been thinking for a while about what would happen if the slippery slope doesn't happen and big tech companies stick to censoring only the things that you can't say in nice costal elite company or can't say in China. I think I have finally worked out what the analogy would be for that. It is analogous to what some would call "systemic racism." Systemic racism is defined as a constant headwind against minorities that is composed not of organized pogroms against innocents, but as thousands of tiny cuts combined with a few
isolated pogroms that can be denied as the work of radicals.
Our violent criminals get a little less punishment than
their violent criminals.
Our political radicals are pushed away by the media a little less than
their political radicals. We have a
few instances of doing something clearly unfair to them, which are understood as exceptions and quickly forgotten, but whenever they do something clearly unfair to us, it's held up for years as an example of their moral inferiority.
That's the kind of constant headwind that can add up over time and distort a society beyond recognition. Why? Because the disadvantaged group will see their disadvantage get worse over time, because in the vast average of thousands of interactions, they slide slightly backwards. As the disadvantage gets worse, the bias gets worse along with it. This can play out in many situations, from the ones that seem totally indefensible ("What do you mean we're being unfair, he's a murderer!"), to the ones that seem ridiculously minor.