>There are advantages to the efficiency of authoritarian power, but how do they handle peaceful transition of power?
Europe had hereditary transitions of power, which were about as peaceful as any other form of transition of power. In Rome you would choose your successor and he would be the next emperor.
> I probably could not be persuaded that limits on speech and government censorship are good long-term for the health of a society that I'd want to actually live in. I think it's a good thing for governments to ultimately be accountable to their people.
Just because it's supposed to work that way doesn't mean it actually works that way. Do you think Americans are using free speech well? Do you feel like the government is accountable to you? In America you have free speech but it's not practically useful for anything. Have a go at trying to stop some government abuse of power.
> "Do you think Americans are using free speech well? Do you feel like the government is accountable to you?"
Yes.
> "In America you have free speech but it's not practically useful for anything. Have a go at trying to stop some government abuse of power."
The protests happening now, civil rights movements in the 60s, the changes after the pentagon papers, the suffrage movement. "Me Too" and its impact on culture, awareness of the continuous lies coming from the current administration. There are an enormous amount of historical examples of free speech being critical to improving the society.
I think you're very wrong, but you're free to be wrong (at least on this website).
> Do you think Americans are using free speech well?
I think that's irrelevant, since being a free individual is the main reason being alive and healthy is desirable, not the other way around. If people just existed to keep an abstract group of people alive, with no person in that group actually mattering, actually being allowed to develop as the person they are, not the group they are in -- what's the point of having people at all? What would we be doing that insects or algae aren't already doing much better?
> Just because it's supposed to work that way doesn't mean it actually works that way.
Sure, but if it's not even supposed to work that way, or is even supposed to work the opposite, then that's still a lot worse.
Europe had hereditary transitions of power, which were about as peaceful as any other form of transition of power. In Rome you would choose your successor and he would be the next emperor.
> I probably could not be persuaded that limits on speech and government censorship are good long-term for the health of a society that I'd want to actually live in. I think it's a good thing for governments to ultimately be accountable to their people.
Just because it's supposed to work that way doesn't mean it actually works that way. Do you think Americans are using free speech well? Do you feel like the government is accountable to you? In America you have free speech but it's not practically useful for anything. Have a go at trying to stop some government abuse of power.