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From: pvp@ihuxl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Can ideas be dangerous?
Message-ID: <933@ihuxl.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 3-Mar-84 00:49:25 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.933
Posted: Sat Mar  3 00:49:25 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Feb-84 23:16:25 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 133

Some of the issues raised in Andy
Berman's response to my questions
led me to consider the following
proposition:

Should anyone get upset over topics
discussed or actions proposed in an
idea sharing forum such as netnews?

In particular, should I get upset
and angry if someone proposes disenfranchising
the poor? After all, people have a
right to express their opinions,
don't they? What right do I have to
get sarcastic, or call him a jerk?

Some people would probably say that
I should just ignore such proposals.
After all, they're not hurting anybody
are they?

But here is where I disagree. Ideas
can hurt people. Certain ideas, if
allowed to go unchecked or unchallenged,
can cause much suffering. The reason that
the pen is mightier than the sword
is because ideas are what cause wars.

Consider four examples:

1) The idea that the Jews were responsible
   for Germanys economic plight in
   the 30's was not just an inocuous
   slur. Given encouragement
   by the Nazi's, that idea caused
   untold pain and suffering. Should
   the knowledgebale Germans have simply
   ignored the Nazis and their poisonous ideas?
   If they had had the courage to
   speak up, could WWII have been
   avoided? My opinion is that the
   silence of the educated Germans
   helped the Nazis come to power.

2) The opinion by most Americans that
   the blacks weren't quite as human
   as whites wasn't exactly harmless
   either. It took this country a
   lot of effort, and a lot of 
   dead bodies, before that idea was
   expunged. The proposal that "poor"
   people shouldn't have the right to
   vote because they don't know enough
   is frightening, because it threatens
   to start that battle all over again.
   It's not very hard to read black
   and hispanic into the use of the
   codeword poor.
   I believe that that idea should be
   rebutted forcefully and quickly.
   I remember the difficulty I had
   with my parents over whether blacks
   should have equal rights. I don't
   want to fight that battle again with 
   my children, because no one taught them 
   the history of that idea.

3) The idea popular in certain quarters
   today that the theory of creationism
   is just as good as the theory of
   evolution threatens to set back
   American biological sciences by
   many years. Already, the teaching
   of evolution is being reduced or
   eliminated altogether in school
   textbooks. If children are not
   taught the fundamentals of science early,
   how will we maintain our technological
   lead in the world? Recall
   that the Russians have problems
   today with food production because
   they refused to learn the science
   of genetics.

4) The idea that taxes are stolen
   from citizens is dangerous too.
   Consider the bloodshed that has
   surrounded the Posse Comitatus
   in the midwest. Apparently this
   group got the word from God that
   they shouldn't have to pay taxes.
   Now people are getting killed
   because of that idea.

So my conclusion from the above examples is this:

Yes, net.politics should hear from
a wide variety of viewpoints. Yes
there are lots of questions we can
argue about without getting angry
or insulting. We clearly do so every
day. (Reagans a jerk...Is not..Is so...etc.)
But if somebody wants to tell me that
blacks shouldn't be allowed to vote,
because they're all lazy good-for-nothings,
or that we should send all the Jews
to concentration camps
because they're stealing our money,
then I am going to get very angry.
I am not going to think very much of
that person, and I am going to
say so in no uncertain terms.

The bottom line of all this is
that I think that there are a lot
of ideas that get spouted in this
news group that are very dangerous.
The excuse that they are just opinions
doesn't placate me at all.
I realize that it is not possible
or desireable to restrain these people
from proposing these ideas, but I
believe that they should be rebutted
as firmly and quickly as possible.
I also don't think that it is out of
line to make certain deductions about
the intelligence and/or knowledge
of the proposer, either.


	Phil Polli
	ihnp4!ihuxl!pvp