Xref: utzoo alt.flame:3249 news.misc:2148 rec.humor.d:1225
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!pacbell!ames!mailrus!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!rwc102
From: RWC102@PSUVM (R. W. F. Clark)
Newsgroups: alt.flame,news.misc,rec.humor.d
Subject: Re: The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid (LONG)
Message-ID: <63214RWC102@PSUVM>
Date: 29 Nov 88 23:21:02 GMT
Followup-To: alt.flame,news.misc
Organization: The Insensate Void
Lines: 54

In article <20312@mirror.TMC.COM>, david@mirror.TMC.COM (David Chesler) says:

>If someone were to post "All the Jews ought to be killed" I would not
>be offended, because I would just figure the author is a jerk.  Nevertheless
>I would object to the posting because someone else, a third party, might
>read the post and be more willing to act on it.

I can understand objecting to the posting.

However, many parties in this discussion have either
supported forcing a person's employer to remove him
or actually attempted to do so.  Mr. Richmond made
quite an idiot of himself in these endeavors.

It is not that censorship on the net is such a
terrible thing, but these parties have made ar-
guments which are not only directed to this sort
of thing on the net, but are very easily extendable
to the real world.  If anything which offends anyone
'should not be published,' then any idiot pressure-
group is free to restrict publishing of any sort,
leaving us with a literary heritage as useful and
interesting as a TV documentary.

>  I don't think one such post would be enough to convince anyone on the
>entire Usenet to commit murder, but enough of them can lead to an environment
>where physical acts against myself and my people become more commonplace.
>As this has happened before in recent and older history, it is something
>that I do watch out for.

Watching this is a good thing.  The continued distribution
of Moral Majoritarian garbage is a leading cause of bigotry
in this nation.  The use of advertisement as a brainwashing
tool for political moguls is a leading cause of the breakdown
of our political process.  However, trying to stop this by
limiting advertisement or publishing is not to be allowed.

>  Whether or not I read the comment, whether or not I subscribe to the
>group containing it, those third parties read it.  It is for this reason
>that many object to posting.

When they _object_ to the posting, I am not bothered.  When they
attempt to harass the person making the posting, I am impressed
by their own lack of courtesy and respect for others.

>
>(Disclaimer: I didn't find the particular joke to fit into that category,
>but many people whose opinions I respect did; their reasoning is perfectly
>valid, it is only their specific-case judgement with which I disagree.)

Their reasoning is as valid as the reasoning of any
censors or proponents of censorship.  That is to say,
dead wrong.

fc