'Freedom of speech also includes freedom to bitch'
The words of The Artist Formerly Known as St. Fallen.
I am reading a lot of defiant and politically incorrect posts going up all over the place. Politically obtuse, religiously insulting, generally insulting, socially degrading, racist, sexist, you name it, we've got it on Kottu.
Is this a good thing?
What do yall think?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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18 Comments:
probably not, but that's irrelevant to freedom of expression.
Well I don't care what the hell people say. It's their own grave they're digging. They'd have to interact with people some time, and people won't like it.
Unless of course it's to be taken with a pinch of salt. Which most readers on kottu don't seem to understand :/
hmmm... very interesting..jerry i think a pinch of salt can go a long way in sorting out issues too, and deane, yeah the roots of 'freedom of expression' does seem to mingle a lot with 'conflict of ideas'eh.
I guess 'good' after all is a very subjective term. like someone i know once said :D
Good is indeed subjective but u know what I can't stand?? hypocrites. sadists. Down right rude poeple who use their writing to insult other poeple. So what if you are right? or wrong ?? Should freedom be so liberal that you think you have a right to say whatever you want just coz you can?
hmmm your right there, MC. some people do tend to abuse their freedoms i guess. but the moment we start restricting 'freedom' through the imposition of ethics. dont we lose a part of that freedom?
Interesting question, Whackster..
I think freedom to express every sort of crazy contradicting opinion is right, under just one condition for the sake of respect to others in the discussion:
That there is no holier-than-thou attitude in expressing these opinions, no 'you're wrong, I'm right', that all opinions are placed on an equally worthy level.
But abiding by such a condition is too much to ask for on the interweb. ;P
how do you know what good or bad is? what right and wrong is? express your thoughts just as they are without conforming to any morals, ethics, rules & regulations - which are in my opinion, what turn men into pussies.
Is it YOUR fault that THEY'RE hurt by YOUR opinion? Isn't their insecurity to blame? Fucking pathetic.
Piss.
It's true that there's a lot of people out there who abuse their freedom of expression to bitch about things they don't know shit about, but then, it's not called FREEDOM of expression for nothing. You don't like it, you ignore it. It's as simple as that. Everyone's got a right to say what they want... within the confines of the law of course.
Well yeah, freedom of expression is saying whatever you want regardless of who it offends.
But I think in order to 'keep the peace' with people with opposing ideas, a certain amount of consideration for their sensitivities while expressing yourself is in order.
That is, assuming one cares about keeping the peace at all. :P
hm..."own grave they're digging"...I think I’m going to go with Jerrybabes.
I suppose it IS to be taken with a pinch of salt, but I don't agree with malicious comments - which incidentally 'Piss' added about Jade on the new post of MOB.
Criticism on writing - ok. Getting personal? Is it necessary?
Also, shouldn't freedom of speech come with the responsibility aspect, after all, you said it, so let us know who YOU are. Being anonymous certainly doesn't help that cause...seems cowardly.
Just my thoughts :)
"shouldn't freedom of speech come with the responsibility aspect" hmmm... DC has a good point.
"If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise." Noam Chomsky
"the free speech principle involves a special act of carving out one area of social interaction for extraordinary self-restraint, the purpose of which is to develop and demonstrate a social capacity to control feelings evoked by a host of social encounters." Prof. Lee Bolinger... According to Bollinger tolerance is a desirable, if not essential, value and protecting unpopular speech is itself an act of tolerance.
Just some stuff I scooped off Wikipedia... interesting topic.
But the reality is that freedom of speech, sadly, doesn't include freedom from the consequences.
Conforming to ethics, rules and regulations, etc. etc. when expressing yourself is just a matter of personal choice now, isn't it?
You and I may believe that just because you can bitch about people, it doesn't mean you should, but obviously, there are so many out there who don't believe the same.
It's up to you to decide just how much offence you take, if at all. And just how much you're willing to tolerate and forgive speaks volumes about your character in my humble opinion. :)
I guess Jerry's "pinch of salt" concept goes with what Bollinger was on about tolerance.
Wow! Lots of thoughts here, may as well add my 2 cents... Having an opinion is fine, saying what you think is fine, being nasty about it is not. That's what I think anyway... But being human, I'm guessing even I don't always live by that... do try though.
everyone hass a right to ssay what they want to ssay. there iss not right or wrong in freedom. only ssupression. freedom ass we know it hypocisssy!!
Yay, people throwing my name around in comments.
Go me.
Interesting thread guys. i guess freedom of sppech stops where offense starts? but then thats somethinghard to quantify eh. strange
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