Censorship

Soroban · #1 $Old$ April 7th, 2008, 09:40 PM

Censorship

I never heard of anyone who was really literate
or who ever really loved books
who wanted to suppress any of them.
Censors only read a book with great difficulty,
moving their lips and they puzzle out each syllable,
when someone tells them that the book is unfit to read.
Robertson Davies

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
George Bernard Shaw

What progress we are making.
In the Middle ages, they would have burned me.
Now they are content with burning my books.
Sigmund Freud

The point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book.
And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.
Every minority, be it Baptist, Unitarian, Irish, Italian, Octogenarian,
Zen Buddhist, Zionist, Seventhday Adventist, Women's Lib,
Republican, Mattachine, Four Square Gospel ... feels it has the will,
the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse.
Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary
blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature,
licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author
who dares to speak above a whisper
or write above a nursery rhyme.
Ray Bradbury

The whole principle is wrong.
It's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk
because the baby can't eat steak.
Robert A. Heinlein

The trouble with censors is they they worry
if a girl has cleavage.
They ought to worry if she hasn't any.
Marilyn Monroe

ThePerfectHacker · #2 $Old$ April 7th, 2008, 10:39 PM

In American it sometimes seems that people have way too much freedom on what they want to say. I am of course talking about the Klu Klux Klan. First of all those guys hate: Jews, blacks, and gays. The problem with this type of hate is that it can escalade and turn into genocide. It has happened. And it may happen. It is okay for person to hate whoever they want, and okay for them to say negative things about them, that is the American way, but when you have an entire Klan on your side it can turn an entire nation against the hated group of people. Second a lot of their hatred is filled with lies. Again saying (almost anything) is the American way but when it is lies, especially lies which can bring destruction, should be censored.

topsquark · #3 $Old$ April 8th, 2008, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePerfectHacker $View Post$

In American it sometimes seems that people have way too much freedom on what they want to say. I am of course talking about the Klu Klux Klan. First of all those guys hate: Jews, blacks, and gays. The problem with this type of hate is that it can escalade and turn into genocide. It has happened. And it may happen. It is okay for person to hate whoever they want, and okay for them to say negative things about them, that is the American way, but when you have an entire Klan on your side it can turn an entire nation against the hated group of people. Second a lot of their hatred is filled with lies. Again saying (almost anything) is the American way but when it is lies, especially lies which can bring destruction, should be censored.

I think the issue is not too much freedom (though I readily admit that there are many who should keep their mouths shut in the sense of being insulting). One of the rights that all people in the world at large have that they tend to forget is the right to not pay attention. Sometimes the best way to deal with someone insulting is to ignore them. (With the given example of the KKK, as individuals I think we should merely ignore their rhetoric. Obviously we shouldn't ignore them if they do something illegal.)

-Dan

CaptainBlack · #4 $Old$ April 8th, 2008, 04:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topsquark $View Post$

Sometimes the best way to deal with someone insulting is to ignore them.

Hard to ignore someone when they are setting fire to you

RonL

topsquark · #5 $Old$ April 8th, 2008, 04:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainBlack $View Post$

Hard to ignore someone when they are setting fire to you

RonL

Well, that's covered by the "doing something illegal" bit. Of course you have the right to defend yourself, but that's not a matter of censorship.

-Dan

ThePerfectHacker · #6 $Old$ April 8th, 2008, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topsquark $View Post$

I think the issue is not too much freedom (though I readily admit that there are many who should keep their mouths shut in the sense of being insulting). One of the rights that all people in the world at large have that they tend to forget is the right to not pay attention. Sometimes the best way to deal with someone insulting is to ignore them. (With the given example of the KKK, as individuals I think we should merely ignore their rhetoric. Obviously we shouldn't ignore them if they do something illegal.)

But you are missing the point. They are spreading lies, which can make many people turn against a group of people. As I said they can say whatever they want to say, but the problem is what they say can become dangerous. If the Klu Klux Klan was simply a hate group there would be no problem with them, but they are more than that, they can become dangerous.

We have Censorship here on MHF. Any lies people spread about math, for example, .999... is not 1, we close that thread.

CaptainBlack · #7 $Old$ April 8th, 2008, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by topsquark $View Post$

Well, that's covered by the "doing something illegal" bit. Of course you have the right to defend yourself, but that's not a matter of censorship.

-Dan

Have you ever been at the recieving end of racial abuse?

(I am with Cantona on this)

RonL

topsquark · #8 $Old$ April 8th, 2008, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainBlack $View Post$

Have you ever been at the recieving end of racial abuse?

(I am with Cantona on this)

RonL

I haven't actually. I'm not saying its easy and I don't even want to think about how I might react myself. It's certainly something to think about (and hope that it never happens.)

-Dan