linuxaudio.org

Hi,

   I'm just speaking up a bit here since that's the underlying topic

of this thread.
Cheers,

Mark
On 3/12/06, Cesare Marilungo  wrote:

quoted text
>

> I'm still undecided if is right or wrong to ban offensive language by

> somebody who is trying to build a community of likeminded people.

If you do then you have already decided what the 'like minded'

community should look like, what it can do and cannot do. This is a

recipe (in my mind) for a community that will not be healthy and grow

in the future. It's stagnant from the outset. Consider whether the

community is better off being forever limited by the decisions taken.

If it is a community for children or closed minded adults who feel the

need to be protected then the correct answer is probably different

than for a community of open-minded adults looking to grow. would rock

& roll have ever happened if the people minding the community would

only let classical music play? Let the people who don't like it burn

their records. That's their business. But do not stop the new

musicians from playing their music and speaking their minds.
Consider, please, that the basis of any law to suppress free speech

has at its root an assumption that people listening aren't smart

enough to figure to for themselves that the 'offensive' speech is

really coming from stupid people they don't want to listen to. Give

the listener proper credit and pretty soon you find out that not that

many people care about what the talker is speaking about. (My

opinion/observation anyway...) It's perfectly OK for people spout out

stupid stuff as long as it's just words.
Consider a recent conviction of some silly 'historian' convicted in

Europe for writing a book that stated that the Holocaust never

occurred. What's up with that? We need a 'law' that says the Holocaust

happened? We know it did. It's amazingly Orwellian thinking to believe

that we could ever get to a point where the general world population

ever questioned this fact. But the Austrians (I think...) have a law

that says you cannot even say the Holocaust didn't happen and

convicted a silly person who wrote it in a book. I happen to think

this whole affair really make the Austrians, and by association

Europeans that don't speak out about this, look rather silly. But then

again, I'm in California and it's clear everyone here is out of touch

anyway. ;-)
>

quoted text
> If you invite me at your home, and I start insulting you and your family

> with racist and sexist words I don't thing you would invite me again. In

> the same way anybody can start his/her own web community and apply the

> rules he/she want.

That is correct behavior in my mind. First, before I invite you to m

home I hopefully know something about you. You are a friend or close

acquaintance. I don't invite you unless I'm already sure you are

someone I want to spend an evening with. Second, if you did this, but

it was only me that heard it, I might tell you I don't like it and ask

you to stop, or at least carry on a discussion about it. On the other

hand, if you do this in front of my kids then our friendship is almost

certainly permanently damaged because you didn't care about my

family's feelings. It's a bad evening but it's not the end of the

world. I use your behavior to teach my kids about some of the stupid

people in the world and never invite you back again. None the less I

do not think you should be arrested for this behavior - just

unceremoniously dismissed.
While I understand and even agree with your distaste for people

speaking this way I do not, even in the slightest way, think that

people should be prohibited from such speech. Here in America we have

lots of people speaking things that I don't like. Republicans &

Democrats. (as opposed to republicans and democrats...) People

speaking from extremely narrow religious perspectives. Racists of all

types. Neo-Nazi's, closed minded Americans, right-wing talking heads

on TV. Our country and media is full of this stuff. I cannot stand

most of it, and I don't spend my time listening to it, but not for a

second do I want anyone to be silenced. Let them talk. As long as it's

talk and nothing more then I think they are actually providing a

service to the country and world at large. It would be FAR more

dangerous to have it all underground until it finally exploded into

some sort of war.
Just my two cents,

Mark