--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How far does your tolerance of different viewpoints > extend? For example, > one could argue that the 9/11 suicide pilots > honestly disagree with you > -- they had a goal and were trying to achieve it as > soldiers in a just > war. You can disagree with their choice of methods, > but you have to > respect their bravery in sacrificing their lives in > order to make the > world a better place for their people. > > I'm not equating that idea with anyone or anything, > by the way. I'm just > asking if your tolerance of honest disagreement is > limitless, or if you > have some limit, and if so, how and where do you > draw the line? > > Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/
That's a really good question, and I'm not sure I have a great answer, other than the old one for porn "i.e., I know it when I see it." My rule of thumb would be - what opinions are within the mainstream of American politics? A few years ago I would have said "within the mainstream of belief in industrialized democracies." But now one-third of the German population thinks the CIA and/or the Mossad was responsible for September 11th. One-third is the mainstream in my book, so that presents me with a problem, doesn't it? In general, I also default to this. Very few people in American politics have bad intentions. A handful, perhaps - I was doing what I could (very little) to weaken Trent Lott long before his Strom Thurmond comments, for example, because I thought he was a racist a long time ago. So that's not someone to whom I give the benefit of the doubt. But in general, you have to be pretty egregious (in American terms) before I would believe that it's your motives, not your judgment, that is questionable. Not sure that's a very good answer, to be honest, but it's the best I can do off the top of my head. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway http://promotions.yahoo.com/design_giveaway/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
