I agree with Aaron on this. I'd go a bit further. If you believe in free speech you must defend the right of people who are saying things you really don't want to hear, and which may well be crackpot, offensive or plain stupid. For one thing, it gets these people out into the open so you know who they are, and who/what you might have to defend yourself against. Subjecting our own opinions and ideas to attack means we strengthen those that are of value, and discard those that aren't. This has been one of the most powerful weapons in the triumph of democracy - it grows stronger because it welcomes scrutiny and critical examination. Compare this to totalitarian and theocratic regimes.
Another aspect of free speech, which people often don't consider, is our right to hear things and judge them for ourselves, and not to have some nanny state or self-proclaimed authority decide what is and is not good for our ears. We are adults, so we have the right to listen to this sort of guff if we want to, and the right to believe it, or to ignore it, or to mock it as we see fit. Defending free speech for others is how we defend free thinking for ourselves. -- Cheers, Bob > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Aaron Reynolds > > That's part of why it's so important to let people talk about this > stuff -- you get specifics that you can examine and attempt > to counter. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
