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Being Simple Minded

July 17, 2008 15:34 by author

Tom

Occasionally someone writes something so stupid that I honestly am tempted to buy a plane ticket to where ever they live just to have the pleasure of slapping them in the back of the head.

Such is the case with Chris Brogan's post on the whole Loren Feldman controversy (which I'm not going to rehash). In his post he says...

That I’m not so sure about, and further, when you think about how one might patrol for such, I think free speech (not hate speech, but the other stuff that will get sucked into the nets) might get caught up, too.

* Pardon me as I take a deep breath before typing the rest of this post *

OK, here's the thing. The people who protested Loren Feldman, the people who called him a racist, WOULD CATEGORIZE HIS VIDEO AS HATE SPEECH YOU DUM...

ok...one more moment...

Evaluating issues of morality (and legality as well though they are different things) requires you see things from outside your own limited perspective. It means realizing that what you think defines something might not be what other people define it as.

That's the point.

The reason the founders of our country (he's also American) didn't say something like "Free Speech unless its Hate Speech" is because they were wise enough to realize you can't do that without completely obliterating Free Speech. Because everyone has a different definition of what speech is good and what speech is bad.

I tried desperately to keep my response civil but this type of thing is more dangerous than any racist could ever be. People dismiss racists while the well intentioned can spout simple minded pronouncements to their heart's content. Mark my words, if the world does end up heading towards the hell of a totalitarian society every brick on that road will be paved not by racists or other bad people but by well intentioned idiots who couldn't see beyond their own narrow frame of reference.

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July 17. 2008 23:01

Your point seems to be that hate speech laws are impossible to implement and that’s a point that has been disproven already. Many countries have hate speech laws and they work just fine.

How hard is it to say “this speech targets someone so it’s hate speech and that speech doesn’t so it isn’t.” Why don’t you just say assault is impossible because some people hit people while others hit punching bags? It’s stupid.

Joe

July 18. 2008 01:44

Joe,

You obviously haven't watched the Loren Feldman video. It's not hate speech, it's satire. And quite frankly if someone wants to write hate speech they have every right to do so - 1st amendment rights extend to people who have foul things to say, too. Maybe if we outlaw hate speech I can get sites like DailyKos, Huffington Post, and Digg taken down given that they are pretty vocal in expressing complete hatred against conservatives. That's hate speech, isn't it?

Aaronontheweb

July 18. 2008 02:42

Well yeah, I’m pretty much saying I don’t think its possible for us to all agree on what hate speech is and that some people would make that definition very broad.

But that aside I’d really like to hear your definition of “worked” in regards to the laws in other countries.

To take the only example I know of Brigitte Bardot has been fined several times for speaking out against muslims in her country and yet she still continues to do it proving these laws do nothing to curb the actual sentiment their trying to squash. In fact, I’d be willing to be they make the sentiment stronger which in turn does exactly the opposite of what they were intended to do.

So even when you try to punish people for hate speech you only end up making the situation worse by increasing the sentiment you sought to destroy and driving it underground where you can’t monitor it.

Tom

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About Me

Hi, I’m Tom and I run the IT department for a non-profit agency which provides treatment to special-needs children. Though I will (like any blogger) comment on technology in general my main goal is to detail how I’m trying to use technology to help treat the children we serve and its my hope that blogging will allow me to connect with people who can help in that goal.

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