Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
people can think inwardly whatever stupidities they want, but once they articulate them in a public space---particularly in a debate-oriented space---there's a symmetrical right to criticize those stupidities.
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of course, we call this the 1st Amendment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
in a democratic environment, there'd be an assumption that you'd be able to mount arguments in defense of those positions. because it is simply not the case in a democracy that anything goes. not in one that actually exists or existed. there are standards of argumentation. if what a citizen thinks is really fucking stupid and he or she were to argue it in the agora, that'd likely be the end of their influence.
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of course. just as it is every persons right to either ignore or publicly engage the idiot in his/her discourse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
so no, there really is no "right" to be racist publicly, or be stupid publicly, if by that you mean some "right" to not be criticized for being racist or being stupid.
there is a right to not be arrested for being stupid discursively. but a "freedom" from being criticised?
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i would agree.
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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."
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