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Where I come from, in the American West, it is your job to fence your neighbor's cattle _out_ if you don't want them on your land. It is not his job to fence th
by avn2109 11y ago
Where I come from, in the American West, it is your job to fence your neighbor's cattle _out_ if you don't want them on your land. It is not his job to fence them _in_ so they stay on his land. This principle is enshrined in centuries of statues and legal precedent. It works really well.
Similarly, I claim that in a free and open society, with lively and vibrant debate constantly transpiring in the metaphorical agora, it is your job to _not be offended_ by things that other people say, not their job _to avoid offending you_.
- DanBC 11y agoEverywhere else in the world you are responsible for the harm that you cause.
- tomp 11y agoExcept the governments (and the UN), of course.
- geofft 11y agoWhat is the relevance of people being offended to this discussion? This is about threats and harassment, not being "offended". Neither the original article nor any other comment in this thread talks about people being "offended". The UN report itself only mentions "offensive behaviour" or similar a few times: a small number of times in quoting other people's opinions or existing policies, once in regards to "sending offensive emails from victim's email account" (that is, it is not the "offensive" content per se that is a problem, but the impersonation), and once favorably quoting Facebook's policy: "We prohibit content deemed to be directly harmful, but allow content that is offensive or controversial. We define harmful content as anything organising real world violence, theft, or property destruction, or that directly inflicts emotional distress on a specific private individual (e.g., bullying)." The threat to "lively and vibrant debate" here is entirely invented, and it is disingenuous for you to pretend that this discussion is about being "offended" by things that people say. The discussion here is about threats and harassment, which have no part in encouraging lively and vibrant debate, not about potentially "offensive" ideas.
- oldmanjay 11y agoA passionate defense of an unworkable mindset is a truly a sign of the munificence of our age.
- geofft 11y agoI'm sorry, I don't understand this comment. Which mindset do you believe is unworkable, which defense do you believe is passionate, in what way would you say our age is munificent, and is that a good or bad thing?