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>Michael Godwin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public-interest law firm, made the same point -- if slightly less elegantly -- about the Santa Rosa cas
by grasshopperpurp 9y ago
>Michael Godwin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public-interest law firm, made the same point -- if slightly less elegantly -- about the Santa Rosa case. People who objected to the computer message, he said, "should have called the guy who posted the message a jerk."
Call an obnoxious speaker a jerk: what a useful formula, what an intelligent way to get the resentment off your chest without starting down the legal road to suppression of speech. It would have worked well, for example, in the notorious case of Prof. J. Donald Silva of the University of New Hampshire.
I find this section to be a disturbing summation of the author's attitude on the subject. And, the Groucho Marx quote has no bearing on any of this; it's self-deprecation.
- adfm 9y agoDo I find a mens club repugnant? Yes, but I do appreciate comfortable chairs. As for Groucho, I suppose the subtlety of his humor falls on deaf ears.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- grasshopperpurp 9y agoSo, how does it relate then? What did you add by including it? It's a famous quote, and I remember mentioning it to a college professor when we covered Poe's 'The Black Cat.' I'm all for learning. Please explain.
- adfm 9y agoIt's about exclusion. The Marx family were Jews. Men-only clubs (just "clubs" back then) excluded Jews. Groucho's feigning snobbery was self-deprecating, but also allegorical. Walled gardens are for suckers.
- grasshopperpurp 9y agoThanks very much for the explanation, and I'm sorry for my initial tone/wrongness.
- adfm 9y agoNo worries. We're always learning.