Obama's America, getting better or worse? He promised change - now we are getting it.

[mrstickball]

Seece said:

mrstickball said:

Seece said:

Yeah i know of Free Speech, it's what the majority of people thinks gives them the right to say whatever they like. There are such other things such as respect, impartiality and hate speech though.

It doesn't have to be physically forcing, to have something pushed on you. A person like me, what do you mean, someone who doesn't like religion? It doesn't bother me that much, most of my family are religious and I get on fine with them. I'm able to put it to the side.

So you can't say certain things if it offends, hunh? Great. So no more debates on anything, because it may offend someone.

Yes, there certainly are things as respect, impartiality and hate speech. They aren't what you believe they are. If someone wants to say something stupid, or disrespectful, why should they be prevented from doing such? Because you got offended? Do you realize that is the exact same logic governments have used to kill and jail dissenters - because they spoke out against someone else that got offended? Hate speech can be the same way - taken to the extreme, it seeks to punish those who question the status quo. It creates a two-tier system of justice that allows for additional penalties to be lobbied against someone because they said something unfavorable against a certain party - be they Christian, Atheist, Straight, Gay, Republican, Democratic, a Nintendo fan, or anything else.

The further we fall into the idea that fringe ideas of speech and social thought must be censored, banned, and those who speak out jailed are going to find a very problematic future when the societal norms change, and what was once considered obscene becomes commonplace, then your idea of rational thought is on the fringe and in the crosshairs of censorship.

Let me ask you, Secee: If I told you that I think all gay rights groups are promoting hate speech, what would you say? Because your guilty of inciting the same kind of violations, but on the other group of people. Just change 'gay rights' with any other social or political agenda.

Why are you complicating things unnecessarily? I wondered how long it would take for homosexuality to come up, they're completely different. You're born with your sexuality and your skin colour, you're not born with your relgion. Sexuality and Race are something that is part of all of us.

I am not complicating it. I am merely mentioning the fact that you are simply asking for preferential censorship of given topics based on your system of beliefs. I just mentioned homosexuality because its a hot button issue like religion. My point still stands: As soon as you begin to define what must be censored, you become just as bigoted the religious nutjob that would prevent someone from discussing or promoting a topic he or she feels strongly about.