Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
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Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
Example post from Ami:
viewtopic.php?p=220364#p220364
Example post from Dachshund:
viewtopic.php?p=323088#p323088
In the latter case, the poster has claimed to be a citizen of the UK. His words, if traceable to an identifiable UK citizen, could be judged to contravene Part 3 of the Public Order Act 1986 in UK law.
Should we tolerate such posts, and such posters, in the cause of the free expression of controversial ideas?
- Sy Borg
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
I'm just mildly interested in the legalities of a site like this. It's a US based site and, as I understand it, US law has a tendency to allow what might be called "hate speech" to a greater extent than UK and Australian law. But I wonder if a site like this should be regarded as international and subject only to the laws/rules dictated in its own conditions of use. Since all the posters here are anonymous (unless they choose not to be) I wonder if that means that, legally, they can say, essentially, anything.
- A_Seagull
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
If someone else's ideas are abhorrent to a philosopher, then either the philosopher must be able to rationally refute them or question their own personal biases (we all have them) and ask themselves why they find the notions abhorrent. If the philosopher cannot achieve success in either of these, then they need to question their own philosophy.
With regard to the racism view, one can ask why is it acceptable to be biased towards blind support for ones own soccer team or basketball team but not one's race identified by the colour of one's skin. (Any sort of decent philosophy shouldn't find this too hard.)
The question of paedophilia is perhaps slightly harder. Suppose someone is born with a predilection towards children in the same way that gays are attracted to members of the same gender and straights are attracted to members of the opposite gender. What are those people supposed to do? There seems to be no social program towards assisting those people to meet their needs without hurting or damaging children.
It is perhaps the role of philosophers more than sociologists or politicians to come up with meaningful rational arguments to resolve these problems.
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
One can answer that soccer and basketball are games and that advocating the removal of human status from certain groups of humans, and therefore the removal of their protection from harm in the eyes of the law, is not the same thing as supporting the genetic home-team.A_Seagull wrote:With regard to the racism view, one can ask why is it acceptable to be biased towards blind support for ones own soccer team or basketball team but not one's race identified by the colour of one's skin. (Any sort of decent philosophy shouldn't find this too hard.)
But that is not the subject of this topic. The subject is how to deal with posters who commit crimes by their words according to the laws of some, but not all, of the countries in which a website like this is used.
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
The interesting question is whether that should concern us. Should this place, in some sense, be regarded as akin to a place of sacramental confession? If a crime appears to have been committed, do we have a duty to attempt to discover the true identity of the poster in order to alert the relevant authorities?
- A_Seagull
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
The question is more of how to deal with the laws of a country.Steve3007 wrote: ↑November 3rd, 2018, 5:32 pmOne can answer that soccer and basketball are games and that advocating the removal of human status from certain groups of humans, and therefore the removal of their protection from harm in the eyes of the law, is not the same thing as supporting the genetic home-team.A_Seagull wrote:With regard to the racism view, one can ask why is it acceptable to be biased towards blind support for ones own soccer team or basketball team but not one's race identified by the colour of one's skin. (Any sort of decent philosophy shouldn't find this too hard.)
But that is not the subject of this topic. The subject is how to deal with posters who commit crimes by their words according to the laws of some, but not all, of the countries in which a website like this is used.
I don't know what country you live in nor do I know the law(s) to which you refer. But if such laws suppress free speech, especially in a forum such as this, which fall short of inciting violence, then I suggest you live in a repressive regime and it is the laws which need to change.
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
- Sy Borg
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
I've cut some grumpy hard right and hard left types some extra slack at times, to the chagrin of some. "Grumps" tend to help keep preachers and new wave freakout fauxlosophers somewhat accountable.
- Burning ghost
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
If offense is a problem then avoidance works well enough. I don’t see a direct problem with someone being racist unless they are walking up to people on the street telling them they are sub-human. If someone is asked about what they think and they respond honestly it should be respected (“respect” doesn’t mean “unchallenged”)
- A_Seagull
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Re: Posters whose words contravene the law of the land in which they live
I think you are getting off-topic.Steve3007 wrote: ↑November 3rd, 2018, 6:39 pm If I lived in a country which regarded the declaration that certain people are not actually people (and do not have the right to protection from violent attack that personhood affords) as an incitement to violence and which therefore outlawed such declarations, would you regard me as living under a repressive regime?
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