Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
Because emoticons are the work of the Devil and are quite rightly not allowed on pfm.
Open letter denouncing the "restriction of debate".
- Thread starter Joe Hutch
- Start date
Because emoticons are the work of the Devil and are quite rightly not allowed on pfm.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
....
Right, you're banned. Off you pop.
Seeker_UK
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
Now we need a badge of honour emoji.
matthewr
spɹɐʍʞɔɐq spɹoɔǝɹ ɹnoʎ sʎɐld
Except today it's mostly the scoundrels in power and the oppressed are the weakest and powerless. And specifically a lot the issues surrounding the letter are about the speech and voice of marginal groups.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
You think it was any different in Mencken's time?
matthewr
spɹɐʍʞɔɐq spɹoɔǝɹ ɹnoʎ sʎɐld
Well in Mencken's time those blacks, Jews and women were firmly in their place so he was mostly talking about the free speech of the elite. And certainly for the classical liberal intellectuals (Mill, Locke, etc) a lot of these freedoms and principles came with exceptions in terms of who they applied to?
Also Mencken was smart and funny but wasn't he also basically a racist with Nazi leanings?
https://apnews.com/e64e97725923bb7b64aa8e054aabe4b2
If you say so.
The problem with freedom of speech is that it is all too often used to punch downwards.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
The specific case I was thinking of was when Mencken defended a university lecturer who was threatened with being sacked because of the 'Socialist' tone of his lectures; pressure was being put on the university authorities by some of its (big business) funders. Mencken made clear that, whilst he personally regarded Socialism as nonsense, the lecturer should not be dismissed for presenting ideas which he himself believed to be true.
Well, no-one's perfect. But Mencken' pro-German sentiments date from WWI, which he saw as the UK and its allies 'ganging-up' on Germany and Austria. And, as the article you cite states:
'Mencken regularly published black writers in American Mercury; persuaded his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, to publish their books; was cordial to black journalists, and had his portrait painted by a black artist. [...] The last article he wrote for The Evening Sun in 1948 attacked segregation laws in Baltimore.'
Cheese
Bitter lover
Yes. Like here, by some.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
The problem is thinking of freedom of speech in terms of 'up and down'.
In theory yes, but it seems to be used as a cover for racism & untruth currently.
mansr
Objectionist
If someone is a racist, they should be allowed to say so. At least then we know who they are.
Tony L
Administrator
Sadly that is just the way it is. So much of the current “free speech” ‘controversy’ at present can really be diluted down to outrage from the predominantly wealthy white establishment that with the growth of social media and communication networks well outside its reach young radicals, racial minorities, the LGBT community etc no longer need ‘permission’ to speak. Some people really are remarkably uncomfortable with equality, as they always have been. The response is to punch downwards. Either that or a dreadfully whiney “Boo hoo, young people don’t want to pay me for my opinion anymore, (sniff)” response to being ‘no-platformed’. Its just a even more cynical re-run of “PC gone mad...”.
Well, a bit different if you are on the end of it.
I think there are some things which should never be said.
mansr
Objectionist
The problem is that some people are racists, not that they announce it to the world. Banning speech never actually solves anything.
Cheese
Bitter lover
If you are at the end of it, you don't need the other guy to open his mouth to see what's in his mind.
