[CLUE-Talk] Iraq Stuph

[Matt Gushee]

On Tue, Apr 22, 2003 at 03:47:35PM -0600, David Willson wrote:
> Let us now point out that the same freedom that protects your right to
> call President Bush an SOB (Matt Gushee), a little twit (Bill Ehlert),
> or ~not~ my President (Joe Brockmeier), protects my right to say "Oh,
> shut up!"
> Now, here's a funny thing:  Every time I, or some like-minded other,
> says 'shut up', someone accuses me of attacking his right to free speech
> (which is really a government-endorsed privilege, not a right, but
> that's another argument).
> How is it that telling someone that is filling the channel with noise to
> shut up is a bad thing?  Consider that, I can't actually ~make~ anyone
> shut up, and I wouldn't if I could, because that ~would~ be a violation
> of their so-called 'right' to free speech.
> Isn't noise noise, and hasn't noise been pretty universally accepted as
> a bad thing?  Isn't it appropriate then to identify it, and say, "Boost
> the signal.  Cut the noise.  Increase the value of the channel for all
> those subscribed thereto."  In short, "Hey you.  Shut up."

You know, Dave, much as I am appalled sometimes by your views and what
seems to me like your obtuseness, I'm starting to like arguing with you,
because you make me stop and think (though, given the gravity of the
world situation, I'm not sure that it matters how any of us *feel* about
the argument). I'm afraid most of us are fairly predictable: Kevin,
Randy, Zonker, and me ... you're one of the original few.

As for saying "shut up," I don't know. Did anyone say you didn't have
the right to say that? My view would be that you have the right, but
that it's probably not the best way to get the result you want.

And your point is well taken that you can't actually make anyone shut
up, but it's worth considering at what point forceful speech becomes
intimidation.  What if we knew that in some way you had the power to
make our lives miserable? What if you were Rush Limbaugh telling someone
to shut up?

It would be nice if there were a hard and fast rule to tell us what to
do. But I'm afraid it's one of those very human questions that needs to
be asked over and over again.

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)