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I think there are are two lines.

The first line is obvious.. physical violence. When there is physical violence you have crossed the line.If someone attacks you verbally, you can attack back verbally, defend with arguments, insult..but never attack physically..it is the same difference beween supporting murdering and actually murdering. Any penal Code in the West stablish a clear distinction between both and I think it is a great idea. even when someone provokes you.. it is up to you to cross the line or not.

Attacks on any specific person for specific reasons not attached to any genral religion, race or ideology, etc... is considered libel (if it is moral) here by the judge .. and stablishing it is quite objective.. So there is no line-crossing..just comitting a fault or not.

The great line we are discussing here is what to do with general incitement and general racists remarks...Forbidding them all is just impossible since everybody has always some tendency to denigrate some group or to make even slight generalizations. It is practiacally impossible...there are slight racists remark everywhere.. you can not put everybody in prison... So you have to decide if you put a line and, if you indeed do it, where to put and how to put it

I am not convinced which one is the good one but I do know that whenever there is a line the tendency is to be harsher on the minority and "respect" more the majority. This does not mean that absolute free speech is the solution. I just do not know.

That was all my point.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

by kcurie on Mon Feb 6th, 2006 at 03:32:52 AM EST
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