42 upvotes, 8 direct replies (showing 8)
View submission: Can we ban this extremely racist asshole?
Sorry, but I'll take offensive speech over censorship every time.
If the poster was damaging the functionality of reddit - that would be bad - but hurting peoples feelings - it's a web page - if you don't like it, don't follow the link.
Comment by growinglotus at 05/06/2008 at 21:58 UTC
17 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Also, downmodding effectively censors anyway.
Comment by [deleted] at 05/06/2008 at 21:57 UTC
7 upvotes, 3 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by [deleted] at 05/06/2008 at 21:57 UTC*
12 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I agree. I don't like it but it is protected in the constitution. If you ban him then who next? the people that hate McCain(ageist)? And after that? the point of free speech is to protect those you disagree with.
Edit: seeming how I keep getting attacked about this, the Constitution doesn't provide protection in this instance. I know this is true, I was just using it more as a way to show why free speech is important.
Comment by ABabyAteMyDingo at 05/06/2008 at 22:45 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Agreed. A UK university website had a forum where a user posted a racist comment. Before the university could delete the message or close the forum, the other users spontaneously rowed in and constructively refuted his comment and showed that the opinion was not shared by many people.
Are we so threatened by a troll that we have to silence him?
Furthermore, why give a troll the oxygen of publicity by banning him?
Comment by tsteele93 at 07/06/2008 at 00:34 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Sorry, but I'll take offensive speech over censorship every time.
Comment by [deleted] at 06/06/2008 at 00:18 UTC
-1 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by ReligionOfPeace at 05/06/2008 at 22:48 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
yeah, me, too.
downmodding and reporting to cause him grief is plenty.
Comment by anatinus at 05/06/2008 at 21:59 UTC*
-6 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Really? So, there's no place for censorship at all? Like, if someone goes up to your mom and calls her a cheap cunt, that's OK?
No. No, it's not.
Don't make the assumption that it's a slippery slope with censorship; that once we censor one thing, we can censor anything. Not true. While I don't agree much with censorship myself, I also think that certain assumptions about civility ought to be followed in public places, including talkboards like this. Much as one would be punished for standing in the middle of a town square for screaming "nigger cunt! nigger cunt!" over and over at the top of one's lungs, one ought to be punished here as well.
What form that punishment takes is an exercise for the people who run the site, but the sort of blatant racism exhibited by the poster in question ought not to be permitted in a "public" area of a talkboard for the same reasons it wouldn't be permitted in, say, a town square.
There are limits to everything, despite what the childish libertarians may have you believe.
(PS - I love the cowards that downvote without actually stating a counter-position. Very helpful.)