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Sent from: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
I found this to be a superb defense of free-speech.
Matt-
Sent-From: Greg Swann <gswann@primenet.com
Why I vote YES on rec.music.white-power
A personal statement by Greg Swann
If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and
the fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education,
the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.
-- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
I vote YES on rec.music.white-power.
I find the neo-nazi movement to be utterly loathsome, but more
loathsome by far are those who seek to silence speech they find
abhorrent.
A Mr. Jay Betrug (Jay.Betrug@mail-e2a-service.gnn.com) spammed libernet
with a message announcing a vote today on a new rec.* newsgroup
charter. The new newsgroup would be devoted to discussion of "white
power" music, although Mr. Betrug insists that its actual purpose will
be the promotion of neo-nazi ideology. With great passion, he asks
readers to vote "no". This message is clearly a violation of the "Call
For Votes", which forbids politicking.
Mr. Betrug had earlier spammed the rec.music hierarchy (as
jayb@aol.com), and in those posts, he said, "[A]sk yourself if this
seems like an appropriate newsgroup for the rec.music hierarchy." I can
think of no word less appropriate to the topic of free speech than
"appropriate".
Mr. Betrug goes on to say, "Let's make this the biggest NO vote in
history, and show the racists that they aren't welcome." Which is to
say that the goal is not particularly to deny white power music fans a
forum, but to attempt to communicate with them. Mr. Betrug seeks to use
the right of free speech to deny it to others. He wants to send the
neo-nazis a message, and the message is: "Shut up, or else."
The white power music fans may or may not be nazis in their words; I
don't know and I don't much care. But people who strive to shout down
opposition are nazis in their _deeds,_ and I care quite a lot about
that. What, precisely, does Mr. Betrug hope to oppose by opposing the
dreaded neo-nazis? Thugs in blue uniforms are not somehow preferable to
thugs in brown uniforms, after all.
I'm sure Mr. Betrug is a decent enough person, and he probably _feels_
he's doing the right thing. It cannot be possible that he _thinks_ he's
doing the right thing, because no one who actually troubles himself to
reason can conclude that the exclusion of unpopular speech is a good
thing. A person who _thinks_ can surely realize that that which can be
safely done to those nasty old neo-nazis can in turn be done to those
who would loose the awful djinn of censorship.
And I must add that what we are discussing is not _truly_ censorship.
Censorship is an act of political force entailing threats and weapons
and jails. The Communications Decency Act is clearly censorship, a
government threat to imprison unrepentant pottymouths. The frequent
meetings of the Parents and Teachers Bookburning Society at the high
school gym are clearly censorship, uses of state power to prevent
children from discovering the truth about the world they live in. But
the horrible treatment inflicted upon Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf last week _was
not_ censorship; Abdul-Rauf is entitled to express his views however he
wishes on his own time, on his own property, but he is contractually
bound to do as his employer demands while on the job. And similarly,
the Call For Votes in the rec.* hierarchy is not censorship; the rec.*
newsgroups are a mutually voluntary association, and anyone who doesn't
like the rules is perfectly free to take his bat and his ball and go up
to the alt.* newsgroups, where there _are_ no rules.
But while this attempt to deny white power music fans a rec.* newsgroup
is not censorship, it certainly is priggish and childish and
contemptible. A sign on the clubhouse door reading "no neo-nazis" is
not _fundamentally_ different from a sign reading "no niggers" or "no
commies". Very probably, neo-nazis are everything we think they are:
stupid, self-destructive, overgrown victims of child abuse spewing
pointless bile as they wait out the slow process of death by
alcoholism. But: so what? Speech is merely speech, and, glorious or
depraved, elevating or denigrating, sublime or putrescent, it is still
nothing but speech.
Censorship is an expression of utter contempt for the human mind. The
would-be censor concedes that he himself is incompetent to challenge
bad ideas--and he is uniquely qualified to judge the quality of his own
mind. But he concludes also that _no one else_ can stand up to nonsense
and stare it down. This latter conclusion is plainly false, and the
very best thing we can do to protect ourselves from neo-nazis and
others who would use force to silence the voice of reason is to _let
them speak._
I promise you that the neo-nazis want nothing more than to be denied any
forum they might seek, in the rec.* newsgroups and in all the
metaphorical Skokies of the marketplace of ideas. If they are permitted
to speak, to march, to pamphlet, they will be exposed for all to see as
intellectual mutants of the most repulsive sort. But if they are
_forbidden_ to present their twisted views, they will be granted an
intellectual cachet they could never earn on their own--censored,
banned, persecuted, _martyred._ Would-be censors do more to promote the
ideas they despise than proponents of despicable ideas could ever do on
their own.
Sticks and stones, Mr. Betrug, Senator Exon, Herr Goebles. Words will
_never_ hurt me. But those who would use the power of the state or the
power of the mob to deny the right of free speech to _any_one, no matter
how revolting his views, deny that right to _every_one. The expression
of an ugly idea is not a crime. But forbidding the expression of ideas,
ugly or utterly radiant, is crime of the vilest sort.
Greg Swann
March 18, 1996
_____________________________________________________________________________
gswann@primenet.com
http://www.primenet.com/~gswann (last updated 3/18/96)
70640.1574@compuserve.com
Permission is explicitly granted to repost/republish unmodified.
We are what we do, not what we say we do...
- Janio Valenta
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Matthew Gaylor
freematt@coil.com
1933 E.Dublin-Granville Rd., #176
Columbus, OH 43229
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