Re: [microsound] Re: Free-speech?

[<macrosound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am sending this personally and not to the list.  Where are you from?  I
am from the US.  Sorry.  I can't help it, I was born here and I think it
stinks.  I am not being sarcastic or condescending, I truly loath being an
american.

Also, I do not defend fascists or war-mongerers.  What I do defend,
however is the freedom of speech (not with guns though).  You said in your
post that fascist statements are not covered by freedom of speech nor is
the desire to go to war.  I disagree.

It may anger and incense you to hear another persons view that you see as
so hateful and wrong.  You want to tell them that they aren't allowed to
say it.  This is understandable.

The reason I am writing this is because I feel you are missing something
important here.  The position I have just described gives you an
opportunity to either tell someone to shut-up (if you boil it down) or to
let them speak.  You chose to tell them to shut-up.  Perhaps this is
because you felt you could not be silent against a percieved injustice.

What will happen now?  You have the closed the door on the conversation. 
Nothing fruitful will come of it.  The person you were talking to is going
to become defensive and there will no longer be an opportunity to help him
lose his ignorance.  He will most likely hold more strongly to his beliefs
than he did before.

What if you were to speak your mind calmly?  What if you had told him a
story about oppression?  There is no guarantee that he would have
responded with anything other than ill-informed regurgitation of someone
elses hatred but there would have been the possibility.  Now there is
none.

I realize I am preaching and you have the right to ignore everything I
say.  But I urge you to try out something different in the future rather
than instinctively lash out against that which angers you.  Anger is most
self-defeating when it's coming from a person who truly desires peace.

best wishes,
elisha

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