(November 7, 2010 at 10:14 am)Existentialist Wrote: What do you mean? I think it's fundamentally added to our understanding of the subject and of each other. Isn't that the point?
Sure it is. I was commenting (snidely, as is my wont) about how some driveby-nutball can come along and post some badly written stupidity... and it will morph into a multi-page argument (discussion) about a related by inspiration topic. I find it amusing.
(November 7, 2010 at 10:14 am)Existentialist Wrote: I 'understand' your point about what you think a crime is perfectly. As an adult who was been criminalised by a stupid government for choosing an adult boyfriend, I utterly disagree with it. Maybe you think I committed crimes too. Thanks.
If you broke the law, you committed a crime. Yes. I do not personally think you did anything wrong... simply illegal. That's what makes it a crime.
(November 7, 2010 at 10:14 am)Existentialist Wrote: Obviously you do not understand how oppressed minorities deal with the authorities' contemptuous attempts to criminalise them. Submitting to the injustices of some technical rule book doesn't inspire anyone. Oppressed minorities create their own truths where the government's ones are lies. They do this in different ways. Saying "my relationship for my partner is not a crime" is one way of summoning up the solidarity to get off your backside and marching on parliament, something I've done many times. Technocrats who go waving rule books in your face rightly get pushed aside in that process, they slow down the process of change. If you don't understand that, you don't understand human emotional autonomy.
I understand that perfectly. I agree 100%. My only contention is the use of the word crime, as none of what you've described is relevant to whether or not you committed a crime. If an act is illegal, regardless of one's opinion of that law, committing that act is a crime, as it violates the law. Whether or not the act is something that should be allowed in society is an opinion that depends entirely upon personal perspective... but regardless of personal opinion, the law is the law and breaking the law is a crime. If one feels the law is in error, there are things that can be done to encourage change to the law.
(November 7, 2010 at 10:14 am)Existentialist Wrote: Governments in Ireland, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan, the Netherlands and many other places pretend blasphemy is a crime. Those are governments with no legitimacy - pretend governments, whom free, proud people should force to change their law books, or overthrow.
Those are your opinions and I happen to agree with the sentiment, but those places are not 'pretending blasphemy is a crime'. They have made laws to prohibit blasphemy, making the act of blasphemy a crime within their jurisdiction. Perhaps it could be said that they are 'pretending blasphemy is bad enough to be illegal', but it is illegal.
(November 7, 2010 at 10:14 am)Existentialist Wrote: Blasphemy, adultery and gay sex are not crimes. You may disagree with me about the status of these so-called crimes, but I think they have no such status and never have had, and I am entitled to state my opinion.
You are, indeed, entitled to your opinion, and I happen to agree completely with that opinion. My point is that the word crime in this context means a violation of the law. Those laws are wrong and oppressive and should be overturned, I agree... but for the time being... they are the law and therefore crimes. You are imprinting your personally feelings upon specific words, thereby altering their meanings... again.
