(June 19, 2012 at 5:02 pm)gringoperry Wrote:(June 19, 2012 at 4:55 pm)Brian37 Wrote: No you do not have that right, but I also don't have any rights here either. But here is where I hope you are not wrongfully confuse issues. This is a privately owned board and only the mods and the owner get to determine the rules. My experience, and I don't speak for all atheists or all atheist websites, but what goes on on any of them is a comfort level issue.
You do have and should have a right protected by the government to blaspheme or ridicule or offend others, even me.
Humans SHOULD always have the right to express their opinion, but only in the sense that the government cannot arrest them for mere dissent. None of us are entitled to the venues that others own, if we want a venue, we go where we are accepted, or we create our own venue. It is only oppression when there are no options and when their is a monopoly.
I myself have been here a few short weeks. I have pissed off quite a few people. But what I have no right to do is to demand that the rules coddle me when I do not own the website.
Look at it as being in someone else's house. If they don't want you to smoke, then don't smoke. But if you smoke your rights are not being oppressed because you can smoke in your own car, or your own house, and the government cannot have you arrested for the mere act of dissent or criticism or offending them.
I get you, Brian. I make my apologies and offer explanations only in keeping with being the person that I wish to be. This is only my own opinion, but I feel that we often become that which we railed against so passionately, when we ridicule and demean the beliefs of others. It's almost like you can substitute certain words from theists/atheists and the message doesn't change. I tend to observe more than interact, and this is how things come across to me. I know I'm not going to solve all the problems of the world, but I'll be damned if I don't keep trying, regardless.
I warn against always placating the emotions and insecurities of others. Unless you have been in a captive situation such as school and or workplace, or even worse, live under a nation that oppresses you for dissent, merely being offensive, or having passion for an issue, by itself is not a crime.
There is nothing wrong with being nice, but there is also nothing wrong with bitching either. There is not one human on this planet who hasn't bitched about something, even if only in their mind. You can control your physical actions in reacting to others, as all should. But don't play thought police, even with yourself. You can ultimately only be yourself.
Context is what matters, not avoiding offending people all the time at all costs. It should depend on the situation as a case by case basis. Otherwise if we become a society of "taboos" to avoid conflict or hurt feelings, the problem always becomes "who gets to decide"?
