Posts: 775
Threads: 58
Joined: April 16, 2013
Reputation:
18
Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:27 pm
I believe in the freedom of speech and thought. However, at what point should we tolerate stupidity? When I see countless comments how global warming is fake, wanting free education or healthcare to stimulate and maximize education and health makes you immoral, or how I.C.E cars are going to be replaced by EVs are a pipe dream. When the defense of those ideals are because the GOP or some conservative talking point/shills say so. How much of that should we actually tolerate? I am finding that allowing stupidity to breed is doing more harm that good.
I would be a televangelist....but I have too much of a soul.
Posts: 656
Threads: 23
Joined: July 25, 2014
Reputation:
7
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Ouch! Not eugenics again.....
Posts: 4659
Threads: 123
Joined: June 27, 2014
Reputation:
40
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:34 pm
(This post was last modified: August 28, 2014 at 3:36 pm by Dystopia.)
(August 28, 2014 at 3:27 pm)bladevalant546 Wrote: I believe in the freedom of speech and thought. However, at what point should we tolerate stupidity? When I see countless comments how global warming is fake, wanting free education or healthcare to stimulate and maximize education and health makes you immoral, or how I.C.E cars are going to be replaced by EVs are a pipe dream. When the defense of those ideals are because the GOP or some conservative talking point/shills say so. How much of that should we actually tolerate? I am finding that allowing stupidity to breed is doing more harm that good.
In Europe there are usually restrictions to freedom of speech, EG you can't propagate racism or fascism, or go against constitutional principles. But people still have the right to express opinions inside certain limits - The only reasons to want them banned would be an incapacity to counter them. And why the hell can't I be against free education and healthcare? I'm not, but if I believed the government sucked at owning things, I had my right to be against it .
No offence but it seems unfair to ban freedom of speech just because someone doesn't agree with you, no matter how idiotic their opinion may be. Also, slippery slope. You're confirming the liberal bias that liberals are ok as long as you agree with them.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
Posts: 775
Threads: 58
Joined: April 16, 2013
Reputation:
18
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:34 pm
(This post was last modified: August 28, 2014 at 3:37 pm by bladevalant546.)
When I mean breed I mean it figuratively, you can use fester, multiply, persist.
(August 28, 2014 at 3:34 pm)Blackout Wrote: (August 28, 2014 at 3:27 pm)bladevalant546 Wrote: I believe in the freedom of speech and thought. However, at what point should we tolerate stupidity? When I see countless comments how global warming is fake, wanting free education or healthcare to stimulate and maximize education and health makes you immoral, or how I.C.E cars are going to be replaced by EVs are a pipe dream. When the defense of those ideals are because the GOP or some conservative talking point/shills say so. How much of that should we actually tolerate? I am finding that allowing stupidity to breed is doing more harm that good.
In Europe there are usually restrictions to freedom of speech, EG you can't propagate racism or fascism, or go against constitutional principles. But people still have the right to express opinions inside certain limits - The only reasons to want them banned would be an incapacity to counter them. And why the well can't I be against free education and healthcare? I'm not, but if I believed the government sucked at owning things, I had my right to be against it .
True, however I doubt you have parroted talking points about it either. Mainly the down right idiocy of people, I am more ranting out o frustration, however I still feel there needs to be a point where idiocy should not be tolerated. I live in the south, I am surrounded by the most horrible ignorance conservatives you can think of. I also never said ban free speech, just restrict it. It almost you have to be here and witness the stupidity and how many people it literally hurts.
I would be a televangelist....but I have too much of a soul.
Posts: 7045
Threads: 20
Joined: June 17, 2014
Reputation:
55
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:38 pm
I'm kind of a 1st Amendment absolutist myself... freedom means the freedom to be an idiot, and if you aren't encroaching on someone else's rights or breaking the law then I think you're allowed to say and propose pretty much anything, even if other people find it unpleasant.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 4659
Threads: 123
Joined: June 27, 2014
Reputation:
40
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:39 pm
(August 28, 2014 at 3:34 pm)bladevalant546 Wrote: When I mean breed I mean it figuratively, you can use fester, multiply, persist.
(August 28, 2014 at 3:34 pm)Blackout Wrote: In Europe there are usually restrictions to freedom of speech, EG you can't propagate racism or fascism, or go against constitutional principles. But people still have the right to express opinions inside certain limits - The only reasons to want them banned would be an incapacity to counter them. And why the well can't I be against free education and healthcare? I'm not, but if I believed the government sucked at owning things, I had my right to be against it .
True, however I doubt you have parroted talking points about it either. Mainly the down right idiocy of people, I am more ranting out o frustration, however I still feel there needs to be a point where idiocy should not be tolerated. I live in the south, I am surrounded by the most horrible ignorance conservatives you can think of. I also never said ban free speech, just restrict it. It almost you have to be here and witness the stupidity and how many people it literally hurts.
I think incentive to violence, racism, discrimination based on religion, sex, sexual orientation, etc, should be made illegal - But people still have the right to disagree with as much as they want. It should also be illegal to implement legislative measures that go against state/church separation - Something that sometimes seems to not be happening in the US.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
Posts: 775
Threads: 58
Joined: April 16, 2013
Reputation:
18
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:40 pm
(This post was last modified: August 28, 2014 at 3:42 pm by bladevalant546.)
(August 28, 2014 at 3:38 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: I'm kind of a 1st Amendment absolutist myself... freedom means the freedom to be an idiot, and if you aren't encroaching on someone else's rights or breaking the law then I think you're allowed to say and propose pretty much anything, even if other people find it unpleasant.
A fair response, I can see that. But also how many people are we going to allow hurt? I can see it can be a slippery slope in either direction. However, question the unlimited nature of free speech is something most people consider taboo. I for one have witness the financial harm and physical harm stupidity can cause. I dunno, with recent things I have seen politicians say and do along with their followers. It hurts one perspective a little.
@Blackout, That is something I would like to see. Some kind of checks and balances because the psychological trauma I have seen personally done by unchained religious discrimination is rather shocking. However, someone disagreeing is one thing. Group of corporations with billions of dollars to make a multitude believe lies is something else which can go both ways mind you.
I would be a televangelist....but I have too much of a soul.
Posts: 69247
Threads: 3759
Joined: August 2, 2009
Reputation:
258
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Quote: freedom means the freedom to be an idiot
But then they get elected and the whole concept goes out the window.
Posts: 6946
Threads: 26
Joined: April 28, 2012
Reputation:
83
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:40 pm
(August 28, 2014 at 3:34 pm)bladevalant546 Wrote: True, however I doubt you have parroted talking points about it either. Mainly the down right idiocy of people, I am more ranting out o frustration, however I still feel there needs to be a point where idiocy should not be tolerated. I live in the south, I am surrounded by the most horrible ignorance conservatives you can think of. I also never said ban free speech, just restrict it. It almost you have to be here and witness the stupidity and how many people it literally hurts.
Keep calling the idiots out. There is also a point at which an argument becomes devoid of reason; i.e, ridiculous. At this point ridicule is a deserved and proper response.
Posts: 7175
Threads: 12
Joined: March 14, 2013
Reputation:
72
RE: Make stupidity illegal
August 28, 2014 at 3:42 pm
Oppressive censorship is always easiest to implement against the unpopular and seemingly most deserving members of society. Once they're out of the way, the censors find themselves with a lot of power and few people to exercise it against. So they start expanding the meaning of "stupid."
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
|