Heteros, homosexuals and pedophiles part deux

[shereads]

How did a defense of homosexuality turn into a perceived insult to Bush, when he's the most openly anti-gay president we've ever had? I'm confused.

Setting my confusion about that aside, it sounds as if the moderator is unfairly punishing some participants, but being unfair isn't enough to make this an issue of free speech or discrimination.

The participants aren't being deprived of the right to express their views; they're being denied the right to do it in a forum where their views are unwelcome. The hosts of call-in shows do the same thing in a far more public way when they hang up on callers with opposing opinions - or in the case of one odius but popular TV host, have a guest's microphone turned off so he can't talk back while the host insults his intelligence. Rudeness is a form of free speech, and it's a risk we take when we accept the opportunity to speak to thousands of people on someone else's dime.

 

[BlackShanglan]

At some point one does have to take a deep breath and acknowledge that chastizing idiots over the Internet is a task unlikely to generate any reward or sense of finality. The chief message I think your wife might like to consider is not (as per silverwhisper's posting) "you're not welcome here" - although that may be accurate - but rather, "no one is listening." When you're down to one hard-core zealot defending his position, it's quite likely that no one else is reading this thread. Further argument serves no purpose in terms of learning, enlightenment, or even social interaction; it's just a bloody-minded determination to have the last word. While one is certainly free to pursue that goal, I don't think it worth complaining irately to the world at large at being frustrated in it. In the end, her opponents are a couple of idiots with a bulletin board, and to continue to pour more energy into this is to give it more attention than it really deserves.

All, of course, just the humble opinion of another idiot on the Internet -

Shanglan

 

[BlackShanglan]

How did a defense of homosexuality turn into a perceived insult to Bush, when he's the most openly anti-gay president we've ever had? I'm confused.

Setting my confusion about that aside, it sounds as if the moderator is unfairly punishing some participants, but being unfair isn't enough to make this an issue of free speech or discrimination.

The participants aren't being deprived of the right to express their views; they're being denied the right to do it in a forum where their views are unwelcome. The hosts of call-in shows do the same thing in a far more public way when they hang up on callers with opposing opinions - or in the case of one odius but popular TV host, have a guest's microphone turned off so he can't talk back while the host insults his intelligence. Rudeness is a form of free speech, and it's a risk we take when we accept the opportunity to speak to thousands of people on someone else's dime.

How extraordinarily trenchant.

 

[shereads]

How extraordinarily trenchant.

No one in my family has ever been trenchant! You take that back.

 

[BlackShanglan]

No one in my family has ever been trenchant! You take that back.

Make me.

 

[shereads]

Make me.

I know how to make you exhale so I can tighten the cinch. Don't mess with me.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I know how to make you exhale so I can tighten the cinch. Don't mess with me.

Should you actually pursue the course of cinching, saddling, and bridling me, I assure you that you will find me quiet biddable - except, of course, for a certain token resistance purely for the sake of form and in hopes of suitable chastisement.

But you'll still be trenchant.

Shanglan