Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com From: "Dave Korn" To: Subject: RE: Obscene content in cygwin file. Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:00:12 -0000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <20050107145150.GD20046@trixie.casa.cgf.cx> Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Jan 2005 18:00:12.0937 (UTC) FILETIME=[BC225790:01C4F4E2] > -----Original Message----- > From: cygwin-owner On Behalf Of Christopher Faylor > Sent: 07 January 2005 14:52 > Business issues are not the point here, though. My issue is that I > grant others the right to be offended by the type of language we're > talking about. It is a given that there are many people in > our society > who will be offended by it. These people do not buy Playboy > or Hustler > because they do not like what these magazines represent but > they aren't > out picketing those establishments, either. So, they are > following the "Just don't look at it then!" scenario. That unfortunately is not true. In this country we've just had a theatre play shut down by threats of violence from one group of religious bigots, and there is currently an ongoing pressure campaign from another group of religious bigots to try and pressure the BBC into pulling an as-yet unscreened program on the grounds that if it was screened and if they did happen to watch it they might be offended. Of course, if they're forewarned enough to know that they might find this program offensive, they're perfectly well forewarned enough to not end up watching it by accident, but that's not good enough for them, and the reason why it's not good enough for them is that the potential offence they might suffer is a mere pretext, and their real concern is to try and compel everyone else to be like they are by controlling what we may see and hear in an effort to control how we think. It's coercive evangelism. Forcible recruitment. Religious pressganging. Blackmail, brainwashing and mind control. So no, I'm no longer prepared to automatically extend to people the right to take offence at what I say or do, since they regularly abuse that right in an attempt to - well, basically, to enslave others and rule over their minds. It's insanity to hand every single religious crank with an agenda to push an absolute veto over anything and everything you might ever want to do or say. I do not believe people have the right to jump up and voluntarily *choose* to be offended by things that are perfectly reasonable to all those who are actually involved or affected. They *are* going into newsagents, pulling Playboy off the shelves, opening it up, reading it (probably hypocritically enjoying it too), and then whining about how offended they are and demanding that the entire world be made conform to their personal tastes and beliefs. It's in this way that solipsism turns into dictatorial oppression. cheers, DaveK -- Can't think of a witty .sigline today.... -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/