Message-Id: <200501080138.j081cvrf027124@delorie.com> 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: "Gary R. Van Sickle" To: Subject: RE: Obscene content in cygwin file. Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 19:36:45 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: X-IsSubscribed: yes The David Korn who is not the Korn Shell guy wrote: > > -----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. Yes, it is. > 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. > Irrelevant to the issue at hand. > 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. > Continues to be irrelevant to the issue at hand. > 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. > You didn't write "fortune", nor do you distribute it. Hence, this is also irrelevant to the issue at hand. You're three for three! > 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. Hmm. I see we made the right decision back in 1776. Here in the good ol' U. S. of A. you get to *choose* to be offended or not offended by whatever you want. Hell, you can even change what offends you from day to day! > 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. 1. Then they're vandalizing the newsie's property, seeing as Playboy comes in a convenient sealed plastic bag. 2. Nobody's doing that. 3. Now you're four for four. > It's in this way that solipsism turns into dictatorial oppression. > Ok, so lemme see if'n I got this here right y'all: De-obscenifying "fortune" will directly lead to a New World Order of Stalinist-era dictatorial oppression. W. O. W. Come on Korny, sing it with me: "Crazy, but that's how it goes..." -- Gary R. Van Sickle -- 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/