roundtable: Re: Censorship and pornography

roundtable: Re: Censorship and pornography

Re: Censorship and pornography

Jeff Briggs (jbriggs@capital.edu)
Tue, 21 Mar 1995 07:23:06 +0500 

Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 07:23:06 +0500
From: jbriggs@capital.edu (Jeff Briggs)
Message-Id: <9503211223.AA23824@athena.capital.edu>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: Censorship and pornography


Re Kevin Nelsons
[Nelson's] posting on censorship:

     1. A reasonable proposal to put X's and such on "questionable"
material, and a pragmatic approach to "inevitable censorship".

*BUT*

     Why is censorship inevitable? Is the current situation on the
net bad, where adults (and even teens) can do and say what they want
without interference by someone else imposing their concept of
morality on them?

     I think censorship is always bad, unless it involves small
children, and even this assumption is culture-bound, and not auto-
matically valid, altho I won't quibble because of being misinterpreted.

     My objection to Kevin's post is that he takes it as a given
that the net will be censored, and I take it as a free speech and
human rights issue of the top drawer, and one that should be fought
in every way, shape, and form.

     If you advocate censoring my not reading or seeing something
because you find it objectionable, I have no objection. That's what
adults do in a free society. But if you're suggesting that any 
writing, images, sound, or video be banned or restricted on the net,
I will challenge you. 

     I realize that by taking this stance I may appear to be
defending things which I myself find objectionable - mainly sadistic
violence in any form, racism, homophobia, and the like. But I
think the recent brouhaha's over political correctness and academic
free speech show clearly that the only way to go is for completely
free and untrammelled rights of expression with no limits. 

     Free speech means objectionable speech, but each person decides
what fits in that category by their own conscience. To restrict
human expression in any other way is immoral, and a betrayal of
the best values of the founders of our country, whatever their faults.

Jeff Briggs
<jbriggs@capital.edu>

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