[ExI] intolerant minds, a different flavor

[Dan]

--- On Mon, 4/27/09, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
[snip]
> Our German colleagues were all in favor of those laws:
> "people should not be allowed to say these things
> that cause others so much suffering" basically, was
> the jist.
> 
> Is this not an alien mentality to everyone here?
> 
> Can anyone suggest an hypothesis that will explain
> what is going on in otherwise sensible and tolerant
> minds?

That they basically statists underneath and freedom of expression -- along with all other freedoms -- are viewed as something to be set aside under myriad provisoes and conditions.  Don't you think, rather, that while this view is alien to you, it's quite common in most of the world.  (I imagine, too, were you to ask the average American about allowing freedom of speech, she would be all in favor, but then in you went on to specifics about, say, using this or that abusive term or extremely unpopular expressions, she would suddenly be all in favor of restrictions.  This has been my experience.  Yeah, if I'm hanging out with civil libertarians, they might be in favor of a wide latitude for freedom of speech, but just about everyone else doesn't.  Who's the real alien here?)

Regards,

Dan