DDO should NOT ban profanity.

Despite my opponent’s humorous arguments, this is technically a serious debate My opponent has posted some very funny arguments in rounds 3 and 4 and I’ve learned that my opponent has been advertising this debate as a troll debate. My opponent even posted a question on my profile asking me if I thought this debate was serious after round 3. However, he neglected to mention anything in the Round 1 description that would indicate that this would not be a serious debate. There was also no indication in his Round 2 opening arguments other than the line “This is a very simple (practically a joke, but not really) debate”. Otherwise his Round 2 arguments appear perfectly serious and straight forward. The fact that my opponent stated that it was “not really” a joke coupled with his conduct up to Round 3 would indicate to a neutral observer that this was meant to be a serious debate. There wasn’t even an indication in the comments section that this would be a troll debate and I was not familiar with my opponent’s debating style beforehand. Therefore, in all fairness, I argue that voting on this debate should be based on the usual voting requirements for DDO debates and on the rules set in Round 1 of the debate and not on our ability to out-troll each other. I have made stronger arguments than my opponent and I would not have participated in the debate had I known that it was a troll debate. Now onto my case: There are profanities that cannot be used in a harmless manner Although the “N word” might be harmless when used in certain contexts, such as in the example provided by my opponent, my opponent failed to address other ethnic slurs mentioned in round 2. A partial list of ethnic and racial slurs includes: Ch!nk W*tback R@ghe@d K!ke G**k Those are words that cannot be used in a harmless manner. I don’t know of any Mexicans who would call each other w*tbacks, ditto for the other words on the list. My opponent has not provided examples for how these words can be used in a harmless manner. Therefore he concedes that these profanities cannot be used without causing harm and should be banned. (A much larger list is available at http://tinyurl.com...). Other profanities that cannot be used for anything other than harm In addition there are harmful words directed towards LGBT people such as: D!ke F@g Those are also words that cannot be used without harming the subject of the words. The fighting words doctrine is still good law My opponent makes several incorrect arguments about US law. Snyder v. Phelps (2011) dealt with the extremely offensive conduct of the Westboro Baptist Church in a public place. It was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that Speech on a public sidewalk, about a public issue, cannot be liable for a tort of emotional distress, even if the speech is found to be "outrageous". It did not overturn the fighting words doctrine as my opponent claims. The fighting words doctrine remains good law, although it has been narrowed over the years.[1] The following are examples of cases in which speech was considered unprotected and classified as “fighting words”: Flashing a sexually suggestive sign repeatedly to a young woman driving a car (State v. Hubbard, Minnesota Court of Appeals, 2001). Yelling racial slurs at two African-American woman (In re John M., Arizona Court of Appeals, 2001). Repeatedly yelling the words “wh*re,” “harlot” and “Jezebel” at a nude woman on the beach (Wisconsin v. Ovadal, Wisconsin Court of Appeals, 2003). Calling a police officer a “white, racist motherf*cker” and wishing his mother would die (State v. Clay, Minnesota Court of Appeals, 1999). Calling a police officer a “f*cking @sshole” in a loud voice and attempting to spit on the officer (State v. York, Maine Supreme Judicial Court, 1999). Profanities have an enormous capacity to be used as part of fighting words and should not be allowed on DDO. The word f*** may have been declared constitutional but that does not apply to private websites A private website can choose what words it will ban and what words it will not ban. As noted earlier freedom of speech applies only to public places. Therefore DDO has the ability to ban profanities without violating the law. The free exchange of ideas is not hindered by a ban on profanities There is very little that profanities add to the free exchange of ideas and there is virtually no idea that cannot be exchanged without the use of profanities. “Freedom of speech is not advanced, the government asserts, by a stream of profanities with little or no intellectual substance.”[2] Furthermore, profanities can always be implied by the use of symbols “#$%@!*” to say the words without actually writing them out, therefore the ban is quite a small burden in practice. Note how we have both “written” an enormous amount of profanities on this debate by altering just a letter or two with a symbol. Profanities increase the workload of Moderators My opponent is proposing an unrealistic scenario in which DDO members would police themselves without a moderator. However, without someone to enforce the rules of DDO who would have the power to deal with all of the Izbo10s that might show up on the website and have full freedom to insult DDO members all over the debates, comments sections and forums. Allowing profanities greatly increases the workload of moderators since they have to sort between harmless and harmful uses of profanity. By banning them it at least takes the issue away from the table. Banning profanities will not lead to a ban on the English language My opponent’s alarmist arguments on this are unrealistic, since we are only discussing a ban on a few harmful words and not a ban on the entire English language. DDO could never ban the entire English language since that would prevent any member on DDO from doing anything other than post pictures. There is no danger of a slippery slope situation here. However, allowing profanities does allow for the use of words that cannot be used for anything other than harm and it also allows words that have a great potential for harm. I am not a racist My opponent makes an incoherent argument that I am a racist. I deny his allegations and I assert that I have stated nothing in this debate which could be construed as racist. Although technically my opponent’s own satirical example on usage of the N word, could be interpreted as having some racist undertones given the stereotypical descriptions, actions and names of his proposed African Americans in “the hood”. Whether I use crack is irrelevant to the debate I do not use crack, and even if I did, it has no bearing on the resolution. Summary My opponent made three main arguments for why profanities should be banned: (1) That profanities do not cause harm to DDO members. This is false since profanities can cause harm to DDO members and in some cases they can only be used to cause harm to DDO members. (2) Banning profanity infringes on the spirit of the free exercise of ideas on DDO. This is false since there almost no idea that cannot be expressed without the use of profanities. (3) If something is banned on DDO, it must be enforceable without undermining the members of the DDO community. This is false since almost everything that is prohibited on DDO, such as posting arguments that are longer than 8,000 characters, undermines DDO members in some way. Conclusion Some profanities cannot be used for anything other than harm; therefore the main thrust of my opponent’s argument is invalid. Had my opponent limited his argument to profanities which have harmless uses, then he might have had a stronger case, however he did not. For the protection of DDO members from harm and abuse by trolls, DDO should ban profanities. It is a small limitation that can serve a lot of good. Vote Con!I thank my opponent for taking part in this debate with me. [1] http://tinyurl.com... [2] http://tinyurl.com...