From: michael@marcel.bu.edu (Michael Chaplin)
Newsgroups: misc.legal,alt.censorship,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Using killfiles is a form of censorship (was: Re: A Modest Request
Date: 29 Jul 92 21:13:13 GMT
	<1992Jul29.130052.5110@Princeton.EDU>
	<1992Jul29.145349.25372@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
	<1992Jul29.155129.20423@Princeton.EDU>
Followup-To: misc.legal
Organization: Boston University
In-reply-to: egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU's message of 29 Jul 92 15:51:29 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.155129.20423@Princeton.EDU> egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges) writes:

   In article <1992Jul29.145349.25372@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> rwd4f@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (Rob Dobson) writes:
 = >/egnigles/h:j
 = >
 = >next, i move on to ban all books with the word "fuck" in them
 = >
 = >-.net nazi

 = Trying to be funny?  Why is "the argument of the slippery slope" valid
 = when applied to enable Viktora, but not when used to extrapolate from
 = the concomitant use of a kill file and an announcement that one has "had
 = it?"  "First, I set up a kill file to exclude Ed Nilges.  Then, I
 = excluded all people whose names begin with Ni: they seem to be dweebs,
 = like Nilges and Nixon.  Then I added a sophisticated regular expression
 = to exclude all Germanic names.  Then I became systems administrator for
 = the Electronic Frontier Foundation and decided to make my workgroup
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 = adhere to my standards.  This was not so much anti-free speech as a
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 = desire to gain efficiency through consistency.  Then I got elected to
 = the House of Representatives...."

 = Now, I believe that one can use kill files as nano- or micro-censorship
 = without getting on this slope, but the logic of the "free speech" forces
 = is that we must avoid these slopes at all costs.

And there, my friend, is the line between judgement and censorship.
Perhaps this definition of freedom will suffice?

The right to do as one wills *without* imposing on another's 
right to do the same.

I don't care if you don't want to read about Nixon, or whomever
else- it is your business to conduct your life. The moment you
start making decisions about MY reading material, MY life, is
the moment you have overstepped your bounds, and infringed upon
my rights. You may escalate all you want, and end up reading
nothing-  it is everyone's right to be as 
ignorant as they can be. Just as it is everyone's right to be as
informed as they should be. The question of censorship
and free expression is this:
WHO CHOOSES? 

Ideally?
I choose for myself, you choose for yourself, 
and they choose for themselves. That is the root
of the freedom of expression.

ciao,
chaplin.
--
===============================================================================
Michael Chaplin                    Language is a virus from outer space.
michael@albert.bu.edu                     - William S. Burroughs

The Einstein Papers Project        The opinions contained herein reflect
Boston University                      neither those of the project, 
Boston, Massachusetts, USA             nor those of Albert Einstein.
Newsgroups: misc.legal