Re: Re: Freedom to Spew

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Bijan Parsia wrote:

> >Nor is it terribly defensible
>
> Defensible in what sense? AFAICT, it's legally a-ok. I don't think
> Horowitz's taking out an ad in school papers is terribly defensible, nor
> do I think that soft money contributions are *at all* defensible, but
> they're totally legal.

I meant defensible morally, ethically, as well as tactically.

> > A much better reaction would be to go find all the papers and insert a
> > rejoinder to the offensive speech.
>
> Vandalism. (Seriously! Some people did this.)

In what way would inserting a piece of paper inside a newspaper be
vandalism?  Vandalism is defined as "Willful or malicious destruction of
public or private property."  There is certainly no destruction going on.
It seems that if this provokes a reaction where the 'inserters' are called
vandals, then they've achieved the moral high ground (something Horowitz
seems to desperately want), thus achieving a victory.

> Yeah, but couple this with the other point that Horowitz is *trying* to
> provoke. People are people. They are provokable. It's important to note
> that. I don't think *hectoring* people is going to bring them to calm.
>
> It's a case of do as you preach.

How would putting in an insert be hectoring?  Horowitz was given a forum
to spew his vile trash.  People object to it and add their own resposne to
that forum.  If that response (the insert) is calm and well-reasoned, I
don't see how this could be construed badly.

> Err, *what* it suggests may be arrogant, but is the way they suggest it
> arrogant? What if they think (however wrongly) that common consent is with
> them?

If common consent is with the burners then I guess I wouldn't have much to
argue about.  I'm not sure what constitutes common consent though.  A
majority?  Super-majority?  90% of campus?

> in an unique way. Is it ok for me to buy up all the copies of his books
> and make a bonefire while chanting "Horowitz is a pig?" It's certainly
> legal. It prevents everyone else from reading the book. Doesn't that
> expose something *troubling* about our "freedom of speech"?

I hardly equate legal with moral/ethical (and I don't think you do
either).  Whether its legal or not is irrelevant.  Frankly, I don't feel
to strongly about the morality of buying and burning all his books.  I do
think it would be ineffective and counter-productive.  As you pointed out,
this burning incident has only served to give his argument a wider
readership.  I wouldn't have read it myself had you not posted your
original argument.

> >  I would find it rather offensive that someone else thinks I
> > shouldn't be allowed to read it and judge for myself and this would
> > predispose me to think negatively of them, making it more difficult for
> > them to get their message across to me.
>
> Then you don't like editors? Or teachers? Or reviewers? There's some
> points of disanalogy of course, but *some* sort of subtlty is required in
> your argument.

There's a huge disanalogy in that with the case of
editors/teachers/reviewers I have chosen to accept their guidance and if
I don't want it I'm free not read their books/magazines/reviews or attend
their classes.

> > It doesn't seem like either side is in good company here.
>
> Some worse than others :)

Having read Horowitz's 'arguments' I agree.  He is incredibly revolting.

> >  On the flip side, we have people working themselves into
> > hysteric fits over small transgressions while ignoring their own.
>
> Yep.

At this point I'd be happy to summarize my point like this:

Burning the papers is ethically objectionable, but not nearly as
objectionable as Horowitz himself.  Given this, the biggest problem with
burning the papers is that they lead to people on the left talking about
what the paper-burners did, rather than how to work against Horowitz's
vileness.

So really I think the problem is more tactical than anything else.
Burning the papers distracts from the real goal, which is to show
Horowitz's racist evil for what it is.


-dave

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