Text 6892, 45 rader
Skriven 2007-10-02 09:54:56 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
   Kommentar till text 6891 av Jeff Smith (1:14/5)
Ärende: MOTION
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 JS> Hello Bjorn.

   Hello Jeff.

 JS> As Fidonews editor and moderator and in that capacity.

   BEEP! There is no editor *and* moderator as far as I'm concerned. There is
editor *or* moderator. I have absolutely no proplems separating the two, they
are totally, mutually exclusive.

 JS> What is your opinion of Michiel's motion?

   I think it's a good motion. But as a champion of free speech I wouldn't
dream of setting up any rules to that effect. Freedom of speech can never be
limited by rules or laws, then you no longer have freedom of speech, it's as
simple as that: either you have it or you don't have it.

   Freedom of speech can only be subject to ethical considerations. This means
that you are always allowed to express your opinions even unethical ones, but
if you do you most likely will look bad in the eyes of others.

 JS> Apart from your personal opinion which I can understand.

   To put it bluntly, I actually *don't* think that you *can* understand my
personal opinion. We live in totally different societies, and unlike me you
haven't lived in both of them.

   I read this rather interesting story on The Economist's site, that to some
extent can explain the difference between our two societies:

   http://tinyurl.com/2ht836

   "Sweden, a near-perfect democracy, comes top, followed by a bevy of
similarly virtuous northern European countries. More surprising are the
relatively modest scores for two traditional bastions of democracy -- Britain
and the United States. In America there has been a perceptible erosion of civil
liberties related to the fight against terrorism. Long-standing problems in the
functioning of government have also become more prominent. In Britain, too,
there has been some erosion of civil liberties but also a shocking decline in
political participation. Britain's score in this area is the lowest in the West
and is reflected across all dimensions -- voter turnout, membership of
political parties, willingness to engage in politics and attitudes towards it."

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