Thread #154278   Message #3619782
Posted By: GUEST,Eliza
17-Apr-14 - 01:29 PM
Thread Name: A boring place
Subject: RE: A boring place


As an old lady from the UK, I do rather take exception to remarks which tar all British people here with the same brush. Not all posters from Great Britain on this site are as you describe, Joe. I'm actually very surprised at this revelation of your views about us. I'd always admired and appreciated your standpoint on many matters. This seems to me to be an 'ism' (see another thread)   Sad.

Allow me clarify, Megan and Eliza. For the most part, the voices from the British Isles who have demanded that Mudcat silence other posters, are male voices. The campaign against Lizzie Cornish went on for years, and I think there were a few women in the outraged mob that opposed her - but it was mostly men; and it is men who now demand the silencing of Akenaton and Keith A. of Hertford. But even then, don't you think that Europeans do have a different view about allowing people to say things? In the U.S., free speech is sacred - that does not seem to be the case in Europe.

I see people here reporting (or threatening to report) Mudcat to some governmental authority for allowing what they term "illegal speech." And what they describe as illegally bigoted, really seems quite mild to me. Now, I admit the US may go too far in protecting free speech by the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and that "godhatesfags" Westboro Baptist Church, but I think I'd rather err on the side of freedom of speech [note: I am totally opposed to civilian carrying of firearms for any purpose other than hunting, although Big Mick would disagree with me]. Some people brought up Joe McCarthy as if his 1954 hearings were a recent phenomenon. I do think McCarthy may be a major reason why Americans so strongly protect freedom of speech - they don't want to see McCarthy's suppression happen ever again. Before McCarthy, suppression of speech was fairly common in the U.S. - remember the Scopes trial?

Whether the US advocacy of free speech is right or wrong, it's certainly different from the European view. And in the US, honoring demands that Akenaton and Keith be silenced, would be unthinkable.

MtheGM above said something about Alabama and Baptists, and I couldn't understand what he was trying to say. Whatever the case, I don't think you'll find much support for Alabama Baptists among U.S. Mudcatters. [Maybe MtheGM was referring to the 40-member Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas?] And you'll really have to scour the U.S. hard to find one person willing to support Joe McCarthy. And I can't quite figure out what Alabama and Baptists and Joe McCarthy have to do with Akenaton and Keith.

So, in short, the demands to silence Akenaton and Keith and some others, appear to us Americans to be quite ridiculous. Maybe we're wrong, but that's how we see it. Most of us disagree with them - but we also disagree with the demands that they be silenced.

-Joe-

P.S. If I have an incorrect understanding of the European view of freedom/suppression of speech, especially as it is understood by males in the British Isles, please correct me by giving me accurate information. And don't blame me for Joe McCarthy and Alabama Baptists in the process.