🚀 go-pugleaf

Peter Merel <pete@zip.com.au> writes:

>Tommy the Terrorist <u58563@uic.edu> writes:

>[ Civil-Rights Rant Elided ]

>>   Those who are most vociferous about "protecting children" don't want
>>educated children --- they want ignorant children.  They want their kids
>>to "know" that gays are Bad, but never to have seen any.  They want their
>>kids to "know" that Marijuana is Bad, but not to know that it is also
>>called "hemp".  

>Though most of what Tommy says here is quite sensible, I should point out
>to him that gay-rights have been pretty successfully won in Australia - there's
>still some lunacy down in Tasmania, and gay marriages are still being fought
>for, but for the most part gays are largely accepted as regular folk in Oz.
>I'd advise Tommy to seek out a video of "The Sum Of Us" to see what attitudes
>to gays are like in this neck of the woods.

>As to marijuana, while possession is still illegal in most parts of Australia,
>it's been decriminalised in South Australia and the ACT, and both Victoria
>and NSW are supposed to be moving to decriminalise it this year.

>I guess this must sound peculiar to a yanqui, but Australia is a place where
>you can smoke dope and root members of the same sex, but not one where you
>can speak freely ... so while most of Tommy's diatribe works okay, he needs to
>pick some different "sins" to deconstruct for the yokel audience :-)

>-- 
>mailto:pete@zip.com.au        | Don't let Big Brother destroy the Net in NSW!! |
>http://www.zip.com.au/~pete/  | Read http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/~danny/march/ |

I can see no reson to change anything about the Internet and USENET in 
particular.

For people who do not want free access to the world , simply not owning a 
computer is completly safe and very cost-effective.

USENET already has effective censorship and classification in the form of 
moderators and Group descriptions.

I use an ISP that practices censorship and it very simple to implement.
all alt.* groups are unclassified , Moderated groups are already censored 
and alt.binaries are pornographic.

If special interest groups want News that only portrays thier particular 
view of things they need only create 
moderated.the_only_true_view.the_rest_are_evil.* groups and restrict 
subscription to all other Group trees for their members.

I think the *real* issue for the censorship lobby is that *other* people 
, who want it , can access all sorts of information.
It *is* an intollerable situation that the 'Net has (inadvertantly) 
brought about , free world-wide communication between idividual citizens 
is unprecdented in history and will cause the destabilisation of certain 
political and social structures in the world.

I'm in favor of this of course , I believe that attitudes that cannot 
standup in the face of greater experience should be allowed to wither.

DISCLAIMER: My views are incomplete , inconsistant and mostly pieced 
together from people and experiences in my own life.
... And so are yours.

+++ This document was prepaired with the aid of MikroSoft Speling Wizzerd +++

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