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From: jbf@ccieng5.UUCP (Jens Bernhard Fiederer)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: But words can sometimes hurt you
Message-ID: <392@ccieng5.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Apr-84 12:20:26 EST
Article-I.D.: ccieng5.392
Posted: Mon Apr 23 12:20:26 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Apr-84 19:25:04 EST
References: <4002@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: CCI Central Engineering, Rochester, NY
Lines: 37

>My liberty is often achieved at the expense of yours.  My continued well-
>being depends on your being constrained not to kill me, for example.

Not at all -- I wouldn't have the slightest interest in killing you even
were I unconstrained.

>A psychological question arises:  can someone's liberty (i.e. freedom of
>action) be restricted simply by being called something?  If I organize
>everyone around you to call you "stupid" at every possible opportunity,
>I will not have done any physical violence to you, but your self-image
>may well be damaged to the point of you being severely restricted in
>your ability to live your life.

If I am that vulnerable to irrational name calling, I would deserve to
be called stupid.  Rather than my being "restricted", I would probably
be amused -- and come up with something considerably more spicy than
"stupid" to call my detractors.

>I would expect to see a few more, very specific, laws much like the hate
>literature laws to tackle the worst sorts of pornography.

I don't have any EXPECTATIONS either way, but I would hope not.  I would
like to see even laws about slander abolished.  This would place the
responsibility for correct judgement upon the "listener", which is where
it belongs anyway.  Slander has inherent punishment -- loss of credibility
when it is shown false.  And people who too quickly believe slander
deserve as many bad experiences as possible to make them a little more
sceptical.

Gopal the Barber
BTW, I perceived the "Milady" not as an insult but as an expression of
annoyance, and not sexist at all -- it seemed analogous to the "Sir" used
in rabbit!jj and tcwheeler arguments, "You, sir, are mistaken".
-- 
"Some people are eccentric, but I am just plain odd"
Reachable as
	....allegra![rayssd,rlgvax]!ccieng5!jbf