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From: eyal@wisdom.BITNET (Eyal mozes)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Abuses of the net
Message-ID: <8612040701.AA14267@jade.berkeley.edu>
Date: Fri, 5-Dec-86 09:02:06 EST
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Posted: Fri Dec  5 09:02:06 1986
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In article <399@cartan.Berkeley.EDU> gsmith@brahms.berkeley.edu (Gene Ward Smith
>I
>don't like censors, self-appointed or otherwise;
>       .
>       .
>   I think you owe Michael Ellis an apology. But I won't try to kick you
>off the net until you give him one; since I believe the net is big enough
>even for the self-appointed censors. I hope I am right.

Let me recount a few relevant facts, which may not be known to those
who don't subscribe to talk.philosophy.misc.

Mr. Ellis happens to be a frequent contributor to talk.philosophy.misc.
Now, for the past 6 months, his many messages have all been completely
devoted to making, over and over again, with varying degrees of
rudeness, just one statement: that all Objectivists should be removed
from the newsgroup.

Mr. Smith is also a frequent contributor to talk.philosophy.misc (with
a style even more offensive than that of Mr. Ellis). And, oddly enough,
he hasn't said one word against Mr. Ellis; not an accusation of
"self-appointed censorship"; not a demand that Mr. Ellis apologise to
Objectivists; nothing. In fact, an insistent implication from Mr.
Smith's own messages (though one that he never made explicit) is that
he supports Mr. Ellis in this, too.

So Mr. Smith's standards seem to be as follows: Mr. Ellis, who would
censor people out of talk.philosophy.misc for the crime of agreeing
with a philosophy he disapproves of, is OK; but Steven Harnad, who
would like people on the net to follow some minimum standards of
decency and civilised discussion, is a "self-appointed censor". Draw
your own conclusions about Mr. Smith's sincerity.

Whatever my disagreements with some of Steven Harnad's views, I've got
to hand it to him; unlike many contributors to USENET, he is capable of
holding a courteous, civilised discussion on an intellectual level.
Messrs Ellis and Smith would be well advised to learn from him rather
than attack him.

        Eyal Mozes

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