Anyone that would riot because they read something from an Internet troll, probably belongs in jail.
I’m pretty sure that for speech to be considered illegal, it also has to pass a “reasonableness” test.
i.e., Just because a nut-case might riot, isn’t enough for the speech to be considered illegal. It would have to cause a reasonable person to riot.
For example, shouting “fire!!!” in a crowded theatre might be considered illegal. But shouting, “zombie attack!!!” in a crowded theatre would not, even if a couple of nuts started to panic.
JK, of course. I make an excellent target sometimes. Use me. I sometimes even encourage it, since I can “take it” better than most. E.g. I know I have a tendency to really p*ss off “card-carrying” authoritarians just by speaking.
The follow-up comments all seem to prove my point, though, since even in the “fire in a crowded theater” rule doesn’t stop someone from shouting “fire”, it only threatens them with punishment for doing so. I hate to think of what might happen to someone ‘talking to the screen’ encouraging the hero to discharge his/her weapon… (If anybody is interested, that also proves the fatal, fundamental flaw in the concept of Democracy (talking about Social Structure, not Politics) — even if everybody in the theater agrees that it is appropriate to stomp their neighbors into the rotting jujubes on the floor & pack the nearest exit in blind panic, doesn’t make any of them right.)
Not that I’m trying to prove anything to this lot, but maybe now SB56637’s ‘One-Button Solution’ will make more sense… (And why only you can see your own Rudeness Meter!)
(EDIT: well, I can’t actually see my own Rudeness Meter, but maybe that’s because I’m such a sweet, thoroughly-loved guy. ROTFLOLPIMP!! Yeah, right.)
And I’ll go back to lurking again with one reminder: I thought the title of this thread used to mention not feeding the trolls. From the old dial-up BBS days, through “newsgroups” until this moment, that still seems to be the fastest, most effective way of getting the troll to leave on his own. (BTW, are there female trolls? IDK & don’t really care, it just seems rare.) You can’t blame a dog for being a dog, but that doesn’t mean you have to feed it.
Just the phrase “card carrying authoritarians” lumps any who disagree with you into a group with a negative association. This, while it may be funny to you, is both an insult and a tactical block against disagreement. It’s common and has no basis in debate. Dunk tank for you my friend.
Every time this thread hits the front page
I realize it’s so hard to gauge
Every poster’s intent
Did they say what they meant ?
Are they trying a small war to wage ?
We must sometimes try to disengage
When a post seems to make us enrage
’Cause what they tried to say
May have hit the wrong way
We just can’t every day be a sage
