Freedom pf Speech, Politics and Democracy

["Ted Moffett" <ted_moffett@hotmail.com>]

Everyone:

Just because many people are deleting numerous vision2020 posts does not 
mean the effort to discuss some the important issues being debated is not 
worth it.  This is somewhat like saying that because less than 50 % of 
possible legal voters in the USA actually bother to vote, which is a 
fact!!!!!!, we should just cancel the elections due to lack of interest.  
After all, who wants to listen to all the campaign BS anyways, all those 
rude political ads that tell lies.  As in politics, so on vision2020, except 
can you get your rebuttal to a politician's lies printed in a public forum 
instantly like you can on vision2020?  Is this why many local candidates for 
political office avoid vision2020?  The flow of political speak must be 
managed!  Vision2020 is too free and open and therefore dangerous to a 
candidates campaign.

I don't like many of the vision2020 posts, but I accept this is what will 
happen when a truly open forum accepts public input.  We should be grateful 
we can express ourselves freely this way.  I may receive the ire of some for 
this comment, but I think some of the discontent with the content and/or 
quantity of posts on vision2020 is an expression of a lack of commitment to 
the rude, rough and tumble world of expression of opinion on social and 
political issues in a democracy.  I dislike it as much as anyone, but after 
all, deleting offensive posts is a small price to pay to have freedom and 
openness.  Am I way off base here?

Ted



>From: Bob Hoffmann <escape@alt-escape.com>
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: Taking it off list/separate list
>Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 19:55:26 -0700
>
>I'm one of the people who has been deleting a huge number of v2020 postings 
>in the past couple months.
>
>I think a lot of people don't take their "personal arguments" off-list 
>because they want to be able to expose the idiocy, hypocrisy, lunacy, 
>stupidity, illogic, etc., of their "opponents" before a large audience.
>
>In my mind, this is a fallacy.  So many people seem to be deleting postings 
>by the basket, the effect is that these arguments are indeed private--few, 
>if any, people are reading the postings except for those actually involved.
>
>

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