RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Who is the Idiot....

["McNutt, Justin M." <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Title: Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Who is the Idiot....

Like I said, voice your views on the war all you want.  Saying "he deserved it" about a U.S. soldier getting killed while fighting pro-Taliban (and pro-terrorist) forces in Afghanistan is too much.

 

What's comical is, the person who wrote this article is probably very liberal and wants equal rights for gays, women, and minorities.  Yet, these people that Tillman was fighting would happily kill the author of this article for carrying those very beliefs.

 

So, in short, this author must have a real problem with the nation if he is saying people who die fighting the Taliban and their supporters "deserve it". 

No, it's too much FOR YOU, and your other assumptions about the author are just that:  assumptions.  They are therefore not worth a whole lot to the discussion, especially since you only made the comment to run down the guy, not make any actual point.

 

Besides, you're missing the point.  There are two arguments here:

 

1)  What the author wrote is/isn't true or correct or whatever.

 

ANSWER:  It's an impossible question.  He wrote his OPINION.  Everybody else then went out and gave everybody who would listen another opinion.  Repeat ad nauseum.  That's what the First Amendment is for.

 

2)  It was wrong/right of the author to write it in the first place.

 

ANSWER:  According to the Constitution, he has the right to his opinion, and the right to voice it.  This was my original point.

 

The point someone else made about how soldiers are the ones who make our freedoms possible is indeed an irony, but there's nothing that makes it a requirement that every journalist is going to appreciate that.  In the words of Wesley Snipes, "You can't take away people's right to be assholes."

 

Or, a bit more gently, "We must remember the First Amendment, which protects any shrill jackass, no matter how self-seeking."  (F.G. Withington)

 

So when some reporter or religious leader or government representative starts mouthing off and you don't like it, remember that, "He's a complete fool and everything he says is wrong," is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from saying, "He shouldn't be allowed to say that and should be punished for it."

 

The first is a reasonable and logical response to a loud-mouthed idiot who lives in a free society.  The second is the beginning of the destruction of that freedom.

 

--J

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