Atheism Plus/Free Thought Blogs (FTB)

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RandFan said:
:) If I was feeling argumentative I'd disagree but I don't so I don't.
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:cool: Yeah, I think I'll give that a pass also, RF. Especially since you can only discuss any issues you have with staff in FM, where you will need to run a gauntlet of modettes who lurk there to pile on any serious critics. I still really miss Plumjam. He was my favorite JREF poster. :(
 
Mr. Scott said:
You are right. She's in Alberta. OMFSM the Internet scares me. While googling to confirm her location, her phone number and map showing her home's exact street location popped up :eek:
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I'm still waiting for my invite for drinks, as it seems we're in the same town. I'd ask, but don't want to trigger anything.
 
theprestige said:
At least JREF FM isn't an endless parade of, "'shut up,' she explained."
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Reasons why such exist: A+ / FTB

http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/141356

College: Where Free Speech Goes to Die
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Though his book is about colleges and universities, Lukianoff takes on high schools as well. Most students will leave high school, he argues, never having learned the philosophical arguments for free speech that undergird the First Amendment, or studied how political freedom is founded on the right to speak freely. The depressing absence of protests from college students against administration censorship can be traced to this “high school environment that often portrays free speech as a problem, that does not teach the philosophy or law or utility of free speech, and that presents punishment of students for bad opinions as morally righteous.” No surprise, then, that such students are “cautious about what they say” and “may even favor pressure towards conformity or silence.”
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theprestige said:
At least JREF FM isn't an endless parade of, "'shut up,' she explained."
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Wow. Please don't think for a second I was comparing JREF with A+. Sacre bleu!! Outside of FM I have never had any infractions or warnings, and hold most of the mods here in high regard. I was just saying for the sake of full disclosure I don't think JREF is perfect. It has-imho-some weak spots also. I mentioned them just to show that I'm not looking down on a+ from some high pedestal.

I like the democratic transparency and experimental nature of TalkRational which does not exist here, but that also comes at a serious censorship price as well. A small number of jerks are allowed to drive off any who's opinions they don't like. :crowded:
 
AlBell said:
Reasons why such exist: A+ / FTB

http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/141356
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FYI: While I agree that speech codes can be a problem in institutions of higher education I don't think the author has at all met his burden of proof. It should be noted that the ACLU has been fairly effective at defending the rights of students on campus.

ACLU Weighs in Against Possible Ban on “Hate Speech”

The sky isn't falling and universities are not anti-free speech. They do go too far sometimes in trying to avoid bullying and bigotry. Which does in fact exist. Let's not conflate these two issues.
http://thefire.org/article/9981.html#sthash.deD2KcG7.dpuf
 
theprestige said:
ETA: You can't imagine how excited I was to discover that "normal" also means "perpendicular to [a tangent]".
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Hence we should oppose right angles, on the grounds that they're tangentnormative.
 
rustypouch said:
I'm still waiting for my invite for drinks [from ceepolk], as it seems we're in the same town. I'd ask, but don't want to trigger anything.
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AFAIK ceepolk has agoraphobiaWP or something similar, so don't hold your breath.
 
FIRE and the ACLU have both done good work on fighting censorship on college campuses.
 
qwints said:
FIRE and the ACLU have both done good work on fighting censorship on college campuses.
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Bit of a derail....

Indeed, they have. Just curious - since this thread is about A+/FTB... what do you think the hive reaction to those two organizations would be? My quick (and lazy) read would say they'd be about 200% against any action by either group that wasn't specifically about THEIR rights. e.g. that they'd support decisions they favor but would be virulently against most of the general principles those two groups take stands on.

If anyone's followed FIRE's discussions of the re-upping of the VAWA, the one battle they're still fighting is the provision for what amounts to "double jeopardy" in campus judiciary/administrative proceedings. If someone is found guilty, they can appeal. If someone is found innocent, the accusers can appeal. This isn't "kicking it to a higher court", though. It's the same group, essentially re-trying the case.

(My take on some of the ACLU's less popular stands.... If I feel like shouting AT the nazis as they march on the quad, and even, assuming I'm willing to go the civil disobedience route, goading them into physical responses... that's my right and my choice to make. But shouting AT is not shouting DOWN. That popular campus ploy is simply censorship and I'm against it. Similarly, if someone puts up a reprehensible stance on a poster or handbill, then I'm free to put up my own poster or handbill or stand in front of them to voice my objections to theirs. I am not free to, and I would not do so, tear down their poster or take their handbills and burn them. This is not a well-though-out legal position. This is just my personal read on the application of free speech.)
 
qwints said:
What does responsibility have to do with avoiding hurting people?
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That's a rather strangely worded question.

How do you propose you are going to go through life avoiding hurting people who are just looking for an excuse to be hurt?
 
kellyb said:
I doubt that any one of these people have ANY experience with dealing with SWAT cops. None of them have been arrested for protesting. NONE. Not a single one. They haven't even looked down the barrel of a SWAT gun. They're full of crap.
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Sasha Wiley-Shaw (aka Creepy Bitter Girl) was arrested at the Vancouver Casserole Protest and complained of police brutality.

Wiley-Shaw said her faith in law enforcement has been shaken. “I think I’m going to be living with a level of fear and stress and trauma as a result of this for doing absolutely nothing unlawful.
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(though she reportedly blocked traffic and spat on a car)

I think I know her handle on the A+ forum and on the JREF, unless it's someone else who writes exactly like her and has the same home town.

Sasha is the one near the beginning with the blue scarf:

 
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