And, happily, I did not accuse you of making any statement. Right? Go back and check. Yep, sure enough, no statement claimed by Helmuth to have been made by Ender. So, perfect! Agreement! We can join hands in love, harmony, and total agreement.
Yes!
Behold, the Rabbit mind. All I did was nicely, politely explain the K-selected mindset to him, and he feels hate. He starts spewing vulgarities at me (despite being a minister!). Everyone, please understand that I think Ender actually does experience this as hate. He's sincere. Just hearing about it, even in the nicest possible way, and safely over the Internet, is enough to trigger the threat response.
Anyway, let's drop that line of thought since Ender is not going to be able to understand any of it, much less contribute to the discussion; it will just agitate him.
Let's talk about free speech, because that's interesting, too. And very important!
As for me, I am a bit of an absolutist on free speech, you could say. Some say there should be limits. I tend to think not. I am inclined to allow everything: fire-related shouting in theaters, slander and libel, and yes, even death threats. What, you say? Surely it shouldn't be legal to go around saying "I am going to kill you!" I would say it should be. What should not be legal is taking actual actions to implement your murderous plan. Making the threat of the crime itself not a crime will pose no real hinderance to enforcement and punishment of the criminal for a well-functioning crime-prevention system.
Likewise, it should be technically legal to make all other criminal threats, such as "I want to tax you," or "I believe in Universal Health Care," or "We need to make laws to end Global Warming." It's only consistent. Spew forth whatever words you want. What should be illegal is to actually
believe these things!
. In other words, to take any actions, such as but not limited to: joining the Democrat or Socialist Party, donating money to people promising to carry out these threats, organizing clubs, advocacy groups, or mob actions trying to make these criminal threats real, or anything else tangibly advancing (or attempting to advance) the criminal goals of socialism, communism, or any other criminal ideology.
Hope that clears that up!
Somebody starts making criminal threats (such as saying "I'm with Marx" or "I'm with Charles Manson" or wearing a Che Guevera T-shirt) then law enforcement should simply be activated, he should be followed everywhere he goes, surrounded by well-armed men, actively monitored and prevented from following through on his criminal threat (or any other effective preventative measures). This continues until he permanently leaves the society. If at any time he does something to attempt to further the goals of socialism, that is, follow through and commit an actual crime, he should and must be forcibly physically removed.
Look, a society that tolerates authoritarians cannot survive as a free society. The people matter. Society is its people. If a population consists 80% of supporters of authoritarianism, what kind of society will that be? Come on, just take a wild guess.
This is really not that complicated.
Freedom good.
Tyranny bad.
Tyranny bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
Freedom will be in places where the *people* love and value freedom. Tyranny will exist where people buy into tyranny. The freedom people -- namely me, for example -- have a right to exclude the tyranny-lovers from their community. If they do not, then bottom line: that means they would not have the right to exist. They would not have a right to freedom. They will never have freedom unless they can exclude and physically expel the parasites and criminals who would rule over them and rob their property.
This is really basic stuff. It's so simple.
Exactly!
)
