27th May 2004, 1:53 PM
(This post was last modified: 27th May 2004, 2:05 PM by alien space marine.)
Weltall Wrote:I think both ABF and ASM have trouble seperating repression of free speech from counter-free speech.
Again, everyone has a right to speak. No one has the right to be heard.
To clarify on the partisanship of the topic, if there are penalties against the students for their outburst, they deserve the punishment they get. They could have definitely found more polite ways of showing their displeasure with the liberal. But that is not the point at hand. Doctorow wasn't complaining about the students being rude to him, he claimed they were denying his right to free speech.
That is the topic of this thread, and it is the point I focused on: Whether or not his right to speak freely was denied. And, obviously, it was not.
I thought that when it came too politics ,Like I already said everyone who is a politician or spokemen of a official party has the right too be heard otherwise its undemocractic like Putin.
It would not be right for Dems/reps to go to a rep/dem convention with the sole intention of disrupting it and screwing it up.That would not be civilized moraly right.
Sure its not ilegal to be disruptive , Though you can get a detention at school for it, If I remeber when a guest speaker came too our school we were told be respectful and silent or we would get a detention.If the speaker disturbed us on a moral level we were permited too leave the auditorium and go for the libary but only with a teachers permission.What our teachers did after word is ask what we thought about the persons speech and if we didnt agree with him or objected too him we could voice it once we went back to class.
How would you like giving a speech to a audience and just after you got the nerves to speak but You were boo and taunted I think you would be upset and felt in some way that your rights were violated.
Doctorow if he was a politician or a spokemen for the party, Then yah his right of having a fare voice too the public would be broken if supporters of his oppenent were so disruptive that his opinion couldnt be heard.How would congress be if everytime Bush spoke you would hear loud boo's and taunts that you couldnt hear him speak and it was always a flame war and not a healthy debate about the benifit of the country(many ways it is), You say "fuck" you will probaily be tossed out or asked to apologize imediately just like PM Trudeau had to when he said Fuck you to his opponent and disrupted his speech.Disrespect even too a person you dont agree with isnt tolerated in goverment.
But he isnt a politician and it waisnt a official debate or convention,While it was certainly rude for Doctorow to be treated that way I wouldnt say his rights were walked on since he is not a candidate.I am pretty sure those students were told off by their teachers maybe even handed detentions because counter free speech isnt a right that has to be heard either.
But it doesnt make what happen to Doctorow right in anyway.