Timothy C. May writes:
Should "voluntary self-criticism" become widespread, I expect to rate all of my posts as suitable for children of all ages, suitable for hypersensitive feminists, suitable for Jews and Gentiles alike, and so on. Regardless of whether I'm advocating post-birth abortions or forced encheferation of Muslim girls.
Not me. If someone doesn't want to be offended, then I would rather they never read anything from me, ever. I share family, race, culture, and backround with my father, and there have been times when I offended him unintentionally. One person liked me enough to marry me, but I occasionally offended her, too. Imagine how easily I might offend a stranger. Better to take no chances at all. If somebody wants a rating system, then they should just consider everything I have to say as "X-rated" in EVERY category, just to be safe. And that's a policy that everyone on the net should follow. If this self rating system becomes mandatory, I think the cypherpunks should cooperate fully, by notifying ALL sites that are not self-X-rated if they can find ANYTHING that ANYONE might EVER find offensive. Better safe than sorry. Nobody will be prosecuted for saying they have an offensive site, even if they don't. Imagine a prosecutor trying to prove that NOBODY could POSSIBLY be offended by my newsgroup postings! But many people will be prosecuted for not identifying their sites as offensive. Now, if everyone follows my advice, the net may become very boring for those who have their filters set on, but congress will NEVER make "being boring" against the law. If mandatory-self-rating ever becomes the law, cypherpunks can definitely promote true justice by strictly interpreting it and supporting it completely.