At 1:42 PM -0700 7/23/96, Timothy C. May wrote:
What _does_ happen is that people who have not given a lot of thought to some issues get exposed to views and can decide for themselves. Many student types arrive on this list with various half-baked ideas about the role of government, the effectiveness of laws, etc.
_These_ folks are often influenced by persuasive points made here--they usually recognize the "common sense" in the best arguments presented. (At least this is what folks have told me, that they came to the list having ideas that crypto-privacy was important, but not realizing the full ramifications of the libertarian outlook until exposed to many people discussing them here.)
So, I don't expect to convert David Sternlight to my views, nor to convert Phill H.-B. Nor do they, I am sure, expect to convert me. But I _do_ hope that the arguments here will have an effect on the thinking of many.
Tim has it exactly right. And those who call names or try to suppress views different than their own are simply acknowledging publicly that their views are pretty weak, if not simple prejudice. David