CDR: Re: And you thought Nazi agitprop was controversial?

[Tim May]

At 11:27 AM -0400 9/13/00, Jay Holovacs wrote:
>You really don't seem to get it, defending the right to speech is NOT the
>same as defending the content (though I understand that nowhere do they
>advocate violence to children)
>
>Remember, Jodi, the *same* law that should be protecting their speech
>protects you and your allies from being prosecuted each time a gay is
>murdered or an abortion clinic bombed.
>

Actually, the tide of civil lawsuits against all sorts of 
organizations is rising. Aryan Nations was just ordered to pay some 
multimillion dollar fee because some woman was harassed or attacked 
or had her feelings hurt--not sure which--by some people she claimed 
were connected to or influenced by AN.

I watched noted spinster Alan Dershowitz expostulating that lawsuits 
to bankrupt Aryan Nation are _good_, becuase AN espouses hate, but 
that lawsuits against NAMBLA are _bad_, for some reason I didn't 
stick around long enough to hear.

This issue of lawsuits about speech is a terribly important one. It 
tends to get lost in the debate when people say "But the _government_ 
is not suppressing speech!"

Actually, it _is_. By court decisions, by even letting such lawsuits 
go forward, it is supporting such suppressions of speech. "SLAPP" 
suits are another example.

("Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation," as when a lumber 
company slaps a civil lawsuit on a critic of their logging 
operations. Even the _filing_ of a lawsuit essentially forces the 
target to hire his own $400 an hour lawyers. (Yeah, I know what 
Duncan would say: "Throw the subpoena away. Make yourself 
judgement-proof. Ignore the matter." Well, nice theory, hard in 
practice for anyone with real assets.)_

We as a culture have swung far away from "sticks and stones may break 
my bones but names will never hurt me" toward a culture of lawsuits. 
And the lawyer lobby supports and embraces this culture, getting laws 
passed making it easier every day to suppress speech.

Crypto helps in various ways, of course. Both Aryan Nations and 
NAMBLA will be helped, along with Friends of the Earth and Pacific 
Lumber.

Censorious bitches like Jodi Hoffman will splutter.

--Tim May

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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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