Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Thu, Oct 17, 2002 at 11:46:28AM -0400, David R. Matusiak wrote:
 not that i am interested in pursuing a libel suit, but you accuse me of  
> smoking crack without evidence, yet i can point to evidence of you  
> wanting to be a censor

Oh, hey, that's not so bad. There was a guy on one of my lists who
jumped into a discussion of whether taking a job with an adult site (as
a webmaster or designer) would ruin their career, taking the view that
it would, in fact, ruin their career and, well, beyond. He then admitted
that he was formerly addicted to pornography. He then proceeded to
explain to the rest of us that we were all going to hell, at worst, and
destroying our relationships with our women at best, by wallowing in the
filth of our detestable practices, etc. etc. Full-on sermon.

Never mind that a good chunk of the list members aren't men, many are
not Christian, few had spoken in favor of working for an adult site,
much less addiction to pornography, and that nobody had really asked for
an up jumps the devil confession of a previous perceived moral failure.
The fact was that the mental images the confession left were unpleasant.
Now, every time so-and-so asked for help with something, we had to
wonder, "Gee, if he'd just lay off the pr0n, he'd have time to figure
this out himself". ;)

Anyway, I'm sure the things some of us believe would give many others of
us permanent fright wigs, which is why most of us don't bother to come
out with such beliefs here. There's also the issue of disgust for
someone's beliefs interfering with our ability to have professional or
at least civil discussions. And I'm not just talking about two people
having a heated discussion; I'm talking about the rest of us who may
then want to have a discussion involving those two.

One of the great things about this country, weird as it is, is that we
have the right to believe in whatever we like, and even to speak about
it, provided it doesn't become slanderous or dangerous to the public. We
are judged for the most part on our actions, not our words. Here,
though, the only actions we take, beyond our decision to post or not,
/are our words/. So that's how we're judged.

Please, people, take the time to walk off your anger or disgust or
refrain from sharing it. 

Steve

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