Groups > alt.atheism > #1929584

Re: aa #16. HOW WOULD YOU DRAW THE LINE BETWEEN THE RIGHTS OF AN INDIVIDUAL VS. SOCIETY'S RIGHT TO MAKE RESTRICTIVE LAWS/

From	"Alex W." <ingilt@yahoo.co.uk>
Newsgroups	alt.atheism
Subject	Re: aa #16. HOW WOULD YOU DRAW THE LINE BETWEEN THE RIGHTS OF AN INDIVIDUAL VS. SOCIETY'S RIGHT TO MAKE RESTRICTIVE LAWS/
Date	2015-06-22 11:04 +0200
Message-ID	<cuq1d2F3ofmU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	(1 earlier) <7264d746-cae0-4610-b975-513cb6211a4d@googlegroups.com> <cug7s2Fk05mU1@mid.individual.net> <mlvaf8$eoa$1@speranza.aioe.org> <cunj09FfaerU1@mid.individual.net> <mm7eae$dvg$1@speranza.aioe.org>

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On 22/06/2015 00:37, Smiler wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Jun 2015 12:46:33 +0200, Alex W. wrote:
>
>> On 18/06/2015 22:42, Smiler wrote:
>>> On Thu, 18 Jun 2015 17:53:38 +0200, Alex W. wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 18/06/2015 12:07, Malcolm McMahon wrote:
>>>>> On Thursday, 18 June 2015 08:51:06 UTC+1, hypatiab7  wrote:
>>>>>> This is an aa thread for atheists only, as per all the alt.atheism
>>>>>> FAQs.
>>>>>> Lurker atheists are welcome. PLEASE DON'T FEED THE TROLLS. I know
>>>>>> it's hard, since they deliberately ask upsetting questions or lie
>>>>>> about us,
>>>>>> but please try. I'm trying, too, and it ain't easy.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> #16. How would you draw the line between the rights of an individual
>>>>>> vs.
>>>>>> society's right to make restrictive laws?
>>>>>
>>>>> On the basis of quantifiable harm. The harm prevented by a law must
>>>>> demonstrably exceed the harm done by enforcing it. (And enforcing
>>>>> criminal law is always doing harm).
>>>>
>>>> That does not clarify matters much.
>>>> Harm is often hugely subjective and determined by the individual.
>>>> Take free speech: a joke about Jews or blacks may be ethnic
>>>> assertiveness, racist cant or just observational humour -- it all
>>>> depends on the listener.
>>>
>>> It also depends on the teller of the joke and the joke itself.
>>> A Jew telling Jewish jokes or a Nigerian telling black jokes would be
>>> Ok.
>>> A Jew telling black jokes or a Nigerian telling Jewish jokes would be
>>> NOT be Ok.
>>
>> Agreed.
>> That also offers the delightful scenario of making people quite
>> uncomfortable: having been conditioned to disapprove of such humour,
>> they cannot really object when a member of the targeted group starts
>> telling such jokes....
>
> I've been brought up with Jewish jokes and recently went to a comedy night
> where a Nigerian comedian was telling black/African jokes. Neither phase
> me.
>

It does faze and discomfit the politically correct brigade.  They combat 
the scourge of -isms wherever they may rear their ugly heads (real, 
imagined, or suspected), so it's a big problem for them when members of 
the "affected" group start using such material themselves.  There's a 
reflex reaction to ethnic jokes or nomenclature which they have to 
consciously suppress because their PC ideology does not allow them to be 
critical of members of ethnicities.

I've seen Alex Brooker in action, cracking jokes about thalidomide 
deformity ... watching the audience was at least as funny as the bloke 
himself....

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