Re: [Ghm-discuss] The posh talk does not complain with the policy

[Luca Saiu]

On 2014-08-12 at 11:39, Samuel Thibault wrote:

> Luca Saiu, le Tue 12 Aug 2014 11:22:07 +0200, a écrit :
>> * knowing some marvelous sexual technique *is* technical information,
>>   and educating people about it is good for society.  Preventing people
>>   from disclosing such information is morally unacceptable.
>
> [...] But the GHM is not supposed to be about that, so people who feel they
> would be offensed by such a talk should be able to think that they can
> come to GHM without any risk of being offensed by the talks there.

I wasn't meaning to "go meta" with the joke talking about censorship of
other jokes; the moral duty of being able to disclose the technical
information was part of Richard's point, as shown by Alfred's quote.

Neal: yes, in fact it was a joke, and the audience found it funny.


I'm surprised by all these attempts of avoiding offense at all costs.
I've always thought that what counts is the *intent* of the speaker;
usually it's obvious whether somebody wants to attack somebody else, or
if something she chooses just touches a raw nerve.

The thing doesn't need to be sexual in any way.  Here's an example.
These days when criticizing people for being closed-minded about any
topic I often use the word "Pythonic", as the designers of the Python
language feel they know what good programming practices are, and so they
don't have a problem constraining users with limited choices; I very
strongly disapprove of that stance.

  Please use the word "Pythonic" as well, and help me to get it accepted
  into dictionaries.

Am I being rude by saying this?  Probably not.  But if I repeatedly,
callously attacked some dearly held idea by calling it Pythonic, then I
would be -- to one or even two groups.  My point is that the difference
would be obvious to everybody.  A reasonable policy can be "don't be
intentionally obnoxious".

If somebody is offended by a remark which was not meant as an attack,
too bad: she's wrong.  And probably Pythonic as well.


By the way: if something is illegal then it's already prohibited and you
don't need any policy for that.  Call the cops.

-- 
Luca Saiu      http://ageinghacker.net
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