I feel bad about writing a personal attack post, but when someone attacks you, you have some obligation to defend yourself, particularly when it’s soo bad it deserves derision. I defend anyones right to disagree, but I don’t when it comes to their right to suggest that I shouldn’t have the right to disagree, that somehow free speech should be stifled. If there is one thing that should bind us all in free societies, it’s free speech. Whether left, right, green, gay, whatever, we should all have the right to say as we please. Those that suggest otherwise are the enemies of us all.
Deborah Robinson, someone who most of you have never heard of but is probably seeking attention, thinks that the Great Firewall of Australia is a great idea. (link).
Here’s some highlights
One popular blog, TechCrunch went so far as to suggest a conspiracy between our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and the Chinese. And what did Duncan Riley from TechCrunch offer as proof of this conspiracy? A satirical video downloaded from YouTube. What an idiot!
The video was for fun, as were the Chinese references…called for I think given the context, but let us digress to the Minister himself Deborah:
“Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation on the internet is like going down the Chinese road,” Conroy said.
That’s right Deborah, the Minister himself compares the ALP’s plan to China. Idiot.
then she attacks Scoble
Robert Scoble of Scobleizer said on his blog post, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìI have two children and I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d rather raise them with freedom of speech than some government deciding what they can and can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t see, thank you very much.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù I wonder if he would still hold this view if his kids had unrestricted access to porn and violent material offline? I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m sure he wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t want them passing out porn at the supermarket or on the street. So why should it be any different on the world wide web? How many times have we all inadvertently stumbled on something offensive or just unwelcome online? And he says he isn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t worried about his kids on the web.
Deborah, no one is suggesting that. We are simply suggesting that the Government shouldn’t dictate what we should be able to access online, unless of course its your idiotic writings.
What has gotten lost in all this hysteria is the ?¢‚ǨÀúreal?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ objective of introducing a clean feed in Australia and that is to protect our kids from being bombarded by inappropriate material.
Firstly, who dictates what is appropriate and not, and where does it stop, because once it starts, mark my words IT WONT STOP. Now on the other hand, OK, I’m calling child services Deborah because if you have kids (and god help them) you’re obviously letting them view hard core porn because you’re too irresponsible to supervise them, or god forbid block access with NetNanny or similar. Ultimately we can block what we deem inappropriate ourselves, that is our choice in a free society, not that of the Government, unless the act is of course illegal (which with kiddy porn it is…and that’s the important fact here, it’s already illegal).
The problem of unrestricted access to adult material is not unique to this country and I applaud the Australian government for having the guts to clean up the ?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢anything goes on the Internet?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ mentality, which has dominated the world wide web for far too long. After all, we wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t tolerate it offline, so why should we tolerate it on the Internet.
Deborah, again, you’re a Grade A idiot. This isn’t just about porn, despite what the Government is saying. This is about “pornography and inappropriate material” and depending on some reports “illegal and violent” material as well. Lets take a look at the Governments net. Ignore porn for a second (since you seem to be obsessed with it) and look at what else this takes in. For starters anything “illegal” online is anything R rated and above. At the basic level this is porn, but it also includes some types of video games as well, because we don’t have a R rating for those (anything above MA is banned). Virtual worlds that are changing how we do things online such as Second Life have seedy areas, they could well be banned as well, completely and not in part because it’s difficult to filter part of Second Life (if not impossible). Speech: it’s illegal to advocate “hate” speech in some states and under certain circumstances Federally as well; if someone were to question Governments policy relating to Aboriginal people could that be deemed racist, illegal then blocked? Blogs and forums allow for a free and open discourse…if someone started spamming your blog with “dirty words” should you be automatically blocked? Indeed, if I said you’re a fucking idiot enough times this site would be blocked as well, but I’m sure you’d be happy about that.
Here’s a choice quote from todays coverage at the OZ:
There are genuine concerns that the Government – backed by morals groups like Family First – will in time extend the powers outside of their intended target area.
And lets not forget about the economic cost of this as well
A 2005 pilot study carried out by the former Howard government found a clean feed approach could cut down speed of accessing the internet by between 18 to 78 per cent depending on what was being blocked.
Deborah, stop looking at porn online for one minute and consider that free speech online isn’t about porn but defending the right for idiots like you to say your crap without Government censorship. Would you like to live in a world where what you say online could be censored because the Government deems it so? because this is what you are supporting today. As much as I’m tempted to suggest (as I have elsewhere) that you should be censorsed because you are an idiot, I must always defer to the quote wrongly attributed to Voltaire, because despite our differences this is the key to our freedom and democracy in the 21st century
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Perhaps Deborah, if you had any fairness and belief in freedom you’d extend those words to others as well.
PS: I was joking on Twitter about those twats from the Guardians being Commies. They got it totally wrong anyway; the UK censors child porn only on opt-in feeds, the Australian Government is talking 2 million sites + on an opt out basis. They probably a commies, but hey, lets ban them, that’s your solution, right?
