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[LUG] OT: Bad Words was, OT surveillance

 

On 28/06/13 18:15, Martijn Grooten wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 5:37 PM, bad apple wrote:
>> I have no patience with those who are offended by a mere word, and
>> refuse to self-censor.
> I find the argument that "the list is archived and accessible to all"
> not very strong, given the size of the Internet, and the vast amount
> of visual content related to those words you mentioned on it.
>
> On the other hand, I strongly believe in Postel's Law (aka The
> Robustness principle), which still helps make the Internet work:
>
> "Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others".
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle
>
> I try to apply this not just to programming and Internet standards.
>
> Martijn.
>

Ah Martijn, as restrained and level-headed as ever, I see :]

Look people, I was expecting to catch some flak for this but I'm pretty
much made out of asbestos after all my time on the big bad internet, so
I'm sure I can handle it. I definitely do not plan on accidentally
hijacking yet another thread either. I'll go ahead and rename it now, to
save poor Simon the effort (he usually ends up renaming topics that have
hopelessly wandered off-target - sorry Simon).

But equally, I'm not out to shock, annoy or offend anyone either.
Inevitably, some people will end up being perhaps shocked, annoyed and
offended but that says more about them than me. Please don't imagine
that I casually advocate turning the air blue in front of random
children either - I'm just blunt, not an idiot (also Mr Bell, I'm happy
to inform you I'm neither irresponsible or immature despite your
eagerness to slap labels on me). Speaking of children, I happen to live
on a thoroughfare for all the kids heading to Teign School in the
morning and returning in the afternoon - a hundred or more of them pass
every day, twice. And you should hear the torrent of utter filth that
pours out of them, frequently shouted at the top of their young innocent
voices.

Kids are not, and have never been, special little snowflakes who need to
be shielded from the *gasp* UNIMAGINABLE HORROR of a couple of swear
words. Internet access, their peers at school and even just plain old TV
has already taught them all about porn, violence and the frequently
despicable aspects of modern life (war, corruption, crime). These are
the things that you should worry about, not the 1 in a trillion chance
that they might see the word "fuck" in an archived thread on a linux
mailing list by me.

I really, really worry about the staggering lack of perspective some
people have.

Now I also totally understand why nonetheless, some people might want to
start filtering out any emails from me - go ahead, I fully support your
right to not have to listen to me or indeed anyone else. I'm not even
going to try and convince or sway you, it's your choice to make but you
should go ahead and do it now, because I will inevitably type an email
in the heat of the moment at some point in the future and include a four
letter word.

Now, back to Linux please.

Regards

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