Better, I think, to put energy toward campaigning against that sort of violence in the first place, than toward any kind of blanket censorship. Censorship doesn't work and has never worked, and won't work for the internet any better than it did for Popes, Nazis, Southern fundies or other sterling examples of right-thinking people. /minute snark

I agree that (if the images are real; Snopes' opinion is unconfirmed) it's a horrible thing. It sickens me that there's a market for it, and people willing to supply that market. I'm rabidly anti-censorship, however. Heh. Take that as you will.

Jendaiya wrote:

I'm anti-censorship, too. But some stuff should simply *not exist*. How's that for hypocritical? ;)

That's not hypocritcal.
There's a big difference between wishing some things didn't exist, and censorship which tries to pretend they don't.

Wont somebody please think of the children!

m a x wrote:

could it be that some censorship is okay and some isn't?

True - but who's going to decide?

Em wrote:

True - but who's going to decide?

You do.

Eat them? Trade them for a car? No no, race them! There could be a little kiddie track, and people could place bets!

Em wrote:

For everyone? *shudders at the thought*

no, just for you.

Everyone else can sort it out for themselves.

m a x wrote:

could it be that some censorship is okay and some isn't?

That depends.

Governments creating laws that make it illegal for adults to pass on certain information or express certain view to those that want to hear it is not ok.
..and I'd say that even includes things that modern society finds hateful.


But there's a bunch of other things that people call "censorship" which although it matches the dictionary definition, is simply not the same thing as what immediately jumps to peoples mind when they hear the word.

I think it's one of those words that's too emotive and vague to use in a sensible debate.  You'd need to clarify exactly what was happening, and in what way something was being censored.

So the short answer is "yes"  But mostly because people cry "censorship" at pretty much anything.

this reminds me of the australian ratings warning message at the beginning of a movie mabs and i were watching the other night. it featured a family sitting on the couch getting ready to watch a movie and they were all wearing different tshirts with the different ratings on them, like the young boy would get up and explain the "G" and the girl would get up and explain the "M" and so on and so forth. i just found it amusing that afterwards they would give examples of the different types of movies in a few seconds of clips, up to the more mature movies, which in my view rather killed the whole point of the exercise and left you wondering what the message itself was rated.

There's a part of me that totally agrees with you, Ren. They should be punished, publicly.

There's another part of me that screams "slippery slope." If you start down that path, set a precedent, then next person publicly punished might have down something just a the tiniest bit less heinous.

Then, one day, they come for you.

Footle, it may be a extreme comparison, but whose to say *shrugs* Where do we draw the line. Where does one's right to self expression end?

Also, what if the person who posted the pictures didn't actually perform the deed, just took and published the pictures? Should they be tarred with the same brush as the person who committed the atrocity? Or should they be held to a lower standard?

This stuff makes my head hurt.

I will retreat to silly, fun stuff (like the Mint) and say no more.

I belive in censorship, but censorship is impossible in our information era due to objective reasons, so the end of days is coming near...I'm serious. This world has become too crazy about itself.
There are much , much much more worse things in the net, then dead kittens(though I really feel sorry for the animals) .You know what I mean and about what I speak of- and it seems to me a very bitter irony- in our age of false democracy, in the 21 century of progress where COMPASSIONATE HUMAN is proclaimed the highest value, where globalized Euro Union yells about human rights and oil, where mass media and information becomes weapons of the most deadly sort, those world wide systems such as internet are absolutley not fit for any kind of moral control. Modern humans don't belive in moral. They belive in pleasure. And they won't be controlled. It's impossible. Free Speech is a subtly created myth. Censorship is no solution. We have no choice but to try be as human as we might in this sick, selfish times.

[ July 14, 2006: Message edited by: Desperate Elf ]