Slashdot Mirror
Outrage In India Over Arrests For Facebook Posts
concealment sends in an AP report about an uproar in India over citizens arrested for their Facebook remarks. Quoting:
"As India's financial capital shut down for the weekend funeral of a powerful politician linked to waves of mob violence, a woman posted on Facebook that the closures in Mumbai were 'due to fear, not due to respect.' A friend of hers hit the 'like' button. For that, both women were arrested. Analysts and the media are slamming the Maharashtra state government for what they said was a flagrant misuse of the law and an attempt to curb freedom of expression. The arrests were seen as a move by police to prevent any outbreak of violence by supporters of Bal Thackeray, a powerful Hindu fundamentalist politician who died Saturday."
Slashdot is becoming a long list of arrests by the state for political speech on social media. The sad news is that there is so much to report. Keep bringing it to light /.
Lots of groups and countries are pushing for laws against the defamation of religion and blasphemy.
But when you lose the right to say "well, see, I don't believe in your god, and I see no evidence for it" -- then society has been taken over my the most vocal (and in some cases violent) people.
But, in some places, if I said "show me the evidence that Jesus was at least a historical person, let alone the son of god" ... or "Why should I believe that Mohammed was the prophet of god" ... there would be angry mobs ready to burn and stone me because I hurt their feelings. And in many countries, the police would be there to help them.
We will be seeing more attempts by people to enshrine in law respect for their imaginary friend.
The more restricted the speech, the more violence that comes of it. Censorship actually foments a culture of violence and hate. People will be offensive no matter what. I prefer they do it verbally. The physical alternative is much uglier.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
This /. news post came right after Google Warns Against UN Net Conference
(1) I'm outraged that people are being arrested for shit they say on Facebook.
(2) I'm outraged that the entire world seems so stupid as to think it's a good idea to tie real identities to everything they say online SO THAT people who want to use that speech against them are able to. (Never mind that the stupid shit you might have said at 17 will still be there nice and searchable when you are 52 and trying to become mayor).
Report: Every Potential 2040 President Already Unelectable Due To Facebook>
"the closures in Mumbai were 'due to jejune ennui, not due to piquant verisimilitude.' "
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
Religion. Religious practice. Religious law. Theocracy.
If you practice it, you are being told what to think and what to believe. And if religious power is also the power of government, you've ALWAYS got a real problem on your hands *even* in cases where you are a practicing member of the established ruling religion.
On top of that, religion seeks to be the presumed origin of morality and that without religion, there would be no morality. This is demonstrably false, but as with nearly everything else associated with religion, they have no problems with spreading lies about their faith.
People don't need religion. They need to respect each other and to defend each others rights because to defend the rights of others is to defend your own. Religion plays no role in this except to encourage people to judge one another which is not quite what I would consider to be respectful in most cases.
Careless it may have been, but it was a legal comment. Even according to Indian laws.
Here, get an education - you ignorant gringo tourist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shivaji
Shivaji Bhosle was a local freedom fighter from Maratha history, akin to Robin Hood. He fought to protect the rights of local Marathas, waging hit-and-run battles against the Moghul Empire and standing up for the local people against the tyranny of Moghul invaders from the north over his native Maharashtra.
Bal Thakre and his supporters are also Maharashtrians, and Thakre formed the Shiva Sena ("Army of Shivaji") to stand up for the rights of his local Maharashtrian ethnic group, who were being bullied and pushed around by all the carpetbaggers flooding into his local area from across the country.
You see, the ruling Congress One Party State has been in power for 53 out of 65 years in New Delhi, ruling the country like an Emperor, caring very little for development of the local people. The Congress Party were basically founded by North Indians and are centred around their ethnic group, and they look down upon non-northern ethnic groups including Maharashtrians, insisting that everyone else assimilate into North Indian culture. The Congress Party has only been interested in hanging onto power and never cared to really foster development around the country, so what few big cities India has have then turned into dumping grounds for people from all over, who then flood into these sole few overcrowded localities, like India's largest city of Mumbai. All this does is keep compressing the people who already live there.
I'm a North Indian myself, but I have enough decency to at least be self-aware of how shabbily my ethnic group treats others in India, since we are in fact the dominant ethnic group in the country. Of course, most of the Indian media are from my ethnic group, and my Hindi language is also the dominant language of the country, so nautrally we always get to tell the story from our viewpoint, while conveniently glossing over the views of others. Our narrative is therefore the dominant narrative, while others are quickly labeled "extremists", etc to delegitimize their viewpoint. That's the mutual admiration society and the fool's paradise we like to foster for ourselves.
The Shiv Sena is not a theological organization, but simply born out of a backlash against the massive influx of people from outside the region. We Northies just like to say they're fundamentalists -- it's much easier to dismiss your antagonist as a "fundamentalist redneck" than to actually try to take a closer at their grievances, because nobody likes to see their own warts by holding up a mirror to themselves.
We get ample help from ignorant people like yourself, who'd ignorantly and uncritically parrot anything sensationalist claims they read or hear, without having any actual familiarity with the local politics.
Here ya go, Prof Chomsky - here are some pictures of statues built in homage to Shivaji, India's own Robin Hood, who fought for the weak and the oppressed - a real actual person from history, and not a fictional multi-limbed mythological deity:
http://www.indialine.com/travel/maharashtra/shivajiheritage.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/subratomitra/6073279079/
http://500px.com/photo/5242560
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shivaji_Statue_Apollo_Bunder_Front_View.jpg
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/27769369
Shivaji's dog:
http://amitkulkarni.info/pics/raigad-fort/picture-gallery/Statue-of-Shivaji-pet-dog-Waghya.php
Yes, he even made it to California:
http://ekmarathimanoos.blogspot.ca/2011/11/american-shivaji.html
Just please don't go around telling people that Jesus Montero was a central figure in the Bible, rather than a baseball player.
Again - modded down comments are still visible if one chooses to read them. And that makes all the difference in the world. Mod points preserve choice. Censorship doesn't.
Does this hypothetical nirvana still have a 2nd amendment...?
Well, no different except that no one is sent anywhere and nothing is removed. In other words, extremely different.
That's a feature, not a bug. The whole point of a discussion forum is to discuss, not stroke anyone's ego with confirmations about how correct they are. If you want that, go visit liberal/conservative/evangelist/atheist/islamist/whatever forums. Or better yet, go visit a psychiatrist, have your insecurity issues fixed, and partake in actual debate - and yes, that means that someone might actually prove you wrong. And it hurts when it happens. But it's not actually dangerous, you'll be stronger after you've gotten over it, and there's no reason whatsoever why the Slashdot moderation system should insulate you from reality (which is the only way to keep it from happening).
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Indians
Asshole. Internet: See Techdirt.
People plus govt. plus Internet == clusterfuck, these days. Get used to it. This crap's going to go on for a long time.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
That's a feature, not a bug. The whole point of a discussion forum is to discuss, not stroke anyone's ego with confirmations about how correct they are.
Try to ignore the reference in this thread that is making you so emotional (Obama? evolution? global warming?) and read my comment again. This time maybe you will understand that I was not advocating having only consensual comments appearing in the forum, but rather the opposite.
The problem that I describe about the moderation system is that people have no way to express their dislike about a comment that is different from flagging a comment that is purely junk. If there was a way to say: "this comment is junk" (like rude homosexual african-american bashing) but "that comment is not junk but I disagree with it" (like someone challenging linux as desktop os) it would be possible to have actual discussions and people could choose the level of dissension from the majority they are comfortable with. Right now if there is a story about Windows 8 and I read it a few hours after it's been released, I can either choose to hide all the junk comments but also miss the threads where someone dared say that Metro is a better design than the Apple GUI (and got modded down by fanbois), or I can display everything and be exposed to spam and crap like those long weird sex stories. This is not granular enough.
lucm, indeed.
It is not easy to get a license. Which is a good thing imho.
More info here - http://mrunal.org/2012/07/polity-right-to-weapons.html
Bal Thackeray chose fascism/bigotry/politics as a career to make money for his family.
In 1970's I've seen him roaming without slippers in Bombay streets.
His contribution to development of India is zero.
Casteism
Ah, condescension. Is it there as an attempt to provoke, or purely to prop your self-esteem?
Bullshit. The whole point of your proposed system is, according to yourself:
In other words, make sure that comments that don't follow the party line get hidden, least they offend anyone's tender sensibilities.
Yes, there is. It's called "Reply to This". It leads to a form where you can type in the reason you agree or disagree, which other people can then judge in turn.
And do you think "fanboys" and paid astroturfers are going to distinguish between these?
But, more generally: yes, an unfiltered discussion is going to have lots of crap in it. That's the price of not having censorship.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Bullshit. The whole point of your proposed system is, according to yourself:
[...]
I've seen know-it-alls before, but it's the first time I meet someone who thinks he knows the meaning of a comment more than the person who made it (in this instance: me). You must be a hoot at dinner parties.
Since you bring again the concept of censorship in the discussion it is obvious you miss the whole point so I'll be the bigger man and concede that you are in your right to be wrong.
lucm, indeed.
When you can't use logic and evidence to defend your beliefs, violence is all you have left.
Well, you could just walk away shaking your head in disbelief. Really, what's it to anyone if that $DIPSHIT over there agrees with you? Why care about him/her? $DEITY will sort that out eventually. That's not your problem, is it?
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
....only exists where blood was shed to obtain it, and blood is shed to maintain it.
Most people are far too chickenshit for the pursuit of freedom, unfortunately.
Ben Franklin described them best with his famous quote about liberty.
To provide some sort of weak analogy take the 5 boroughs of New York and imagine that in Staten Island, Bronx and Queens no one has ever gone to a school.
Granting your "weak analogy" comment, I have to point out that I don't think Mohammad, Jesus and his Apostles, Moses, Buddha ... were college graduates. It very often appears these days that so-called "higher education" is an inhibitor more than it it is an enabler.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit