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Anonymous Hacks Westboro Baptist Church
elashish14 writes "The Westboro Baptist Church stated earlier this week that they would be picketing the funerals of the victims of Newtown Connecticut's tragic shooting in an effort to bring awareness to their hate messages. In response, the Anonymous hacker collective has hacked their website and posted the personal information of all of its members."
Inappropriate in your eyes, you mean.
Of course, I suppose you could say the WBC are all mentally ill, blah blah. So was anyone who would advocate homosexuality not being a sin a few hundred years ago.
The difference, sir, is that I practice philosophy and am not so arrogant as to judge what someone says so quickly. And in this case, as with most all issues concerning freedom of speech, that the only reason you oppose it is based on personal feelings. An empathy to your fellow man.
A line has been crossed, sure. But a line drawn by whom? Of all the people in all the places there are seven billion different lines for innumerable things. Your line is clearly different from my line which is clearly different from the president's or a sorrowful parent of the of the recently deceased children. And this isn't fantasy (not that it would change my reasoning if it were).
There are places where hate speech is outlawed. A lot of places, actually. America is one of the few places where people can actually voice a dissenting opinion about virtually anything and not have a lawsuit over their head (or worse). Are you aware what is hate speech in Iran? Just go there and defame their holy prophet and see what becomes of you. Or perhaps go to North Korea and defame their great leader. The problem, sir, is that the person with the biggest stick gets to draw the line. And when someone doesn't agree with the the person with the big stick, well, they get whacked, usually resulting in deadness.
But nevermind this. These freedoms; of religion, of speech, are essential to our democracy. Without them, the minority is subject to the tyranny of the majority: a part turned against another part. Democracy cannot function if we are allowed at each others throats. So we enforce the true tolerance: allowing the speech and allowing the practice and wiping our hands clean of it. The law need not concern itself, so long as the rights of others have not been infringed upon.
Oh, and these rights. They don't extend to being offended. The law does not give a flying fuck if you're offended, or you don't want your children to see. Because that's the price of freedom. The real price, is that you have to accept the perceived good with the perceived bad. It's an all or nothing game.
And those fellows who don't agree, who would rather have their emotions run them amok and assault members of the WBC. They will be held accountable for their crimes, that crime being assault, possibly even hate crime (hows that for a stroke of irony).