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Fri 4 Apr, 2008 10:16 am
I just heard a news report which featured the remarks of a man in the Commons in Ottawa, who was condemning another Member of Parliament for a remark he made publicly. I won't say what that remark was, because that's not my point in this thread. The MP who was criticizing the remark said: " . . . this is not the sort of thing which should be said in public, and it should not be said in private."
Now, i agreed that the remark referred to was inappropriate, and should not have been made by the MP, largely because he is an MP. But i'm not so certain that any individual who does not occupy a position of public trust should be restricted in public speech, so long as that person is prepared to deal with the consequences.
I am certain that i cannot agree that what one says in private is anyone else's business.
Whaddaya think, goys and birls?
Setanta wrote:You misspelled fuk.
eat **** and die you epitome of evil!!! (while you're out please take the time to bomb some Palestinian children).
ha! Dys never tells me to 'shut the fuc up".
set wrote :
Quote:I am certain that i cannot agree that what one says in private is anyone else's business.
i was told at an early age that to tell a story "in private" would spread it faster than the "telegraph" (not sure everyone knows what a telegraph was )
My grandfather was a telegrapher--when i tell people that, and pronounce the word correctly, i get a blank look.
Whether or not someone spreads gossip is hardly the point, though. I don't consider that the public have any right to attempt to control private speech.
agreed, i mean they can't arrest you for just thinking you want to kill somebody
can they?
please answer quickly, i may need to adjust my way of thinking
The OPP is on the way, Boss, but they're coming from Windsor, so you probably still have time to get away.
I mean, what was that clown thinking saying there are things that should not be said in private? Did he really think that was a wise position to expound?
mmm, I'm going to say I agree that there are things that I don't want other people saying or thinking in private or public.
Things I, and all other right-thinking people, don't approve of.
I know that other people think and say things I think are stupid in public and in private.
Their right to be stupid is well-matched by my right to comment on the stupidity/inappropriateness/undesireability.
Sure you, and anyone else, has the right to comment. Do you think you have any right to interfere? Do you think you would be justified to publicly denounce someone for private speech?
Interfere? how would I do that?
Denounce him - you betcha.
once you whisper "sweet nothings" into someone's ear it's no longer private but public
listed under LEGENDS OF AMERICA !
Taking a hard line, I would only know of private communication by a breach of ethics, unless the private speakers agreed to go public with text or whatever, whatever being a big glob I don't want to think about just yet. Freedom to private speech and the broachment thereof are big matters to me.
Gossip happens, reports of private speech happen, but at base, private speech is private, however lovely or derogatory or emotionally revealing or multiply vile. (Though if threats to others occur in it, I'd have to adjust my baseball hat... but threats would be taking it into public action.)
I wonder what people's attitudes would have been in the 1950s. Many people suffered badly in their careers because they would not rat out their friends to HUAC or "Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy. So, is it somehow virtuous to make public what people say in private? Were those who took the bullet for their friends in the 50s witch hunts, were they fools? traitors?
Sure, I agree 'he said, she said' happens every multimillisecond. Still, I was raised with a sense of privacy and its broaching that I can easily agree might not be shared in other than lace curtain irish inherent communities. I bet privacy is pretty well cultural. Still, I'll hang in with that the public hasn't right to private conversation, except in the aforementioned pov.
i think that we usually think that what is said in private will stay private , but ...
i have to admit that as i've become older
, i've become a little more guarded in my speech .
what may have passed as a joke or just a dumb remark some years ago may land you on the frontpage of the newspaper nowadays .
I'm sorta familiar with that atmosphere.
edit, said in response to setanta.
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