[WikiEN-l] Are there really articles on Wikipedia that need fixing, or just gossip that needs hashed?

[John Lee]

On 8/7/07, Ken Arromdee <arromdee at rahul.net> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 5 Aug 2007, Anthony wrote:
> > > > > Erm, hi, banned user here.
> > > > If I'm not misremembering, you are not banned.  It's simply that you
> > > > have made the personal choice to only be able to edit through TOR,
> and
> > > > TOR exit nodes are by policy to be blocked on sight.  You are at any
> > > > time free to edit without using TOR.
> > >
> > > Yeah, and gay people aren't banned from marrying, either.  They can
> marry
> > > th opposite sex just like straight people can.  It's their choice to
> only
> > > pick marriages that are not allowed; there are plenty of other
> marriages
> > > which are allowed to them.
> > >
> > True, but how is that relevant?
>
> Because it's an *analogy*.
>
> We recognize that the argument about gays is completely bogus.  We know
> very
> well that "sure, you can marry, you just can't marry anyone you'd want to
> marry" is equivalent to "you can't marry at all".
>
> Likewise, saying "you aren't banned, you're just banned from the only
> method
> you want to use" is equivalent to "you are banned".


I want a new camera, but I don't have money for it and don't actually want
to pay for it anyway. I could just take it, but I'm banned from doing so by
the law. This is unjust repression by my government - I have the right to a
camera! The present law is tantamount to "you can have a camera, but you
can't have it through the only method you want to use".

I'm not saying that the argument doesn't have merits, but the fact is, as
Edmund Burke said, we must restrict freedom in order to have it. (Actually
that's a completely irrelevant quotation, but if we're going to have funny
analogies, we might as well go one step further.) I guess I mean, we
recognise that some arguments are bogus and some are not - but it all
depends on the precise situation. The way your analogies present the
situation focuses on a number of variables but ignore others.

Johnleemk