[Foundation-l] Reflections on the recent debates

[Mike Godwin]

On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 9:24 AM, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:

>
> Most of the egregiously bad deletions were quickly overturned, and Jimmy
> was
> the one re-deleting the images. Now that he has agreed to stop, most of the
> poor deletions have been re-reversed. I doubt Jimmy approves; there's
> absolutely nothing in his actions over the past few days to suggest that he
> does.
>

I think you do Jimmy a disservice if you think he did not anticipate
precisely this result.


>  > To the extent that Jimmy's intervention has triggered a healthy debate
> about
> > policy, I think the powers he used, and the decisions -- not individually
> > but taken as a whole -- that he made are justified.
>
> Huh. I never thought I'd see the day that Mike Godwin would be supporting
> an
> attack on free speech and free ideas through censorship.


You're misunderstanding what I wrote here. The words "not individually" were
chosen for a reason.

Let me put it this way -- sometimes a police officer has to use physical
force to stop further violence from having. If you inferred from this
statement that that I favor police intervention as a first resort, or that I
favor physical force, you would properly be criticized as misrepresenting my
views.

Similarly, I don't favor "attacks on free speech" -- but like Nat Hentoff
and other free-speech theorists, I recognize that free speech depends on
active intervention and rule-making sometimes.  I know you are trying to be
provocative, but what you write here suggests that you don't actually
understand much of the nuance of free-speech principles.


> I don't say
> "censorship," lightly: Jimmy deliberately deleted historical pieces of art
> and illustrations in his rampage. And you think this is a good thing?
>

No.

Mike, it looks like you've compromised your ideals in favor of toeing the
> party line, and for that, I'm pretty disappointed.
>

It is inconceivable to me that you have ever not been disappointed in me.
I'm familiar with your other writings, after all. It is your nature to be
disappointed.


--Mike