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Marc2b -> RE: “You should get one of your friends to screw your daughter straight” (5/3/2012 6:41:43 AM)
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I was too busy yesterday to really pay attention to this thread but now that I'm back (I think) there are two issues here I want to comment on.
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The group in this case is the people of the United States, who want to be able freely to choose who they want to listen to on the radio, on television, or on the Internet.
I need a little clarity here. It sound like you're saying that people have a right to choose from all possible choices rather than all available choices brought forth from the market. As I see it, no one is under obligation to make choices available to us... merely to offer choices if they so decide.
quote:
Yes, you have every right to purchase from whomever you wish, or not, and to use your power as a consumer to influence decisions by bringing financial pressure to bear on those who make them. My quibble is not with your methods, it is with your ends. The next time something like this happens, when it's some Christian Decency movement mounting a boycott to get a show taken off the air, I'll expect you to cry "Bravo" and explain that they're not trying to "impose" anything on anybody.
Again, I understand where you're coming from but I think you are failing to make an important distinction... the difference between respecting another's rights and agreeing with their positions. I fully respect the rights of a Christian fundamentalist to make known his displeasure at some new television show that "promotes immorality," as he sees it. I fully respect his right to boycott the show's advertisers and call upon others to do the same. That does not mean I agree with his position and will respect it. I can counter him by exercising my own rights if I so choose. In the end it will all come down to who wields the greater influence. I may not like the outcome (ie, the show is taken off the air) but I will (begrudgingly) accept it as the market at work. So I see no incongruity between supporting a boycott to remove a obnoxious DJ from the air while opposing a boycott to remove the "immoral" television show.
It should be noted that this does not apply to matters of constitutional law. While I respect the rights of others to promote or discourage this or that from being on the air via their own rights, I draw the line when it comes to the use of governmental authority to impose a particular religion or ideology upon us. If that same Christian fundamentalist is trying to get a law passed to teach "intelligent design" in the science classes of public schools then my attitude is "HELL NO!" I will enthusiastically cheer for the courts to come in and bitch slap (figuratively speaking) the tyrannical fuckheads... just like I cheered the outcome of Kitzmiller v Dover.
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