Dear Altrav,

Could you answer just this:

Most would agree that one's right not to be punched on the chin trumps your right to punch.

Why should your freedom to speak your mind trump my freedom to avoid having my brain being scratched by yours?

Yuyutsu, I am sorry but your last couple of paragraph don't quite work like that.
People, that includes you, MUST be allowed to speak freely.
I cannot, in all conscience, condone anything less.
If you have a problem with someone or something, you have to face that problem head on, if not you will not be true to yourself or those around you.
Sure diplomacy is always there to help you, if you feel the need, but ultimately do not shy away because either you are afraid of the outcome or you think they might get upset.
Usually in such situations someone or both are going to get upset. Does that mean that the issue does not get resolved and the guilty party is allowed to get away with it?
Well according to FoS and PC, yes they will.
If you think your going to attempt to convince someone that they are at fault when they clearly dis-agree, without it becoming heated, you are sadly mistaken.
In life we are faced with all manner of emotional situations and these sometimes manifest themselves into verbal tirades, because reason did not work.
For example, I live next to a school.
It is clearly signaged that you cannot park there.
This includes across my driveways.
Yet they still do.
Every so often I arrive home to find these morons parked illegally, as usual, I indicate I want to access my own property, they choose to ignore me.
Now two things are wrong here, blocking my access to my property and breaking the law.
Now A; do I sit out side my house and wait till they have picked up their precious little turds or B; am I forced to get out of my car and get told to f@(k off.
So I remind them as loudly as I can that they are not supposed to be there and tell them all to F off.
You know what?
It makes no difference.
So according to the tree huggers I have broken the law.
I have spoken freely, and used profanities in public

uyutsu, sorry you posted whilst I was writing my previous post.
So let me see.
OK well apart from the obvious faux pas, a punch is a physical act.
My freedom to speak is an intangible and therefore apart from the noise emanating from my mouth, your posture suggests you are a very sensitive person or just plain petty.
To use your example of the punch if I may.
I maintain my right to punch someone in the face because that is what 'I' reasoned was the appropriate course of action.
This cannot and must not be challenged for it is only I and the other person who it involves and so no one else is privy to the details nor what led to the need to punch him in the face in the first place.
Now he, on the other hand, is not completely powerless to this physical attack.
He has several choices.
He can avoid or deflect the punch then either proceed to punch back, or make use of the deflection and run.
You see he has choices.
And so it is with FoS.
If what someone is saying 'scratches'? your mind then you must be so weak or feeble that you feel the need to shy away from a simple social act such as someone speaking, in any tone.
They are just words.
Are you not capable of saying to the other person, 'sorry mate, I think your talking crap'.
If he is genuine he will enquire as to why you think so and you can elaborate.
If not you can turn and move on.
In doing so you have satisfied all your criteria without embarrassment.

Yuyutsu - interestingly appears to be channeling a character archetype of the Vedas - a fighter with moral virtue.

Diogenes - "Socrates ... knew nothing except that he knew that very fact"

Isaac Newton in 1675: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

Yuyutsu,

If I was just a little more half-witted than I am already, I would be very confused by your last post - are you suggesting that people shouldn't have freedom of expression because you don't want your letterbox cluttered ? That letter-boxing should be a criminal act on those grounds ? That printing a leaflet or brochure should therefore also be a crime ? To plan to do so as well ? To talk about doing so ?

To think about doing so ? George Orwell, where are you when we need you ?

Joe

//George Orwell, where are you when we need you ?//

The churchyard of the Church of All Saints, Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire. I suggest that he is best left there.

And frankly, I'm not too sure that he'd be all that exercised about Yuyutsu's 'no junk mail' stance. A man's letterbox is his castle, and nobody likes junk mail except for people with wood-burning heaters or fireplaces. Oh, and presumably the people who print the damn rubbish, apparently labouring under the misapprehension that anybody uses if for anything other than kindling.