Auiucdcs.173
net.news
utzoo!decvax!pur-ee!uiucdcs!jerry
Mon Dec 21 21:45:32 1981
More on Freedom of the Netwaves
In order to defend/clarify myself and my installation:
1) The department of computer science is in an already delicate situation
when it comes to its relationship with the university and the state.
We cannot afford to open ourselves to criticism of the sort that
could come out of having net.jokes.q on our system.
2) On the question of legislating morality, any government or community
though laws, funding decisions, or social contact enforces some level
of "morality". Communist as well as Capitalist countries, small
communities as well as large make and enforce decisions on their members.
Corporations act in the same manner. While it would be nice if all
our sacred cows did not get stepped on by some authority, most
people agree that some actions (e.g. genocide) should not be permitted.
3) A number of members of the department including myself think that
part or all of net.jokes.q is objectionable and should not even be
transmitted from the originating sites. On the other hand, a number
of members feel that net.jokes.q should be available as a matter of
principle.
4) My example of ethnic jokes as not totally objectionable was
supposed to point out that dead babies are always gross while
it is possible to make a nonobjectionable ethnic joke. At least,
my German half hasn't objected to all the German jokes that I have
heard.
5) I made the net.jokes.q decision for uiucdcs. I am not
a member of the moral majority or any such group. I sincerely
doubt that they would want a member who believes that possession
of nuclear weapons regardless of the possessor's intentions is immoral,
or someone who believes that the current governments of El Salvador
and S. Korea should be replaced.
Jerry Wall
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