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Re: [rain1 at airmail dot cc] Delete abortion joke
On May 2, 2018, "Carlos O'Donell" <carlos@redhat.com> wrote:
> On 05/02/2018 08:27 PM, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> On May 2, 2018, Zack Weinberg <zackw@panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I do not think that this subject should be
>>> discussed at all within the GNU C Library Manual,
>>
>> Please stop pretending the subject of the snippet is abortion. The
>> topic is censorship, and the irony of a group censoring a denouncement
>> of censorship would be delicious if it weren't so tragic.
> If the topic is not about abortion
The topic of the censorship bill is abortion. That's what makes the
place suitable to criticize it.
> then please move the censorship discussion to the introduction of the
> manual and discuss censorship.
Moving it elsewhere, where it's less effective, and removing the humor,
that's one of the most effective ways to convey criticism and bypass
learned rejections to such criticism, is just a softer form of
censorship. To me it comes across as "ok, you want to speak, go ahead
and do so, but speak from this corner where pretty much nobody can see
you, without a microphone, and don't make any effective criticism."
RMS might still be able to come up with a clever way to jump through all
these hoops, but that doesn't make the proposed constraints cease to be
disguised attempts to hide or weaken the intended criticism.
If the censorship law was about methods of terminating insects,
terminate() in a C++ manual would be the best place to denounce it.
If it censored information about emergency exits, _exit() would be it.
The law in question censors information about abortion, so abort() is
the only reasonable place to put it.
A vague statement against censorship in general is nowhere as effective,
and I don't assume you or anyone else here to be naîve enough to think
it is.
--
Alexandre Oliva, freedom fighter http://FSFLA.org/~lxoliva/
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Gandhi
Be Free! -- http://FSFLA.org/ FSF Latin America board member
Free Software Evangelist|Red Hat Brasil GNU Toolchain Engineer