Re: Property Rights

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Mon, 24 May 1999 17:52:05 -0700 (PDT)

LC> I am prepared to take moral responsibility for laws LC> against violence and theft...

JD> So you oppose legislation against theft, rape, child molestation JD> and murder?...

Rational argument is easier if one has a reading comprehension level above 3rd grade. I suspect in your case, though, that you do in fact understand what I wrote, and are employing deliberate deception rather than honestly arguing the points raised. I will let the readers decide which style of argument is more credible.

LC> No matter how loudly I may "rave", it is still peaceful discourse LC> compared to the violence of law.

JD> But not compared to the massacres which are now routinely 
JD> perpetrated in our schools by those to whom we look to carry the 
JD> future.  How can you defend a system which allows our children to 
JD> fatally mass murder each other? ... [more emotional rant elided]

More dishonest argument. Our system certainly does not "allow" such activity, and you have provided no rational evidence that it even encourages it, or provided any alternative that might be better. Mindlessly reacting to the misuse of hardware by calling for laws restricting the hardware is irrational and groundless. Show me some real thought--show me a rational argument why a particular law will have any positive effect on the violence you see, or I will have no choice but to oppose it, because the law itself is /known/ violence, and to practice real violence to only speculatively reduce some possible future violence without any evidence is morally wrong.
(Here's a hint: "It's obvious that..." is not a rational argument).

I don't give a shit that your motives are pure (if indeed they are). Motives don't count, results do. If you can't show me that laws will have actual results of reducing violence, then spare me your tear-jerking rhetoric.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC