Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
An Israeli Arab member of the Knesset has put forth a proposal to ban the terms "honor killing" and "crime of passion" when referring to murders:
"The use the law enforcers and the press make of the sayings, which attach positive characteristics to murder, send encouraging and sympathetic messages about violence," [Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am Ta'al)] Tibi said.
"There is no honor in murder and there is no romance in murder," he said, adding that "the murder of women is a condemnable, vile, chauvinistic, and primitive act that should be decried, and we shouldn’t use positive sayings to describe it."
I agree in the deepest and most emotional way possible. I simply couldn't agree more. There is no honor in murder.
But I don't want a state so strong that it can tell me what words I'm allowed to use, so--no thanks.
How many seconds did it take you to get to "no thanks?" If you're still puzzling over it, you're not that committed.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
Reading this, I realize that I simply cannot imagine living in a country which does not afford me the protection of the First Amendment.
Oct '10
Re: Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
You have to be an absolutist when it comes to free speech. Screaming fire in a crowded theater is the only exception. Despite the idiocy of some on the right, Justice Douglas was right when he wrote and spoke of the marketplace of ideas and there should be very, very few limits and they should be limited to public safety in a crowd.
Edited on Nov 10, 2010 at 10:26pmJul '10
Re: Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
Francis Rushford: You have to be an absolutist when it comes to free speech. Screaming fire in a crowded theater is the only exception. Despite the idiocy of some on the right, Justice Douglas was right when he wrote and spoke of the marketplace of ideas and there should be very, very few limits and they should be limited to public safety in a crowd. · Nov 10 at 10:25pm
Edited on Nov 10 at 10:26 pm
I once screamed "crowded theater!" in a fire.
So shoot me.
Aug '10
Re: Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
The point of the phrase "honor killing" is to highlight the perverse sense of "honor" behind the act, under the assumption that the listener understands that the "killing" isn't justified. It's like the phrase "suicide bomber", which some have decried as some sort of euphemism and tried to replace with "homicide bomber", when the point is to distinguish between ordinary bombers, whom the listener is assumed to understand are trying to commit homicide, and the ones who are so insane that they are willing to commit suicide in the act.
Aug '10
Re: Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
The Free Speech connection here is important. Huge. And while I understand the desire to legally squelch the use of phrases like "honor killing" (just an awful use of words), I think this also connects strongly to another issue. And that is: Allowing a very small group of people (mostly media types) to establish the parameters of the language.
At the very first use of "honor killing" in the media (whenever that actually happened) - somebody shoulda stepped up to the plate and batted that baby down.
We gotta get serious about what words really mean. Otherwise, we could end up in a place where "fair" is only "fair" when the outcomes are the same. Or where a principled stand against specific policies means "racist." Or where "reasonable" means left, and "antagonistic blowhard" means right.
Uhoh...
Oct '10
Re: Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
Actually I don't believe that the phrase "honor killing" has any other connotation- anywhere- than the barbaric premeditated murder of a family member by a Muslim. Nobody is buying the "honor" part, except radical Muslims themselves, who were the ones who made it up.
It is a phrase that radical Muslims would love to see banned. Then young girls murdered by their fathers or brothers for refusing to walk around in black body bags in 104 degree heat will simply be victims of family violence, lumped together with all victims of family violence from all faiths and cultures.
It would be similar to the way the American press turned the Fort Hood massacre into the equivalent of a school shooting instead of the act of jihadist terrorism that it was.
Edited on Nov 11, 2010 at 7:31amOct '10
Re: Should These Words be Banned? A Quick Test of Your Commitment to Free Speech
There is absolutely no honor in the types of murders that are referred to as "honor killing". With that said, the state has no business regulating this type of speech. I am also opposed to laws that prohibit denying the holocaust. As offensive and disgusting as this type of language can be, it must be allowed in a free society.