The Journal - a proposed syslog replacement [LWN.net]

The Journal - a proposed syslog replacement

Posted Nov 20, 2011 19:05 UTC (Sun) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946)
In reply to: The Journal - a proposed syslog replacement by Tet
Parent article: The Journal - a proposed syslog replacement

Problem is that, it often provokes *other people* into acting in a bad way when you even joke about such matters. It is at best, in very poor taste and at worse, a disaster and yes, it should be considered a threat and taken seriously. There hasn't even been a proper apology yet.

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The Journal - a proposed syslog replacement

Posted Nov 20, 2011 23:08 UTC (Sun) by Julie (✭ supporter ✭, #66693) [Link]

--it often provokes *other people* into acting in a bad way when you even joke about such matters

OK, so bferrell's comment made me angry because it was extremely childish and contemptuous towards Lennart, but yours just makes me mad.

Are you seriously suggesting that, if you ask me to kill Lennart and I go and do it I can then absolve myself of all responsibility by pointing a finger at you and saying 'he made me do it'??

Don't be ridiculous. It's this misanthropic thinking - that people are mindless vessels floating around just waiting to be filled with evil ideas from outside so we can go out and commit crimes - that calls down all sorts of censorious restrictions on people's heads in the name of 'protecting us all from ourselves'.

Let me make it perfectly clear.

If you see a death threat on someone's post and go and kill someone (whether you think they are serious or not) it is your fault.
If you see a scantily-clad woman walking past and you go and rape her it is your fault.
If you overhear a pensioner talking to a friend about how she has a lot of money in her purse and you go and rob her it is your fault.
If you have a colleague at work that makes racist comments and you go out and beat up an ethnic minority person it is your fault.

Adults are not children. In a democracy the full force of the responsibility for their own actions falls on their own shoulders. The only defense a grown adult can have to this is if they are mentally ill or insane.

(And yes, I know about 'incitement to commit...' laws, we have them in the UK. These also make me angry - they are anti-democratic because the ideas behind them strike right at the heart of the idea of personal accountability and responsibility. Of course the 'inciter's' behaviour is nasty and vicious - but this is an orthogonal issue to the behaviour of someone they 'influence', who is still totally accountable for their own conduct.)