Clayton Ofbricks:
I usually like to keep things really lighthearted when it comes to talking about video games. It’s my hobby, not my job. I don’t want to feel stressed or depressed or any other “essed” when a joystick is in my hand (I still haven’t gotten one of those fancy “control pads”) Today, however, is gonna be really freaking heavy. So let me get this out of the way: If you are offended by political advocacy, sexual harassment, crude language, violent language, other people’s opinions, or ducks, I suggest you not read this. Some of the content is down right vulgar, but it’s necessary to demonstrate both sides of what is almost undoubtedly the next forum for the debate on free speech.
That said, let’s talk about Microsoft’s promise to work “towards improvements” in restricting online harassment.
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The concept of free speech is recognised in many countries but only in the USA has it been perverted to extend to protection of the hateful.
It allows your media to blatently lie to you. Corporations are regarded as people so also protected by free speech...they use that as an excuse to lie to the public. In every other civilised country Fox News would be illegal. That kind of propaganda is only seen in North Korea and some countries in the Middle East. It's disgusting.
Personally I'm happy I live in a country where people don't have the right to be c*nts to each other. Where acting like a rascist homophobe will cost you your job/get you arrested.
No-one should have the right to be that abhorrent to another human being. I think both Microsoft and Sony should be FAR harsher with their punishments.
Nearly every other civilised country has laws against hate speech. People who shout on buses that black people should go back to where they come from get arrested here.
That doesn't stop it from happening of course...but there are legal ramifications for doing it here. Not in America.
So yeah...
From Sea To Shining Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
Grap here just proved your point invalid.
You actually believe being censored.
"It allows your media to blatently lie to you."
No it does not! It allows you to state an opinion, which by itself cannot be a lie. It is an opinion not a fact!
If you state something that isn't an opinion, it must be truthful or you are no longer protected by free speech.
You are wholly confused about free speech and I suggest you do more research.
"The concept of free speech is recognised in many countries but only in the USA has it been perverted to extend to protection of the hateful."
We all hate something, and it is a right to be hateful. It doesn't mean the public will accept it. The US is founded on the right to be free from persecution, not the right to persecute!
By censoring and punishing racist people, you are actually persecuting a group of people (albeit in my opinion ignorant people).
"Where acting like a rascist homophobe will cost you your job/get you arrested."
In large parts of the US, it is indeed like that. If I said something racist on my job, I would probably be fired.
In fact, I find far more racism in most other countries I visit due to the practically homogenous population.
The solution to racism isn't censoring, but rather to experience diversity and learn. To do that, you will first have to have the ability to discuss, not use the law to punish people for ignorance and prevent open dialogue.
It wouldn't surprise me if California is more diverse than any other country in the world and I'm talking about quantity of people, not just representation.
It's not like we are in China here! I believe in the freedom to do as I please, as long as it doesn't affect others!
"No-one should have the right to be that abhorrent to another human being."
I don't think anyone disagrees with that.
'No it does not! It allows you to state an opinion, which by itself cannot be a lie. It is an opinion not a fact.'
News is a collection of facts. You said yourself it is opinion, not based on fact. So Fox news should be called Fox Opinions. The fact they call it news makes what they say a lie.
Censoring hate speech is not persecuting racist people. I read that aloud to a room full of people who burst out laughing.
So you say you might lose your job...but you won't get prosecuted will you? But you should be.
"News is a collection of facts. You said yourself it is opinion, not based on fact. So Fox news should be called Fox Opinions. The fact they call it news makes what they say a lie."
That is besides the point. Freedom of speech is the right to express opinions, even if they are against what the general public believes.
Back in the 1800s it was believed by many that slavery is a right and was the general public view. Two hundred years later, and we changed our opinion that slavery should be abolished.
Many Christians believe being gay is a sin, yet many don't. Who is right? When it comes to an opinion, nobody has "more rights" than another. If you do, we might end up with situations like slavery!
If it isn't applied to everyone's opinion when it differs from yours, then you allow an entity to suppress speech.
"Censoring hate speech is not persecuting racist people."
No, but punishing them for being racist is! I never said, just censoring is persecution. You need to read the entire sentence and comprehend it.
Oh, and re-explain to the people in the room full of people that you misread my text. No apologies needed.
"Freedom of speech is the right to express opinions, even if they are against what the general public believes".
O RLY? O F*****G RLY?
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
freedom of speech my ass when a news anchor can insult someone so much and not apologise...
You have the freedom to not listen to Fox, but you simply shouldn't censor them because you disagree with them.
Once you walk down that path, how do you justify censoring one type of information over another?
Who should make that choice?
An example of this is *if* I disagree with Christians (Muslims, Buddhists or whatever), should we then censor Christians?
I like to have the OPTION to choose what I listen, view or read and make up my own mind!!!
I don't believe in having others choose for me what I am allowed to be exposed too.
The respect level deteriorates when we get into the anonymity of forums and services like XBOX Live. That adds even more to the problem. Services like XBOX Live are intended to be a community that shares the same interest of playing games with one another. Not a place to harass and berate people. If people cannot conduct themselves in a mature and thoughtful manner then don't play on Live, it really is that simple. It's not your right to act like an idiot and those that do should be dealt with accordingly. The problem is some people think it is their right to be idiots. Sorry but not when that service has it's own rules set in place. You either accept them or you don't and go somewhere else. This isn't like the old days where black people wouldn't be allowed to play. It doesn't accept people based on creed, race, religion and all of that. So it's up to the individual and their own conduct because their attitude actually does indeed affect others. They know this but the question is, do they care?
I couldnæt agree with you more. I believe a society we should have free speech, but what you do in your own privately created community is up to you. You have the freedom to choose who you want in your circle.
The problem is that the gaming community still consist of immature people, note immature and not age based. You can be considered an adult and be immature!
A lot of people I meet, in gaming and it doesn't just apply to Xbox Live, but PSN, Steam and other gaming communities is this need to incessantly use foul language, act unsportsly and in general just being annoying.
That is why I create my own circle of friends on Xbox Live, people that are team players and that I enjoyed playing with. The vast majority has a microphone and we have awesome time togheter. That is what I like about Xbox Live, but the randoms are just that randoms and every now and then you get the annoying dude that thinks he should never die and it is because you are getting some kind of unfair advantage.
If gaming was more tied to Facebook, I think a lot of the issues will dissappear. I rarely hear racism, or foul acting on Facebook. However, that might just be my *mature* in real life friends.
So your basically saying that its an opinion to say "black people should be slaves"... No thats (factually) wrong and stupid and btw public opinion didnt just go from one to the other about it since there was a war over that issue -_-
I guess i should stand outside the house of a black family and shout racist things at them and if i get arrested i should say "BRAH!!!! ITS MY OPINION". That is called discrimination and its downright wrong and your an idiot for thinking that it should be protected by freedom of speech.
This is currently happening with the LGBT community and its downright wrong! Your sickening if you think that sort of hate speech should be "protected" and its very similar to the clip i showed you and its not about whether you watch fox news; Its about whether that sort of despicable behaviour gets punished....
I'm sorry, but what? Last time I checked, words don't physically hurt you. It's only people who take insults too personally and do stupid things like kill themselves that are affected by words. Now because of those weak-minded people, we have to have laws that restrict what you can and cannot say on the internet? It's ludicrous. All these proposed anti cyber bully laws just spell out a clear message of government censorship and when you let the government try to define what is and is not "obscene" for you, nothing good ever comes out of that. It only leads to a stupidly PC world that we have erected over the years because we are afraid of offending anybody. If you are that offended about speech, just don't listen to it or block it if it's on the internet. It's as simple as that. There is always going to be speech that offends somebody. Hell, i'm offended on a near daily basis by what people say, but I will always defend their right to say it regardless of wheather I agree with it or not.
But it will never happen and no matter how hard a gaming network try, it will never get rid of it in significant numbers in my opinion.
The best and only possible solution is the victim just to log out then find a new room.
I mean I bet theres more people banned for being racist by calling a black person the "N" word...but theres less people banned for calling a white person "Whitey", "Whitesheet", "White Cracker" or some other form of racisim towards caucasian people. (btw those were examples off the top of my head).
It's not fair at the end of the day, especialy when people go on about equal rights.
The point of the comment was...
Black/Asian e.g bad words - offensive
White offensive bad words - "Ahhh they'll shrug it off"
Basicaly they can do it to you and call you over the colour of your skin but you do it to them (black/asian/anyone else) then your a "massive hateful racist arsehole who needs to rot in hell"....you get five years in prison they get a slap on the wrist.
EDIT
Below @SlapHappyJesus
Yes thats what I mean...Well Said
It might not be offensive to you personally but it's still an attack on the colour of your skin
You managed to type up what I was trying to word correctly.
Basically, it's offensive in its intent, even if its not offensive to me personally.
In actual fact studies have shown that Black people have the highest self esteem, Whites are in the middle and Asian have the lowest so logically blacks would be the most likely to shrug off a slur.
These anti White slurs are stupid, I'm White and they don't bother me since they always allude to alleged White superiority in some way, calling someone a "Cracker" or a "Hillbilly" just reinforces a stereotype of a White person being dominant in spite of having sub normal intelligence...some insult. Normal white people really don't like it when slurs are used against other races simply because it's unfair, in spite of all that's said by our enemies we're the race of fair play and equal rights. Even if you take an extreme White Supremacist point of view it should be beneath a "Superman" to make fun of lesser beings, in that light this whole debate about "Racism" is stupid, you can't be "Racist" towards someone, a "Racist" would simply exclude anyone he deemed inferior and stick with those he believed to be his equals.
Sony and Nintendo are the ones that don't offer these options. So they should be in these articles not Live. I guess you get what you pay for.
Plus, even if you report people..you never truly know if they've been contacted or not. I've submitted tons of people for foul language, threats, and hateful speech...but who knows if they actually got in trouble. My guess is they probably get an email saying "don't do that, that's bad."
Racist/sexual harassment/Hate are not "only in America" as some of you people like to think. Step outside your homes and look and listen to the world around you. You might find yourself surrounded by complete morons AKA your fellow countrymen.
Also, there is a mute function as well as a report function on both the PS3 and the 360 for a reason. USE IT!
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
Now tell us again why you keep roaming into articles that shouldn't interest you? Threatened? Why don't you talk about PSN and how that service also has problems since you have so much experience with it over and above XBOX Live? Oh that's right, PSN doesn't have party chat (but beleive me, it too has its fair share of issues with racism) so of course you're here to downplay the feature.
Thanks for your input once again.
If I ever get tired of someone who is being loud, I just permanently mute their Gamertag. Easy as pie, its one of the reasons I love Xbox Live.