# This Net is Your Net/This Net is My Net... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 22, 2000, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245 "2000-11-22T04:43:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245/21 "2000-11-26T15:55:52Z")
Tom, there was a bit of overreaction in my post and you are correct in your major points. Children should not be exposed to pornography. The adults must make decisions for them. And the adults decide on cut off points, like age. But I think that we have probably stop at child pornograhy and do not delve into political and peripolitical issues. Believe me, Nazi artefacts are as disgusting to me as to you. Yet I think that banning Yahoo auction displays will only whey 'teens appetites as does anything forbidden. Scandinavian countris in Europe are most free and arguably most stable. The USSR did not collapse _because_ of nascent Internet, but the Soviets were powerless (with all their experience and apparatus; they had no trouble jamming Western radiostations for years) in face of proliferating PCs, printers, networks, etc. Finally, I could understand banning Nazi organizations, propaganda, etc. But Nazi memorabilia have only historic and sentimental value for some nuts. Perhaps, allowing them to deal in symbolic, not ideologic issues will keep them in collecting old junk, instead of becoming a political force. ---
**Author:** ![Tennessee\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f0a364/32.png) [@Tennessee\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tennessee_Ben)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245/22 "2000-11-27T00:11:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TomH \* > > France is just as **stable** , free and democratic as the USA. > > (bolding mine) Surely you don’t mean this? The current incarnation of French governmental stability, the Fourth Republic, was instituted in 1944. Fer cryin’ out loud, the US has individual politicians (Strom Thurmond, who ran for president in 1948) who have been around almost as long as the Fourth Republic. ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2000, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245/23 "2000-11-27T11:35:02Z")
They’re actually on the Fifth Republic now, Ben, and have been since 1958. You are quite right, though, France has not been as politically stable in the long-run as the USA and the Fourth Republic was all but a joke (IIRC, the term “power vacuum” (_carence de pouvoir_) was coined to describe it). My point was that the French citizen knows when he wakes up tomorrow morning that the Government and the machinery of government will still be in place, and there won’t be rioting in the strets, looting, anarchy and the total collapse of civilized society (though everybody might be on strike). Even the political crises of the Fourth Republic never led to anything like a civil war, for example. The USA on the other hand has managed to have a civil war over its present Constitution and to amend it pretty heavily over the years, so what constitutes “stability” in this context is moot. ---
**Author:** ![Tennessee\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f0a364/32.png) [@Tennessee\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tennessee_Ben)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245/24 "2000-11-28T03:44:54Z")
Oops. French history is obviously not my thing. A pretty strong argument still exists, however, that the source of almost all political instability is the perceived denial of some freedoms to the people. Will this have the cheese-eatin’ surrender monkeys rioting in the streets? Probably not. And like you, I think that the slippery slope argument may be a bit premature. Do I agree with the French givernement’s decision? _Merde non._ {The French language ain’t my thing either.) ---
**Author:** ![peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peace)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245/25 "2000-11-28T17:17:55Z")
T.Ben, why do you think that the argument is premature? We agreed that most people would rather have more freedoms. Screw tightening causes resentment and, ultimately, rebellion. I think, in this “little” case, more harm than good is done to the French society as a whole: this judge showed that free info access can be curbed at will. And what’s the alledged justification? To prevent a tiny group of nuts to buy symbolic items conveniently. They will go to old-fashioned markets to buy them and will use the Net for Nazi propaganda. I already mentioned that more experienced and better equipped Soviets gave up many years ago. Legislating the Net is unenforcible and only breeds cynicism and contempt of the law. As far as “slippery slope”: first, Nazi ideology is forbidden, then Communist, then Socialist, then Liberal… How one know where to stop? Nazi ideology is extremely unpopular in this country (although unrestricted), because no socioeconomic conditions exist, not because it’s forbidden. Forbidding anything only raises interest… ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2000, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245/26 "2000-11-28T18:00:01Z")
> [@](#): > > As far as “slippery slope”: first, Nazi ideology is forbidden, then Communist, then Socialist, then Liberal… How one know where to stop? As far as much of Europe goes, it has stopped at Nazi ideology and gone no further. Anyway, as I said previously, the prohibitions mostly relate to the trappings of the Third Reich _per se_ rather than to Nazi ideology: you can be a neo-Nazi, but you can’t display a swastika (though you can display a new symbol that’s pretty similar); you can give a raised-arm salute, provided that you spread your fingers. It’s not that the “slippery slope” argument is “premature”, it’s inherently weak. Repressive regimes tend to ban opposition wholesale; they don’t tend to begin by banning one particular and narrow type of expression (and we’re back to child pornography now) and wait fifty years before banning anything else. Can you think of an example of a democratic country in Europe which, after banning the sale and display of Nazi memorabilia, has gon on to ban other forms of expression as a result? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-net-is-your-net-this-net-is-my-net/42245.md?page=1)