I had an interesting conversation at OSCON last week over a couple of beers. Since this conversation was alcohol-involved, I decline to name the person who said the following. I can only assume that he wasn't at his logical best.
"Freedom of speech is just libertarian bullshit. If people have the right to say anything they want, then you can't punish fraud."
I was nonplussed. How do you respond to a statement like that? Of course, you always realize the right thing to say hours or days later. The right thing to say is simply this:
"We trust people to vote for anyone they want; we trust anyone to run for office; we should trust them all to say anything they want."Anybody who disagrees with that is obviously not someone to be trusted with the vote.
posted at: 04:00 | path: /economics | permanent link to this entry