OT: Stupid Nazis

[AMF]

Renegade 13 said:
TerranC, you are blaming a whole segment of society for the sins of the few. Take homosexuality for example. You said "Homosexuals have never lynched...Heterosexuals for simply...talking with a gay man" Probably true, and there have been a few unfortunate isolated instances where "gay bashing" has occured. However, the way you phrased your reply lumped all heterosexuals in with those who took the route of violence.

Generally, the incidence rate of a crime has little to do with how reprehensible we find it. Just becuase something is isolated, does not make it any less wrong.

Lynching, in the traditional sense of the term, was also "isolated" in its' ocurrence. Despite that it happened only in "isolated" instances does not mitigate it's vileness.

The vileness of such a crime comes from the fact that it is an assualt upon the very definition of a person. A person who is black, or purple, or whatever, cannot change that fact - and an assualt upon them based on that very fact is generally understood to be more than just a "regular" assualt. I beleive this is part of the definition of hate crime: if I go out and murder someone, I have committed murder. But if I go out and murder the same person becuase they are white, then I have committed a hate crime - at least some would say.

Generally, I think in discussions like this I always come back to the idea that if one doesn't like homosexuality, don;t be homosexual. If one doesn't like Nazism, don't be a nazi. If one doesn't like relations before marriage, don't do it before marriage. If one doesn't like abortions, don't have one.

Frankly, just as I would fight to the death for the right of someone to burn a US flag or march in a Nazi march, I would find those acts just as reprehensible. But the Free Speech amendment is there for a reason. Possibly the most important reason in human history.

Alarik