if you truly believe in free speech, then i guess you should believe any artist/political group etc etc should be able to say anything they want, no matter how objectionable.
trouble is, most of us aren't actually comfortable with that. whether it's the BNP spouting their shite or abu hamza (sorry about spelling) spouting his (for example). and thus, you get into the whole censorship debate. same applies to music.
you could argue, well, free speech stops where the laws regarding advocating violence to ethnic minorities/gay people etc, etc start. but then, again, where do you draw the line on that. particularly with music.
i mean, if you're going to ban something by two live crew (i think it was them!) who trotted out some particularly nasty sexist lyrics in the 90's, then shouldn't we also ban 'smack my bitch up' by the prodigy. and if we're going to ban that, should we ban neil young's 'down by the river' because he talks about shooting his woman dead? where do we stop and start?
jesus, if we were going to ban every record that either advocated or reflected violence against women, for example, there'd be a hell of a lot records that need banning (a lot of my fella's blues collection for a start!!!)
so yes, it bloody well is a toughy, and i've still not figured out what the hell think about it all!!Statistics: Posted by pol pot noodle — Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:15 am
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