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1997-09-12 - Re: The problem of playing politics with our constitutional rights

Header Data

From: “J. Lasser” <jonl@post.goucher.edu>
To: David H Dennis <david@amazing.com>
Message Hash: 0962eecfdb14d14ccc06ee3f0c54cf86e6fdbcda8de60b26fa6c847e8cb97a15
Message ID: <19970912092721.39213@rwd.goucher.edu>
Reply To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970911214229.23060C-100000@well.com>
UTC Datetime: 1997-09-12 13:54:56 UTC
Raw Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 21:54:56 +0800

Raw message

From: "J. Lasser" <jonl@post.goucher.edu>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 21:54:56 +0800
To: David H Dennis <david@amazing.com>
Subject: Re: The problem of playing politics with our constitutional rights
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970911214229.23060C-100000@well.com>
Message-ID: <19970912092721.39213@rwd.goucher.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



In the wise words of David H Dennis:

> I must confess that I'm wondering what Seth Finkelstein, Pro-Government
> Warrior, able to jump over 50 Libertarians in a single bound, thinks of
> all this.  Crypto restrictions are natural to oppose in a Libertarian
> world, due to our fundemental distrust of government.  Where do they
> fit in a Liberal one?

I'm not Seth, but I'm also not a libertarian. (I'm also not a
'Liberal', in the sense in which you're using it, but hey...) and I
think I can answer this question:

Most 'Liberals' (virtually all of them) are _civil_ libertarians. This
means that they support few or no restrictions on the actions of
private individuals, unless (1) They are of a commercial nature or (2)
They involve fraud or hurting people.  Most instances of (1) which are
inappropriate also involve (2), as far as they're concerned.

What they don't believe is that a right to unlimited free speech
translates into a right to do anything so long as it's not damaging
directly to others. And a couple of other things :-)

But most liberals think individuals using crypto is just fine. All the
civil libertarians do, and most liberals are.

Jon
-- 
Jon Lasser (410)383-7962                      jonl@post.goucher.edu
http://www.goucher.edu/~jlasser/            PGP key = 1024/EC001E4D
      "Flap your ears, Dumbo!  The feather was only a trick!"

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