Firstly, Naomi and I just had a massive argument over the issue, her espousing that politicians would be perfect if they kept the protection of children as their universally top priority and me espousing that they already think that they do and have done a pretty effective job of fucking things up under the banner of "think of the children".
In the end we were arguing for the same things but my experience with the political process has taught me that there's no room for absolutes. Tell two people to make sure nobody hurts a child and one will wrap it in cotton wool while the other tries to teach it boxing. Unfortunately the last child that someone tried to 'protect' has had such a hard time with reality that turned into a paedophile and is taking pictures of the whole process for later use.
A good point that Naomi makes, however, is that medical and psychological professionals are generally in consensus about what is healthy and unhealthy for children. We should listen to them more than parents. However, she does go on to say, they should be asked the desired end state, not consulted on the method by which it is achieved. Effectiveness on a macro scale is not in their training.
Who should be asked? (I reckoned the illegitimate love child of John Keynes and Alfred Kinsey). Someone with a better grasp of causality and economics than 99% of today's political representatives. For fuck's sake don't ask Conroy, he's borked his chance already.
God I wish Firefox would learn that a pedophile is a lover of feet. A Paedophile is a lover of children and is a perfectly valid word.
I'm reading articles about parents and their positive reactions to the idea of a filter. Leaving aside the fact that the idea to which they subscribe is a fantasy, it's interesting to see just how little of a qualification parenthood is in the opinion stakes. In fact, I would go so far as to say that having children seriously impairs your ability to comment on public policy. Parents can't escape the focus and reality distortion that having a child forces on them. That they vote is enough, I'm not sure we should ask them anything more in depth than that.
Naomi's reading 'Ask Bossy' and her last comment was about how stupid and psychologically damaging comments made by people with children can be.
I'd like to remind parents that it's current parenting techniques that are causing the vicious rise in child porn and paedophilia. Your credibility is evaporating quickly. The 'ped under the bed' that you're so scared of is your brother, you had the same parents, maybe we should censor your comments too.
I'm sick of people taking the moral high ground. I'm in here fighting the good fight against a filter that will not reduce the threat of child abuse but will put serious strain on globally valid liberties of adults in this country and I run a net filter on my own computer.
What possible reason could I have for wanting a virgin feed? I'm filtering it anyway.
It's because it's fucking wrong. If those parents that want to sheepishly follow every scare monger in parliament then they can install their own filters that they can then tweak for maximum effectiveness. Don't be so lazy about your parenting, your laziness makes your children easy targets for the first arsehole to crack through the paper thin filter that Conroy will put up.
It's a slippery slope, so here's a question. Why would any decent human being support a filter that could be used for political oppression?
There's just so many ways that this filter could be abused. I'm sure that everyone's got at least one religion that they don't want to have forced on them. It's the same thing here with the filter, every interest group will be obliged to petition that their own blacklist be added. The slippery slope will come back to bite everyone involved. Who are you to say that your values can be legislated but another person's can't?
There is a dangerous trend towards a conservative renaissance. Keep in mind people, you're only well educated because of liberalist ideals, conservativism is about distrusting the populace's ability to make their own decisions. I don't know how there can be so many well paid people in this society when they don't even understand the ideologies that got them there in the first place.
Wake up to yourselves people. Grow up Conroy, learn to admit you're wrong. Consultative my arse.
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