[governance] Google's Fight the ITU/WCIT website

[Karl Auerbach]

On 11/22/2012 08:02 AM, Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro wrote:
> Dear Suresh,
> 
> Please refrain from using words like "Nazi" on this list. Dialogue on
> any of the Internet Governance issues and topics. This discussion has
> escalated off the relevant issues. Any more warnings and I will remove
> you from the list. Let this serve as a reminder to all to keep the
> discussions on Internet Governance issues.

Really?  What about words like "Taliban" or "Klu Klux Klan" that
describe groups with similar characteristics or goals?

During the late 1930's and early 1940's many of my family members and
people bearing my family name suddenly vanished in the areas that are
now Poland, Ukraine, and Germany.  The evidence suggests that they died
- were murdered - at the hands of the group that, by your rule, shall
not be named.

So I figure that I have a rather strong right to object to the word in
question.

Yet I refuse to object to that word when it is used to describe a regime
or mode of thinking.

I do, however, object to censorship.

Censorship comes in many colors.

One color is the kind of censorship in which those of delicate
sensibilities try to insert a gag into the mouths of those with more
robust vocabularies.

In my nearly two decades of wandering through the world of internet
governance I have seen this form of censorship taking root.

We Americans tend to use words as hard as canon balls - it is our
culture.  We are often rather proud of it.

There are other cultures on this planet that use softer tones and
greater indirection.

Neither form is superior to the other - these are simply differences.

Those of us from strong-word cultures do need to respect those who speak
more softly or deferentially.  I, as is the case with many Americans,
have not always carried my responsibility in that regard.  Hopefully, in
time we will learn.

However, the road runs both ways.  Those from cultures with softer modes
of expression ought not to use their values as reasons to suppress those
of us who chose more colored modes.

	--karl--



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