"Although I disagree with Nisbet, I won't try to shut him up. On the other hand, if he ever tells me to shut up he'll get the same sort of terse and hostile response that he got from PZ Myers recently.
"Now, if someone tried to use the coercive power of the state to prevent Nisbet saying 'Shut up,' to Myers, I'd defend him (i.e., I'd defend Nisbet). In that sense, but only in that rather weak sense, he has the right to say it. I'm all for freedom of speech. But he doesn't have the right to say it without getting a rude reply.
"Once it's said, Myers has the same right to reply, as he did, 'Fuck you very much.' Beyond that, I think that it's actually quite an appropriate response to 'Shut up.' When you are told to shut up, the conversation has moved to a meta-level where you need not follow it: no one need feel that they have to justify their actions in arguing for their views, as opposed to giving their arguments for the views themselves."
-- Russell Blackford, 2008-04-05
[Posted from my cell phone via SMS]
Got a bat! Blurry but recognizeable.
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