You've got no right to talk, stupid!!!

[Noire Nightraine]

Gaia is filled with threads asking opinion, from the occult to religon to foreign policy to home politics to sexuality to abortion to god (figuratively) knows what else. And chances are, if people catch on, a heated debate will ensue, with people from all sides joining the fray and adding their own opinions, facts, views, and stances upon the matter at hand.

But.

Gaia attracts all people from all walks of life, from the young to the old, straight to the gay, political savvy to the village idiot. The ones with real life experiences and those who hold their opinions on only what they've seen and heard and been taught.

So. When there's a discussion, who really has the right to say anything? The twelve-year-old in the abortion thread who's never had sex in their life? The straight person in the homosexual marriage thread? The closet rape victem in the is rape real threads?

Obviously, there's a lot of factors here, from age to sexuality to background to experience to other innumerable venues. What people do YOU think has the right to say anything, if anyone or anything, at all?

[Ryddel]

DAYUM, you're right as hell..-offers you the antidote-

[Halii]

Amen, amen. It doesn't propose much of an argument, and it usually goes without saying, but it's good to point it out nontheless.

[because_i_win]

Well... Everyone has the RIGHT to say something about anything.

but... on the other hand, people shouldn't talk about things they know nothing about. If they don't have some sort of personal experience with something, then they have no reason to talk, but they still have the RIGHT to.

[infiltrating_gaze]

Everybody has the right to their own opinion and the right to state it. Mabye different people will take it differently according to their own situation and still gain from it while others think it pointless. You never know how things will affect other people so every opinion should be counted. The person who doesn't like it can choose to try to correct the person with their own opinion or ignore it. xp

[The Gosm]

Everybody's got their own opinion. No matter if they really know what they're talkin' about. The exact same way as the real world.

[xolanni]

I think its very positive to have such a variety of people to answer these questions and give their opinion, 12-122, girl, boy, man, woman, gay, lesbian, transexual, transvestite, ....

We can all learn from each other.

[Aethernaut]

Noire Nightraine

Gaia is filled with threads asking opinion, from the occult to religon to foreign policy to home politics to sexuality to abortion to god (figuratively) knows what else. And chances are, if people catch on, a heated debate will ensue, with people from all sides joining the fray and adding their own opinions, facts, views, and stances upon the matter at hand.

But.

Gaia attracts all people from all walks of life, from the young to the old, straight to the gay, political savvy to the village idiot. The ones with real life experiences and those who hold their opinions on only what they've seen and heard and been taught.

So. When there's a discussion, who really has the right to say anything? The twelve-year-old in the abortion thread who's never had sex in their life? The straight person in the homosexual marriage thread? The closet rape victem in the is rape real threads?

Obviously, there's a lot of factors here, from age to sexuality to background to experience to other innumerable venues. What people do YOU think has the right to say anything, if anyone or anything, at all?

I hold that it's better to let more people speak up than to restrict people... you can never be sure if the Gaian who just posted is "the twelve-year-old who's never had sex in their life" or "the closet rape victim". It's better to accept all people's opinions, no matter how naive or foolish they might sound, than to make a mistake and discount the testimony of a potentially knowledgeable and well-intentioned poster.

[Ashley G Williams]

freedom of speech...uh freedom of typing, and the freedom of bad grammer

[DarkchyldeNOLA]

Exactly the reason I tend to stay the hell far away from abortion threads. I can't ever get pregnant, so I'll never have the opportunity to even consider it... so I just tend to stay away from something like that.

[Samuraikatagi]

see my journal entries. one of them is like this. except with more cursing sweatdrop

[know_need_four_names]

If only those from a certian age group, race, gender, ect... were to answer a question it wouldn't be much of a debate.

[derp de doo]

Noire Nightraine

Gaia is filled with threads asking opinion, from the occult to religon to foreign policy to home politics to sexuality to abortion to god (figuratively) knows what else. And chances are, if people catch on, a heated debate will ensue, with people from all sides joining the fray and adding their own opinions, facts, views, and stances upon the matter at hand.

But.

Gaia attracts all people from all walks of life, from the young to the old, straight to the gay, political savvy to the village idiot. The ones with real life experiences and those who hold their opinions on only what they've seen and heard and been taught.

So. When there's a discussion, who really has the right to say anything? The twelve-year-old in the abortion thread who's never had sex in their life? The straight person in the homosexual marriage thread? The closet rape victem in the is rape real threads?

Obviously, there's a lot of factors here, from age to sexuality to background to experience to other innumerable venues. What people do YOU think has the right to say anything, if anyone or anything, at all?

Well let's look through YOUR eyes. You're implying that nobody has the right to say anything at all and that people should always have background knowledge before opening their traps.

First Amendment. Says nothing about ignorant or stupid people not having the right to post. That's why we don't have a stupid test on Gaia to filter out noobs. That's why stupid people continue to upchuck their shitty observations, laugh at the valiant flamers, then leave.

Bottom line. They have the right. It's just that some of us wish they hadn't.

[Sonya Khatsworth]

Thing is, with such a wide spectrum of people, we get all sorts of opinions and of course, all sorts of reactions. What we'd need most of all is for some people to get off their high horses when it comes to answering back. Some people don't always know the full story of something or sometimes have a different religious/cultural history backing their points, which makes it increasingly important for people to learn to politely reply. I'm sick of seeing so many people come into threads as if they knew everything and were the masters of the worlds, then proceed to either insult, flame, b***h or oppress other people for their opinions.

I know the topic was moved, but in the "America is not a country, it's a continent!" thread, one girl pointed out what she learned in school and felt the US was shadowing/ignoring their neighbors by referring to themselves America instead of US or USA (which is also what I learned in school mind you, that "America" or "Americas" is a continent that comprises North, Central and South) and automatically, tons of american residents replied by flaming her and telling her to go back to school and learn geography.
Not everyone in every country learns the same thing!.

Gaia, being an internet forum, takes in people from all over the world and thus, we should all do an effort to try and respect others here, as even though something might seem obvious and right to one, another's culture might say otherwise. Everyone has a right to say what they think, it's called freedom of speech.
Fair gaians, keep the flame button for the chatterbox and try to discuss intelligently, please.

[bb205318]

Noire Nightraine

Gaia is filled with threads asking opinion, from the occult to religon to foreign policy to home politics to sexuality to abortion to god (figuratively) knows what else. And chances are, if people catch on, a heated debate will ensue, with people from all sides joining the fray and adding their own opinions, facts, views, and stances upon the matter at hand.

But.

Gaia attracts all people from all walks of life, from the young to the old, straight to the gay, political savvy to the village idiot. The ones with real life experiences and those who hold their opinions on only what they've seen and heard and been taught.

So. When there's a discussion, who really has the right to say anything? The twelve-year-old in the abortion thread who's never had sex in their life? The straight person in the homosexual marriage thread? The closet rape victem in the is rape real threads?

Obviously, there's a lot of factors here, from age to sexuality to background to experience to other innumerable venues. What people do YOU think has the right to say anything, if anyone or anything, at all?

You really make a great point, but everybody has the right to say something. That doesn't mean what they say is correct, but they can still say it. Yep...kinda sucks, but in many ways, it's only fair. sweatdrop