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Obscenity

Edgar

Nerd King Usurper
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Oct 25, 2008
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4,266
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A friend of mine knew someone in college who got drunk and called the White House, and asked to speak to the President. When told that would be impossible, the drunken idiot said, "Whatever, he'll probably be dead by morning anyway..." and in 20 minutes the FBI was raiding his apartment. For the next year, there was a black government car sitting outside, until Uncle Sam was convinced the kid wasn't really going to try anything.

I'm not sure if he was actually charged with a crime, but from what I understand, the government takes that shit pretty seriously.

Secret Service is required to investigate any threat against the life of the President, including drunk college dumbasses saying stupid shit over the phone.

And yes, it's illegal:

http://law.justia.com/us/codes/title18/18usc115.html
 

MacGuffin

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xkcd
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Wouldn't it depend on the exact manner of the speech? If the speech were simply, "Man I am sick of the government and I think it needs to be overthrown!", probably you would be fine...but if the speech were, "I'm going to kill the President at x date and time", with appropriate supporting details, would that not be illegal?

A friend of mine knew someone in college who got drunk and called the White House, and asked to speak to the President. When told that would be impossible, the drunken idiot said, "Whatever, he'll probably be dead by morning anyway..." and in 20 minutes the FBI was raiding his apartment. For the next year, there was a black government car sitting outside, until Uncle Sam was convinced the kid wasn't really going to try anything.

I'm not sure if he was actually charged with a crime, but from what I understand, the government takes that shit pretty seriously.

Yes, that's why I divorced overthrowing the government from threats against the President like you did in your original post I quoted.
 

Nadir

Enigma
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I would say that the forum is simply reflecting the rules of real-world establishments of a similar nature: It certainly doesn't bring anything new to the table in that regard.

Now, regarding your points. A gun does not offend or kill when you look at it. It's nonviolent aspects are able to be used in other ways that are culturally acceptable. You can write a wonderful story and include guns in it, for instance. You can use guns to criticise existing cultural norms, as you've done here. A gun is not obscene. The usage of guns can be. So its potential obscenity only comes into play when the culturally unacceptable behaivour (i.e shooting someone with it) occurs or has the risk of occuring. This means that you can not threaten to shoot someone (provided you truly have the means to do so, and are serious, both aspects that can't be proven easily) or put up a video here where you film a shooting of any person (arguably any other living organism).

Pornography has less consequences attached to it, because it is as you say: Everyone enjoys porn on some level. What is so offensive about it? It's basically an in-your-face demonstration of something some people deem should remain private. Does it remain private? No, not at all, just watch TV, it's basically the same thing. There's a reason why most of the actresses you see are morphologically attractive women. TV programming gently teases; porn gives you the whole thing. Some people are shocked by that. I don't know, don't ask me; what I know is that we still need some time before pornography is accepted on the same level (and I'm talking about North America here: I live in a sucky country where this will never, ever happen and discussing stuff like this lands you in risk)

Now, the MBTI cult is not a culturally forced phenomenon. You can, for instance, join this forum knowing nothing about MBTI, and under the guise of a mild interest, proceed to never discuss it again while continuing to participate within the sub sections. This is where this internet forum truly becomes an internet forum: It emancipates itself from cultural norms and becomes a flexible entity with the ability to accomodate multiple viewpoints. That's the idealized essence of an internet forum, a highway of ideas: It's one of the reasons why 4chan is so successful (or unsuccessful). But idealized essences almost never become real; somewhere down the road to realization, we simplify and normalize the idea into something familiar, because we're all fond of the familiar.
 

simulatedworld

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Yes, that's why I divorced overthrowing the government from threats against the President like you did in your original post I quoted.

Well, note that I said violently overthrowing the government. I would think that making any specific plan to do such a thing would imply a threat of violence against the President, since he's the chief executive and all, right?
 

simulatedworld

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I would say that the forum is simply reflecting the rules of real-world establishments of a similar nature: It certainly doesn't bring anything new to the table in that regard.


This whole post is brilliant, sarcasm aside. Agreed.
 
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