Thread: Political Test
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Old 05-19-2006, 05:32 AM
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MarineHawk MarineHawk is offline
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Default Re: Political Test

Okay, I stopped at the second question. I don’t think I can get decent results from this test at least for me. “Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet.” Agree or not? I’ll bet almost everyone agreed with that one. I assume “Government should not censor” means not that it should not take censorship too far, a reasonable proposition, but that the “Government should not censor” ever.

We've always had censorship in this country. In fact, it's easy to denounce censorship when you are blind to the fact that it already exists all around us. And, since it exists, it's pointless to say you are against if you really aren't. Unless you believe that the state has no right to stop the most debased things from appearing on your kids' Saturday-morning TV, you already believe in the "principle" of censorship. What about Bulgarian child pornography? Government can’t censor that? They can’t if you really believe that the “Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet.” Can your 3rd-grader’s public school teacher teach you children about the good merits of gerbil stuffing, Stalinism, and genocide? Yes? No censorship at all?
The question for most is how much and where you believe that principle should be applied. Where is the line. Most are really FOR censorship – but only reasonable censorship, but most people can’t admit it. Political speech is okay, but no Bulgarian child porn during the Saturday cartoon hour. Thus, the test question is unanswerable to me. The Maybe response is sort of in the middle, but it doesn't reflect my belief either. We need censorship in relatively rare circumstances, but we do need it when we need it - not maybe need it.

Next one: “Military service should be voluntary. There should be no draft.” Uh, are we fighting an increasingly successful joint Chinese/Russian invasion of Europe and the Pacific? A much smaller war? No war? My answer depends on the context. Again, I can’t really answer the question. We put 10% of our population under arms to win WWII. We could not have done that without the draft. Generally, I don’t think there should be a draft, unless we really need one. But there’s no such response to fill in. If we need it, I want it. I can't answer the question.

Last edited by MarineHawk : 05-19-2006 at 05:34 AM.
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