Just last week I posted on the notion that the price of Liberty is affording that same inalienable right to others around you. This week, I got to experience personal tyranny in a way that I haven’t seen in a few years. Someone who owns a domain and forum pushing his weight around, banning people for disagreeing with him, or objecting to his questionable business tactics. It became a lesson in the concept of Public. If he owns a place where people are invited to gather and talk, share ideas, etc., does he have the ethical right to expel them from that online society if he doesn’t like the person?
At first glance, it may seem like a “My house, my rules” situation. On further inspection, though, one finds that it isn’t his house. By inviting the general public into the forum, he made it a public place. As such, speech which poses no threat or actual libel should be free. That you don’t LIKE someone isn’t cause to ban that person. If he starts trashing you there on your own forum, that may be seen as tacky, but even then, the libertarian option is that the opposing view gets a voice as well; you can disagree with him and present your side, but it’s still not okay to just toss someone out for disagreeing or thinking poorly of you. (more…)
