Disparaging Somebody On the Basis of Their Skin Color, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity

**wvwvw** · 11-26-2018, 02:36 AM

Disparaging Somebody On the Basis of Their Skin Color, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity
Walter E. Block
November 24, 2018

From: j
To:Walter E. Block
Dec 10, 2017 at 10:37 AM
maybe you can help me with. m who usually is my go to guy on libertarian thinking is currently mia.

How should I answer this re NAP?

if I see or hear a person basically disparaging somebody on the basis of their skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity &c. and I get in the aggressor’s face to protect the person being disparaged, am I committing oppression?

By the way, people give me hugs and high fives for that sh*t.

Dear J: It all depends upon what you mean by getting “in the aggressor’s face.” If this means using or even threatening violence against him, then you are a criminal, and he is not. On the other hand, if it means telling him you don’t appreciate his denigration of the person being disparaged, or, even, yelling (in a non threatening way) at the disparager, that, too, is compatible with the NAP. But, remember, what the disparager has done is also compatible with the NAP. He is not a criminal for doing so (of course, he, too, has to limit himself to non threatening language if he wants to act compatibly with the NAP).

There is also the issue of on whose property does this disparagement occur? The owner may have rules about that, to which all visitors to his establishment must adhere

I’ll bet the disparager won’t give you any hugs or high fives. And, yet, his speech, too, is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and, also, by libertarian theory. Disparaging, making fun of, does not violate the NAP. Remember, “sticks and stones (will violate my rights) but name-calling (cannot do so). Namely, I don’t buy into the notion of “fighting words.” A threat is a threat and is illegitimate. But, calling someone an SOB, or way worse, is not a rights violation. I’m now thinking, thanks to you, of sticking into my Defending the Undefendable III: “the Disparager,” the next in this series of books, that I’m now working on.

By the way, while this phrase is certainly politically correct (disparaging somebody on the basis of their skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity) it violates good English grammar. It should be changed to either this:

disparaging PEOPLE on the basis of their skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity

Or that:

disparaging somebody on the basis of HIS skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity

singular and plural are supposed to match.