Patricia Ideas threaten because they influence immensely! Peer presure and lots of other things are influence. Casual hints. Ideas totally threaten a nation because people become interested in bad things and the group keeps expanding until it's to big to stop!

– November 12, 2006 03:10 PM

Mike Ideas can threaten a nation. The 20th century is a quintessential example of this, in which both far left and far right movements led nations into destruction. However, I dont think that censorship is a good idea. Let the people decide whats best, we should give more credit to human reason.

– October 10, 2005 10:37 AM

Pam How can censor-ship reserve rights? Rights are by defini-tion the oppor-tunity for an individual to read, speak and make his/her own mind up without being told WHAT to read, think about or listen to. Freedom is the only way to preserve rights.

– August 15, 2003 02:25 PM

Amy I agree wholeheartedly with Paul's comment! I encourage everyone to look up the relatively new country song entitled "Have You Forgotten?". This is a perfect example of how identifying the terrorist attacks with justification for the "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has become a test of a person's level of patriotism and Americanism. No doubt this misconception has worked in the favor of a few who come to my mind.

– June 08, 2003 08:52 AM

Gemma I agree with malibu,people do have rights, and censorship helped protect them

– May 22, 2003 03:11 PM

Grace What kind of rights? Like the right to live in an environment free from hate speech? (although that is not a constitutional right)

– May 08, 2003 11:56 AM

Malibu I also think censorship is justified if it protects a person's rights.

– May 08, 2003 11:39 AM

Maria I think censorship is justified if it protects a person's rights.

– May 04, 2003 09:49 AM

Paul It seems to me that we have had a kind of censorship and "shaping of information" during the Iraq war. Ideas should only make us stronger, but not when they are made up of half-truths and propaganda. Censorship during wartime isnot as important as being a responsible citizen and understanding why one is fighting a war. I am thinking now of a recent poll that had many Americans saying that there was a direect connection between 9-11 and Iraq, and that there were Iraqis on the planes. Why censor when you can shape information so brilliantly and count on the fact that most people won't dig deeper.

– May 04, 2003 09:47 AM