User:CltFn

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• Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four from 1984 George Orwell

• If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.(Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, 1992)

• It's extremely important to preserve freedom of speech, and not to grant the state the right to determine what is or isn't said. A sometimes conflicting right is privacy and protection against verbal or other forms of violence. Once the state is granted the right to prevent speech (writing, songs, etc.) that it claims might precipitate harm, we're on a very dangerous slope. (Noam Chomsky ZNet forum reply, August 7, 2005) link

Contents 1 Useful Stuff 2 Interesting Stuff 3 Public domain cheat sheet 4 46 lessons

[edit] Useful Stuff

• Wikipedia page statistics
• How to quickly edit your watchlist

[edit] Interesting Stuff

• What new pages are Wikipedia editors creating these days?

[edit] Public domain cheat sheet

• How can I tell if a work is in the public domain?

[edit] 46 lessons

Here are 46 lessons drawn from Irshad Manji's web-site. I would be curious to know which of these do you disagree with.

• 1. Accept the truth from whatever source it proceeds.
• 2. All human beings are entitled to think for themselves.
• 3. All systems of belief need to be constantly challenged to maintain equilibrium.
• 4. Always struggle to create a voice for the voiceless.
• 5. Arabic is a richly symbolic language in which one word, pronounced with a slightly different inflection, can have the exact opposite meaning of what it started with - thereby leading to ambiguous and wholly imperfect interpretations.
• 6. Are my beliefs passionately moderate, humane, and open to evolution?
• 7. Bear true witness, even if it be against yourselves, your parents, or your family.
• 8. Being tolerant of intolerance is something that doesn't make sense.
• 9. Believe in mind, not myth.
• 10. Blast away at the hardened slag that suffocates religion in order to reveal its golden, beating core.
• 11. By asking questions, we create conversations rather than make sweeping statements.
• 12. Complacency gets us further into a hole.
• 13. Demonstrate your love by how it manifests in your own life.
• 14. Do we separate ourselves by the narcissism of small differences?
• 15. Dogma compels us to cling. Faith frees us to explore.
• 16. Even when disagreement can be almost forbidden, a state that insists on compelling assent can be relatively easily made to look stupid.
• 17. Every issue must be debated. Every last one.
• 18. Faith is not threatened by dissent. Dogma, on the other hand, is.
• 19. Fundamentalism of any stripe reduces each of us to something less than our whole, multi-faceted, paradoxical and eminently interesting selves.
• 20. How precious freedom of speech and expression is for a healthy and functioning society!
• 21. I have been a silent Refusenik. While I sat around, you acted. While I listened, you spoke. What I observed, you wrote.
• 22. Is optimism a lack of information, and pessimism a lack of imagination?
• 23. Is unswerving belief in scientific supremacy an orthodoxy unto itself?
• 24. It's better to speak the truth, no matter how much it may hurt, than to remain silent about it.
• 25. Keep drinking from the fountain of independent thinking, but quench your thirst without getting drunk in the process.
• 26. Laughter is the best medicine.
• 27. Legitimacy requires consulting sources far and wide...
• 28. Literalism quickly turns into fundamentalism.
• 29. Love all creatures because of the One who created them.
• 30. Moralistic, legalistic religion which emphasizes external conformity and blind following betrays its own highest aspirations.
• 31. Prayer is about thanks, not about endless traditions.
• 32. Questioning is not intolerance. Denial of questioning is.
• 33. Questions and answers both root for truth, so go ahead and question.
• 34. Religion is about how (well) we treat our fellow human beings.
• 35. Religion often sees God as an answer. Spirituality sees God as a question.
• 36. Sadly, many of us love to do nothing but blame others.
• 37. Seek, question, challenge, explore, and grow!
• 38. Self-esteem and pride are involved in any dispute... (Ego rears its ugly head).
• 39. Thanks to religion - or my rebellion against it - I learned to distinguish between authority (eg. one's conscience) and authoritarianism (one's clerics).
• 40. The "Straight Path" is also exceptionally wide.
• 41. The moderate majority has the right, and responsibility, to challenge the fanatics.
• 42. There's no shame - and, indeed, great value - in asking questions of sacred texts.
• 43. Thinking, rather than merely imitating, is key to ending prejudice.
• 44. What is a religion if not the actions of those who practice it?
• 45. What's the moral value of being complacent?
• 46. When religious faith becomes a ruling political principle, all hell breaks loose!