July 3, 2007 02:36 PM
Should Insulting Someone Be...A Crime?
The other day, my daughter was having a wee bit of an argument with a boy she knows, via text messaging. Well, it wasn't exactly an argument. He had texted her that day to let her know what he thought of her decision not to date him, as he had hoped she might. He proceeded to tell her she was wrong to have lead him on, and that she was...a dummy.
My daughter is 17, the boy is 19, and she burst out laughing when she read the message. "A dummy? He thinks I'm a dummy? I don't think anyone has called me that since I was eight years old." This scathing insult was the end of the conversation, and we all got back to our regularly scheduled lives. But what if calling someone a dummy or any other such name was more than just a little mean? What if it was a crime? In some countries it is. Check out this article from a CBS blog to see how these types of laws aren't just strange, they can be downright scary.
