If they are interchangeable it follows that answering an argument with a bullet may be the efficient solution.
That’s clearly not the case. If they’re interchangable, it merely means they’d be equally appropriate, but that doesn’t say anything about their absolute appropriateness level. If neither are appropriate responses, that’s just as interchangable as both being appropriate—and it’s clearly that more restrictive route being advocated here (ie. moving such speech into the bullet category, rather than moving the bullet category into the region of such speech).
I don’t understand this… the notion of a “more restrictive route” doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to the objection—the suggested move involves placing a certain type of speech act into the realm of “bullets”, and as such makes bullets an appropriate response to such acts, whereas they were not before. Is that right?
Edit: That is, if speech B is now equivalent to shooting someone, it’s not a case of “harmless speech A can now be responded to with bullets or B,” but of “speech B can now be responded to with bullets.”
and as such makes bullets an appropriate response to such acts, whereas they were not before.
Ah, I think I’ve misunderstood you—I thought you were talking about the initiating act (ie. that it was as appropriate to initiate shooting someone as to insult them), whereas you’re talking about the response to the act: that bullets are an appropriate response to bullets, therefore if interchangable, they’re an appropriate response to speech too. However, I don’t think you can take the first part of that as given—many (including me) would disagree that bullets are an appropriate response to bullets, but rather that they’re only an appropriate response to the specific case of averting an immediate threat (ie. shoot if it prevents killing, but oppose applying the death penalty once out of danger), and some pacifists may disagree even with violence to prevent other violence.
However, it seems that it’s the initiating act that’s the issue here: is it any more justified to causing offence as to shoot someone. I think it could be argued that they are equivalent issues, though of lesser intensity (ie. back to continuums, not bright lines).
I’m only interjecting, if there is a misunderstanding, it’s probably with jtk3. For my part I think the positions being argued are much clearer now, thank you!
I don’t understand this… the notion of a “more restrictive route” doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to the objection—the suggested move involves placing a certain type of speech act into the realm of “bullets”, and as such makes bullets an appropriate response to such acts, whereas they were not before. Is that right?
Edit: That is, if speech B is now equivalent to shooting someone, it’s not a case of “harmless speech A can now be responded to with bullets or B,” but of “speech B can now be responded to with bullets.”
Ah, I think I’ve misunderstood you—I thought you were talking about the initiating act (ie. that it was as appropriate to initiate shooting someone as to insult them), whereas you’re talking about the response to the act: that bullets are an appropriate response to bullets, therefore if interchangable, they’re an appropriate response to speech too. However, I don’t think you can take the first part of that as given—many (including me) would disagree that bullets are an appropriate response to bullets, but rather that they’re only an appropriate response to the specific case of averting an immediate threat (ie. shoot if it prevents killing, but oppose applying the death penalty once out of danger), and some pacifists may disagree even with violence to prevent other violence.
However, it seems that it’s the initiating act that’s the issue here: is it any more justified to causing offence as to shoot someone. I think it could be argued that they are equivalent issues, though of lesser intensity (ie. back to continuums, not bright lines).
I’m only interjecting, if there is a misunderstanding, it’s probably with jtk3. For my part I think the positions being argued are much clearer now, thank you!