Porter argues that we need to get away from liberal individualist views about freedom of speech and ethics on the Internet. This is because liberal individualist views gloss over differences, ignore the fact that discourse and human relations exist within power structures, and work to further marginalize minority groups. He highlights the “tension between one individual’s right to freedom of expression and another individual’s right to be protected from harassment and intimation based on personal characteristics of gender, race, religion, and other protected statuses” (238). The communitarian view “posits that rights and responsibilities originate in communities and that ‘what is good for the community’ should ultimately take precedence over individual rights in matters of tough rhetorical decision making…The irony here is that certain intrusions that restrict individual behaviors may be necessary (desirable) for the common good” (241-2). Porter’s (Marx’s) view of communitarianism “attempts to situate theology in the material conditions of people...[they] focus particularly on how ethics intersects with economics, labor, production, and the ownership/distribution of property in a society” (245). This view, then, looks out for the interest of the poor and seeks to bring society to the ideal.
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