Poll: Majority Says First Amendment Goes Too Far

[BeholdenGlory]

That would actually be my projection meter you just broke...

 

[RocksInMyHead]

That would actually be my projection meter you just broke...

 

[dzheremi]

Hmm...I read the PDF of the survey, and I don't recall anything about Trump in there. Odd how he gets focused on in absolutely every discussion, as though he will be in charge of government forever.

Anyway, I agree with the others who have noted that nobody is for absolutely unfettered free speech. The problem is, of course, that we can't agree when or where the line should be drawn. StrayKat's reply (#54, p. 3) has been the most honest in this regard. I don't trust any of you to make this determination, and you shouldn't trust me, either.

I will say, to add something new to the conversation rather than just agreeing with someone else, that there is an inherent danger in crafting our laws to the sensitivity of the most sensitive cohort in any given opinion poll. It's an imperfect analogy, but if you have a young child and you wrap them up in bubble wrap before dropping them off outside to play, they'll probably be 'safer' than if you hadn't done that, but they'll also be unable to move. Then, when a bully sees that they are all wrapped up like that, there's nothing to stop them from pushing the kid over, popping all the bubble wrap, and beating the kid up for being such a 'sissy' or whatever. I am afraid that this is the kind of cumulative effect of these 'protections' from free speech can have: providing a bit of temporary 'safety' (say, when you're a youth on an elite college campus in the USA), but as a trade-off leaving you in a much more vulnerable position when you are confronted by a bully who does not care that they'll get in trouble, because they only want to hurt you, and you are an easy target, standing out there, wrapped up in (ideological) bubble wrap.

For all the fear of the rise of Nazis if we don't embrace this or that, it seems like a good idea to everyone that what stopped the Nazis the first time around wasn't the passing of hate crime legislation, or the government curtailment of free speech (though that certainly did happen, as always happens during war time), but the mobilization of large armies from around the world to militarily confront the Axis powers and their allies. That's why it's important to not become mush in the first place. Do you want to be so busy being sensitive and caring that the first time within your own living memory that you meet an immovable object that doesn't bother with any of that, it absolutely destroys you? I don't.

So unless you're willing to say that you will actually take up arms against people because the things that they say make you feel sad, then you're only doing so much intellectual navel-gazing, no matter what political side or age cohort you belong to. And if you are willing to say that, then frankly you're a danger to the people around you and should be institutionalized until such time as you grow up and learn to deal with the existence of viewpoints that you don't like (if that ever happens).

 

[rambot]

Rambot, the left just hates. .

Then you are a terrible listener.

I love it when the crowd who dehumanizes everyone they disagree as nazis whine about bombastic language. Leftist reap what they sow with their radical divisive ID politics, and they will continue to do so in their hysterical & pathological projection of their own shame and neurosis onto those they disagree with.

I don't dehumanize.
I've come to realize that the identity politics of the left (that I'm not a huge fan of), has been coopted by the right; The identities are just distilled to "support Trump, a great American" and "treasonous socialists, who are just jealous they lost in 2016".

Otherwise, glad to see you are taking the highroad and not demonizing or dehumanizing the left there. Cause that would have undermined your point.

 

[rambot]

Considering the penalties for dissent, can you blame them for being afraid to not jump on?

I dunno TLK. As far as I'm concerned Trump is utterly without credibility and respect so he could say whatever he wants to me.

I guess if you respect or are scared of him its a different story.

Which one do you think Repubs fall under?

 

[cow451]

You all joke because you can't address the issue because you know you're wrong.

Or because you are either grammatically impaired or wrong. Which is funny. And sad.

 

[TLK Valentine]

I dunno TLK. As far as I'm concerned Trump is utterly without credibility and respect so he could say whatever he wants to me.

I guess if you respect or are scared of him its a different story.

Which one do you think Repubs fall under?

Who can say anymore? As I pointed out, If you criticize Donald...

...and you're a journalist, You're an enemy of the American people.

...and you're a Republican, You're scum.

...and you're a Democrat, You're a target

Of course, his followers will insist it's patriotism, respect, and admiration that drives them... but isn't that exactly what a scared person would say?

 

[FreeinChrist]

ADVISOR HAT

This thread is closed for staff review. ​