Text 27245, 77 rader
Skriven 2007-02-15 20:36:43 av Ed Hulett (1:123/789.0)
     Kommentar till en text av VERN HUMPHREY (1:123/140)
Ärende: free speech
===================
VERN HUMPHREY -> ED HULETT wrote:
 MG>>> It occurs to me that we, Americans, have no right to tell
 VH> Germany and
 MG>>> Austria what laws they're allowed to have. I don't recall ever
 VH> hearing
 MG>>> either of those countries claiming to protect free speech. Free
 VH> speech
 MG>>> has certainly damaged their countries in the past, besides
 VH> telling lies
 MG>>> isn't free speech, it's slander.

 EH>> Free speech is free regardless of how disgusting it might be. If you
 VH> don't
 EH>> defend th right of Holocaust deniers to spread their filthy lies, you
 VH> do *no
 EH>> support free speech.

 VH> Excellent point.  No one ever goes to jail for saying something the
 VH> government approves of and everyone else agrees with.  Freedom of speech
 VH> does not apply to such people -- they never need it.

Exactly.

 VH> It is people who say what outrages us and pisses the government off who
 VH> need the protection of freedom of speech.

Hense the First Amendment Freedom of Speech clause.

 VH> Freedom of speech is meaningless unless we are willing to defend other
 VH> people's right to say things we find abhorant and disgusting.

My point exactly.

 EH>> When you start defining what type of speech isn't free, you set the
 VH> stage fo
 EH>> others to define your speech as illegal.

 EH>> The evidence for the Holocaust is such that anyone who tries to deny it
 EH>> happened has to suspend reality in order to support their claims.

 VH> Indeed -- if I knew nothing at all about the Holocaust, the laws
 VH> which some people seek to pass to deny other people the right to be
 VH> sceptical might well convince me that the deniers DO have a point!

Same with "Hate Crime" laws.

 VH> Fortunately, the evidence for the Holocaust is so overwhelming that
 VH> anyone who denies it is seen for the crackpot that he is, and most
 VH> people ridicule holocaust deniers.

Right. Such deniers have a very small following and marginalize themselves with
their own words. To make it illegal to deny the Holocaust is to grant credence
to the deniers.

 VH> And that's how Freedom of Speech is supposed to work -- say what you
 VH> want and let people make up their own minds about you and your opinion.

Exactly!

Ed

-- 
"But the safety of the people of America against dangers from
foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give
just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing
and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite
hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are
pretended as well as just causes of war."

-- John Jay (Federalist No. 4)


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