People always say that freedom of speech means you can say anything you want to SO LONG AS IT DOES NOT DO HARM OR OFFEND SOMEBODY.
Every slave on every plantation in the Old South had that kind of freedom. He could say anything that did not offend anybody. He could do anything that did not offend anybody.
His only problem was that the list of things he could not say or do because it would offend somebody was very, very, very long.
Every citizen of a Communist country or the average African country has exactly that kind of freedom. The Soviet Constitution of 1936, the one Stalin wrote, guaranteed freedom of speech. But under Stalin, the list of things that would offend or infringe on other people was a bit long.
The Nazi Gestapo under Hitler genuinely believed that if you said something nice about Jews you were doing an evil thing that hurt people. So they arrested you. The German government of today genuinely believes that if you say anything bad about Jews you are not only being offensive, you are evil. So they arrest you and the minimum prison sentence is one year.
So they have freedom of speech, but there are little “exceptions” you serve hard time for.
To repeat, everybody says,
“Freedom of speech means you can say anything you want to SO LONG AS IT DOES NOT DO HARM OR OFFEND SOMEBODY.”
And only Ole Bob will tell you how ridiculous it is for an adult to say something as silly as that.
Freedom is the right to offend or harm others. There is no such thing as a harmless freedom.
Like every other freedom, a slogan won’t give you freedom of speech. Freedom is BALANCING your rights with other people’s rights, and giving your own rights a LOT of space.
#1 by Prometheus on 10/29/2004 - 11:49 pm
Even speaking to people here in Melbourne, Australia, you would be stunned by the number of people that will say “Well, surely you shouldn’t be able to say things that are offensive or racist?”
Isn’t it odd, how when you talk about limitations to freedom of speech, that limitation is invariably ‘racist’ talk, and by racist, we mean anything that advances the interests of whites. And the jews, well, god help you if you even say the ‘J’ word with the possibility of a negative connotation. After all, you can talk about how it is preferable to have dark skin, or how asians are smarter in school, as various TV specials here like to point out.
Yes, you heard. A TV special for us whites telling us that asian people were smarted, negelecting that they only choose a very narrow range of fields to study, ones they naturally excel at. Being a white man today feels like being tied up and having someone smack your face all the time, and then to be berated if you so much as express displeasure.
I’m off topic. The problem is people do not think and they do not understand how having freedom of speech and censorship of speech at the same time is a contradiction. It can only be one or the other, as these are two mutually exclusive concepts. Logic and philosophy are not taught in schools, so we have a generation of people who are hand fed concepts and ideologies that are riddled, completely riddled with factual flaws, hypocrisies, double standards and contradictions, yet they do not see it. Even when they do, they think nothing of it because they don’t understand how it throws their line of thinking into doubt.
Untill people are able to logically and rationally analyse argument, that will continue to swallow tripe such as “Freedom speech means you can say anything you like as long as it doesn’t harm anyone or is racist”
PS
I go to a public forum, where we practice ‘free speech”. Some of the regulars always point out that while “we may oppose what you say, we defend your right to say it”, it invariable doesn’t cover race issued framed in a way sympathetic to the problems whites face.
#2 by Mike on 10/30/2004 - 1:17 pm
True freedom is unconditional, like love. Who says, “I love you if…” Ridiculous.
Kind of like the “forgiveness” that Christianity preaches. “I forgive you if…” again, ridiculous. The creator of all has to forgive us in accordance with a jewish sacrifice ritual? Wow, those people really do have some pull don’t they?