I’m very much a laymen, and this is purely my opinion, but this whole idea that people can say whatever they want because of freedom of speech is bullshit. I get it’s nuanced: you’re free to say what you want, but not free from the consequences. Blah blah blah. Problem is, no one can agree on the consequences. People like this can continue to spew their hurtful hate left and right, and nothing is done to them to punish them for their obvious intolerance. Meanwhile, the people that are affected by this vitriolic bullshit have to keep looking over their shoulders every damn day of their lives waiting for the inevitable escalation that will come.
When people say freedom of speech, not freedom from consequences, they mean consequences like ostracization, shunning, getting fired. That sort of thing.
I think the banner here would qualify as free speech, but I think they also were made to take it down because they didn’t have a permit or something. And the people involved should certainly be given societal consequences.
Oh, it’s totally freedom of speech. But freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to broadcast your speech on public property without exception.
If they hung the banner on their house or private property, there would be nothing to be done to stop them.
But you can’t hang a banner from the governments property without their permission, which must be given in a manner impartial to the content on the banner beyond any compelling interests like “no hanging very distracting banners where it could cause accidents”.
They didn’t ask, so they can have their banner removed just as though they hung it from the flagpole in front of the courthouse.
They’re being prosecuted because a racial component to a crime is an aggravating factor that makes it more appealing to prosecutors.
So their claim is entirely correct: they’re being prosecuted because their crime was minor but made worse by being racist. We’ve already decided that it’s reasonable for the government to be particularly harsh on racist crimes because it singles out a type of behavior that’s particularly harmful to society.
Most places have freedom of speech up until it becomes hates speech or makes someone a target. Technically the US intended something similar, and it all went to fuck when one political party made it its entire stategy. Hate and disinformation are basically the only cards the conservatives have.
I’m very much a laymen, and this is purely my opinion, but this whole idea that people can say whatever they want because of freedom of speech is bullshit. I get it’s nuanced: you’re free to say what you want, but not free from the consequences. Blah blah blah. Problem is, no one can agree on the consequences. People like this can continue to spew their hurtful hate left and right, and nothing is done to them to punish them for their obvious intolerance. Meanwhile, the people that are affected by this vitriolic bullshit have to keep looking over their shoulders every damn day of their lives waiting for the inevitable escalation that will come.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/logical-take/202007/hate-has-no-home-here-and-the-paradox-tolerance
When people say freedom of speech, not freedom from consequences, they mean consequences like ostracization, shunning, getting fired. That sort of thing.
I think the banner here would qualify as free speech, but I think they also were made to take it down because they didn’t have a permit or something. And the people involved should certainly be given societal consequences.
Oh, it’s totally freedom of speech. But freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to broadcast your speech on public property without exception.
If they hung the banner on their house or private property, there would be nothing to be done to stop them.
But you can’t hang a banner from the governments property without their permission, which must be given in a manner impartial to the content on the banner beyond any compelling interests like “no hanging very distracting banners where it could cause accidents”.
They didn’t ask, so they can have their banner removed just as though they hung it from the flagpole in front of the courthouse.
They’re being prosecuted because a racial component to a crime is an aggravating factor that makes it more appealing to prosecutors.
So their claim is entirely correct: they’re being prosecuted because their crime was minor but made worse by being racist. We’ve already decided that it’s reasonable for the government to be particularly harsh on racist crimes because it singles out a type of behavior that’s particularly harmful to society.
Most places have freedom of speech up until it becomes hates speech or makes someone a target. Technically the US intended something similar, and it all went to fuck when one political party made it its entire stategy. Hate and disinformation are basically the only cards the conservatives have.