Our Freedom of Expression Is Killing Us

[MellowDem]

215. US freedom of speech

besides the citizens united ruling, which is just the SC more than anything (and only 5 out of 9 at that) is much more mature and sensible than Canada, UK, or Germany. I always wonder who gets to define hate speech, and who gets to decide which groups get protection from what type of offensive speech.

Germany locks people up for even talking about Holocaust denial, but that certainly hasn't stopped the revival of a Neo-Nazi movement there.

You see, the antidote to lies being spread is truth, not censoring the lies, which is a messy and subjective process in a democracy, and which only give those crazy ass views more legitimacy anyways.

The problem in the US is apathy, and censoring speech won't help. You don't think some conservatives aren't thinking exactly the way your are, that if only government could censor those devil liberals, treasonous bastards that they are, things would be better.

You can blame our archaic election system and campaign finance laws for a lot of the problems you listed. Those do need reform.

As for the Innocence of Muslims thing, which is what sparked this thread I'm guessing... yeah it's shit, but that's just it, the US knew it was shit, it didn't do good here, no one cared about it really. You know why? Because the US, as bad as it is, is a hell of a lot more educated and tolerant of a society than many Middle East countries. I could give two shits if some people can't handle it over there. Those cultures will have to put on their big boy pants and grow up. No one is going to bend down to their idiotic religions in the modern world, and the sooner they realize that, the better. Hell, we'll even make fun of it for what it is, same as we have to Christianity now for a couple centuries. Just another fraud.