Tim Wise On The First Amendment For Dummies

[ancianita]

...When it comes to the First Amendment, many people seem to believe that it gives everyone the right to say whatever they want, whenever they want, without having to face pushback, scorn, or any form of sanction.
But such a reading of the Constitution suggests a Reddit-level understanding of the law and an almost stunning unwillingness to go more than one page deep on a Google search...

There have always been limits on free speech, among these:
libel
slander
perjury
fraud
harassment, and
calls for imminent violence or breach of the peace.

Although the courts have tended to give a pretty wide berth when it comes to interpreting some of those, these limits exist and circumscribe the boundaries of free expression.
And no one advocates that such restrictions be eliminated.
Meaning, we all support some limits on free speech — we’re just quibbling about the details...

When it comes to limits — or at least the line beyond which consequences for your speech can rightly attach — here are a few:

If you tell the president to fuck off during a Livestream — even if you do it behind a juvenile buzz phrase thought up by NASCAR fans (naturally) — the world gets to call you an asshole and bash you on the internet all day. And when we do, it’s not a leftist mob or cancel culture. It’s us, using our free speech. The fact that our voices are louder than yours means there are more of us than you. That’s called democracy. Welcome to it, loser.

If, after telling the president to fuck off, your employer were to fire you, or if others refused to hire you because you made an ass of yourself all to impress Steve Bannon — a guy who looks like the human scratch-n-sniff for cheap scotch and ball sweat — that’s on you. Cry more.

If you break into the Capitol, assault officers, and try to intimidate lawmakers into overturning an election because your guy lost, that’s not free speech. That’s terrorism. You deserve to be incarcerated for twenty years. If this leaves your children without a parent because their mom or dad thought insurrectioning was a good idea, so be it. They’d be better off in literally any foster home on the planet, or in a shelter, or being raised by meerkats.

Likewise, if you engage in overt displays of racist fuckery, you should suffer the consequences.
No, those don’t involve criminal punishment unless those actions drift into the realm of violence, imminent threats of violence, property destruction, or legally defined harassment. But they sure as shit can (and should) involve loss of professional or educational opportunity....

More here on how "It’s always a good time to cancel racist frat bros…and Nazi high schoolers...."
https://timjwise.medium.com/some-of-you-are-getting-free-speech-very-wrong-b00b95628bd8

[Faux pas]

1. ...

[JustAnotherGen]

2. I love Tim Wise!

His comment on Bannon:
a guy who looks like the human scratch-n-sniff for cheap scotch and ball sweat

[EarnestPutz]

16. Always a good time to revisit this wonderful image.....

....Bannon as moldy Spam.

Link to tweet

?lang=en

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. He's right

If you got the free speech right to spout horseshit, I got the free speech right to tell you to fuck off.

[ancianita]

5. And make one's future plans more sketchy or suddenly different.

[Caliman73]

6. Most of the "leaders" of the Conservative movement understand this...

They also understand that their followers are ignorant and easy to emotionally arouse with the use of charged language like "censorship" and "violating my free speech".

I think that it shows a level of contempt by Conservative leaders to actively lie to their followers. Not surprised at this in the least, but needed to put it out there.

[ancianita]

7. Yes,

which makes them as contemptible and sadistic as you say. Hoping their followers "look up" before next November.

[erronis]

15. Those "leaders" are using code words, just like tfg, to avoid personal responsibility

Standing in a pulpit or behind a cable news desk and making innuendos and indirect suggestions about possible violence lets these types get off the hook for culpability.

The dimwits are pretty good at interpreting the "hidden" meanings and can get their psyche all wound up to do the mayhem, insurrection, threaten "the others".

A liberal democracy is not very good at dealing with these subversions of expected civility.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Exactly the same as Osama bin Laden or cult leaders or other human garbage -

the leaders love to talk about the honor and greatness of martyrdom and killing and being in the front lines, but they never ever join the front lines or strap the bombs to themselves.

They get the ignorant to do their dirty work while they stay safe and secure and, in the case of Republican/Evangelical ones, well fed and rich and wielding their power.

Just once I want someone to say to one of these assholes, "If martyrdom is so damn special, why are you so old?"

[BadGimp]

8. MASSIVE BURN!!

"Steve Bannon — a guy who looks like the human scratch-n-sniff for cheap scotch and ball sweat "

that is gonna leave a mark...

[TygrBright]

9. I think he's a little unfair to meerkats. Otherwise, though... yeah. n/t

[niyad]

12. Agree.

[Augiedog]

10. When you decide to wear Bannons panties for a face mask, guess what...

[ancianita]

11. Bannon wears panties?

[Fritz Walter]

13. Bookmarked!

I studied the First Amendment’s free speech and free press clauses extensively in Journalism school almost five decades ago, and this is a quick and succinct overview.

Personally, I would have added a reference to Oliver Wendell Holmes’s analogy “falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic,” but this is helpful nonetheless, especially when relating it to the hard-of-thinking crowd.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_theater

[gademocrat7]

17. K&R!