I am incredibly grateful for the Duck Dynasty guy

[WilliamPitt]

...because the whole country is talking about it. I've had a hundred conversations about it, and each one has been an opportunity to be a teacher again, if only for a little while, and on the subject of the First Amendment and free speech.

Perfect example: a good-hearted good friend posted the following on Facebook: "I don't donate to the Salvation Army because of them being openly against gay people, but that is my choice. Free speech is allowed, the man from Duck Dynasty said things that disgusted me but I believe he has the right to say it as much as I have the right to say that I believe jesus never existed and the Bible is a fairy tale with great moral meaning. But for him to be suspended from the show I think is wrong no matter how horrible what he said was. He has the right to be an idiot and say stupid things without persecution."

To which I replied: Flip the script a bit and consider the irony of right-wingers having a meltdown over a corporation executing its rights over an employee...and remember: the First Amendment protects you from governmental interference with free speech. It does not in any way protect you from your employer if and when you fuck up in a way they deem unacceptable. Maintaining certain behavioral norms to retain employment isn't an issue of rights; it is an issue of common sense. A&E has rights, too, and they deployed those rights.

To which another person I don't know replied, "You had me up until the last sentence."

...which earned from me: "They don't have rights when it comes to the behavior of their employees? Can I come work where you work? Because if I did what he did, my ass would be streeted before the echo faded. Short version: it's not 'persecution.' It's 'consequences.' Significant difference."

My friend agreed, stating, "I agree will, I didn't really look at it that way. If I say dumb shit behind the bar and openly offend someone I would be fired as well."

...which earned my final comment in the conversation: "Exactly correct. There is a magnificently common misunderstanding of the purpose and scope of the First Amendment abroad in the land. 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.' The first word is 'Congress.' A company can do whatever it damn pleases within reason, and withing the bounds of the law, when an employee verbally steps on his meat in a way that embarrasses the company...and the only reason I keep hammering this particular nail is because that misunderstanding of the First Amendment has been stomping the terra lately like Godzilla in the aftermath of this Duck shit. It makes me want to eat my face. "

One of a hundred conversations.

My point: it's a teachable moment. Yes, it's incredibly goddam stupid that the whole country is going WHAARGARBL over a fake reality show, even as it is incredibly important that ridiculously bigoted nonsense is getting properly called out...but this controversy has shown, at least to me, that waaaaay too many people have a protein-deficient understanding of their most important right.

Be a teacher.