Comment by wolverine876
1 year ago
Free speech doesn't mean unlimited speech. In the US you are not free to defraud, slander, physically endanger, etc. And everywhere, in everything, there are failures and imperfections.
1 year ago
Free speech doesn't mean unlimited speech. In the US you are not free to defraud, slander, physically endanger, etc. And everywhere, in everything, there are failures and imperfections.
If "hate speech and obscenity" aren't covered by free speech protections, what is?
The freeness of speech is a continuum. In some countries you can't say anything critical of the ruling party, even if it's true. In other countries you can say untrue and critical things as long as you don't know they are untrue. The standards and penalties for defamation and libel are an important part of the freeness of speech.
Countries have different standards for what qualifies as obscenity and what the consequences are.
Countries have different standards for what types of hate speech are allowed.
Freedom of Speech isn't a binary value.
> In other countries you can say untrue and critical things as long as you don't know they are untrue.
In case it's not clear, in democracies a private citizen can knowingly say false things about public figures, especially political figures. A private citizen can sue you if you damage their reputation. Journalists can't usually knowingly publish falsehoods as news, but can as opinion. (Generally speaking; each country has its own implementations, of course.)
7 replies →
I don't understand your question. We can list many things that are protected, but you know that. You also know that sometimes we don't execute perfectly, including on free speech. So I'm a bit lost ...
Off the top of my head:
* critique of arguments for the existence of God (reasonable or otherwise)
* critiques of national policy of a given political party (reasonable or otherwise)
* reporting on the alleged wrongdoing of a powerful political official
* allegations of infidelity of people considered royalty within a given country
* finding and reporting security bugs in medical devices that use proprietary software
* satire
* propaganda
* thought experiments
* standing in a public square and lying about established facts of science
**
If you can categorize the speech and its not in the category of yelling fire in a crowded theater, I bet it's protected by the 1st Amendment.
Edit: clarification
Edit 2: Since this is HN and you didn't specify 1st Amendment in your question, let me be pedantic and add an empty bullet point for a type of speech that is protected by the 5th amendment:
*
Edit 3: I think my empty string is in the wrong scope. One must invoke the fifth amendment by speaking. So the bullet point should look like this:
* invoking the fifth amendment to say this: (NUL byte goes here)
:)
All fair, my point is an (some/many/most/at least one) American can't imagine the concept of free speech protections that exclude 'hate speech'.
In Israel there is a 'right' to freedom of speeech but it's illegal to call a cop a nazi[0], an American would consider that absurd
[0] https://www.news1.co.il/Archive/003-D-48215-00.html